Crosby Hops explains the process behind its new cryogenic lupulin pellets

Temperature control is not only essential to making great beer, it’s also important when experimenting with new styles and products. Just look at the cryo hop trend. Cryo hops are produced by using super cold temperatures and some cool technology to produce a pellet that has twice the aroma and twice the flavor. Quick question: How are cryo hops made exactly?

Let me direct you to the video above, which showcases Crosby Hops‘ CGX Cryogenic Lupulin Pellets — a new cryo hop product that’s hitting the beer market in 2023. This video does a nice job of visually showing how cryogenic hops are produced — at least Crosby’s technique for doing it. The process involves raw hop bails being frozen in these sweet cryo cases. They are then put through a separation process and “sieving” process (looks like this) that enriches the pellet with lots of lupulin (like double). It’s not just the big flavor and aroma profile.

“The oxygen factor [is] basically nonexistent,” says the video’s narrator. “We all know what oxygen does to beer and hops, so using liquid nitrogen in our case is a really big benefit. And we have a closed system, so our system is totally enclosed from bale breaker all the way to the pellet mill. So it’s a gentler process, kinder to the lupulin glands. Just a more minimally processed hop product.”

Learn more in the video above, or read about Crosby Hops’ CGX Cryogenic Lupulin Pellets below.

CGX Cryogenic Lupulin Pellets

With up to twice the concentration of Crosby Hops’ T-90s and reduced vegetal matter, CGX offers brewers another tool to deliver variety specific hop flavor with increased efficiencies in the brewhouse. CGX makes it possible to brew aggressively-hopped beers that can improve yields and margins while reducing the environmental footprint of production (packaging, logistics, and cold storage). Two premier global hop providers and partners, Indie Hops and Hop Revolution, also have access to the patent-pending CGX technology as part of this release. This innovative and united effort greatly broadens the availability to brewers who desire the benefits of cryogenic lupulin products and multiple outlets to choose from. 

What are the benefits?

• Increase brewing yield (less plant material during brewing reduces trub loss, increasing the amount of usable beer).
• Reduce shipping and storage costs (with more impact per pound, CGX makes logistics easy).
• Reduce environmental impact (less packaging, less fuel, and less refrigeration mean a smaller carbon footprint).
• Increase revenue per batch (the more beer you get from each batch, the more can be sold, improving margins).
• Decrease hop creep (CGX can reduce hop creep and increase turn times and brewery capacity).
• Amplify flavor and aroma (more lupulin and less plant material allow you to push hop expression without clogging equipment).

Learn more right over here.