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Dry Hopping Like a Pro

  • xenon
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9 years 8 months ago #1422 by xenon
Dry Hopping Like a Pro was created by xenon
Howzit?

I'm not dry hopping like a pro and i want too :evil: Hows it done and how much hops does one need to get that hop hit on the nose!? Styles i'm trying to replicate (not that you needed to be told) West Coast IPA and APA's. There are loads of great examples and all have that unmistakable fruity nose.

To date. I have only dry hopped once with 25 grams of 7.3% Cascade. This batch was 25L and they it went in loose on day 4. Fermentation was finished for all intense and purpose. I bottled on the 14th day. In the finish, no noticeable change from my first batch of this recipe when sampling after reading the gravity.

Cheers

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9 years 8 months ago #1423 by Gash
Replied by Gash on topic Dry Hopping Like a Pro
It really is dependant on the beer and hop type, but the amount you started with isn't a bad starting amount. It sounds like you put them in at the right time, I think just at the end of the ferment is a good time but leaving them in for 10 days some would say is too long and could lead too 'grassy' flavours, although I haven't come across this yet. You can really go up to 100s of grams but again this is beer and hop type dependant. For instance I brewed a 3.5% Mild Ale and dry hopped with 20g of Amarillo and it was too much, yet I've dry hopped 50g in some pale ales and it isn't enough! At the moment for my IPAs I dry hop around 50g and find it ok. Most of my pale ales are around 30g. At the moment my favourite is centennial.

Maybe try dry hopping again about 4 days before bottling/kegging as well as the one at 4 days.

I think you get a lot of aroma from a flameout steep too and this adds a lot. I'm not sure on your brew process but late addition and flameout hops really help. Many of the commercial beers get their aroma from hopping after the boil and just before chilling, they run the wort through a load of hops. Things like a hop torpedo or hop rocket can be used at home, but I think concentrating on your late addition and flameout hops is where you need to concentrate.

Depending on your brew process and how you chill your wort will determine a lot.

At the moment I've switched my 15-20mins type hops to 10-0 mins and have noticed a great improvement on my hop flavour. My chilling takes abut 30mins so when I was adding 15min hops they could of been sitting in hot wort for up too 45mins so really they became bittering hops instead of flavour hops, even though the wort isnt boiling the bittering process continues until the wort cools down to around 80 odd degrees.

So maybe next time give me a look at your recipe and let me know how you chill wort (if you do!) and we can see if we can improve things a bit!

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  • xenon
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9 years 8 months ago #1424 by xenon
Replied by xenon on topic Dry Hopping Like a Pro
no noticeable grassy notes.

hop schedule is as you described.
18g 60min
18g 30min
34g flame out. all Cascade

I use 2x immersion chillers. 1x is a pre-chiller sitting in a ice bath. Chilling takes literally 10-12 mins to 18deg. I have to be careful not to go too low.

only difference this time round 25g day 4 dry hop.

Has good fruity flavours but not that strong on the nose. In fact quite mild. Its there but not that strong obvious aroma...

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9 years 8 months ago #1425 by Gash
Replied by Gash on topic Dry Hopping Like a Pro
Yep that's a fair flameout! I guess next time double the dry hop and if that doesn't work try a different hop as the dry hop. If kegging maybe dry hop in the keg too! (in a bag)

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9 years 8 months ago #1426 by Tonyj
Replied by Tonyj on topic Dry Hopping Like a Pro
I'm sure the Gashster and other more knowledgable members will correct me if I'm telling fibs here, but my understanding was the alpha-acid level was way more important for the bittering level during the boil. I thought it was the beta-acid level that was way more important for flavouring (a boil of say 10 mins) and aroma (adding the hops at flame-out or just plain dry hopping).

What the heck! There's a book called Brewing: Science and Practice here that has a lovely table of hops sorted by country of origin on pages 268-9. If (and that is a big if) my understanding is correct, then the higher the alpha to beta ratio, the more hops you might need for dry hopping. If you do try getting the book, be aware the download time from that server is more than you'd normally find or expect.

Yet as Gash said earlier, 25 to 50 g is usually more than adequate to get a lovely aroma in the finished beer (for a volume of about 25 litres).

Cheers

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  • xenon
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9 years 8 months ago #1427 by xenon
Replied by xenon on topic Dry Hopping Like a Pro
I'll look into the Beta acid side of things. If for nothing else its all interesting. I have seen hop rockets on you tube but have no experience or budget left B) I'm moving on from this recipe for a while and planning an amber this Sunday. I'll be trying some other IPA clones and i'll be experimenting more dry hops...

cheers

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  • xenon
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9 years 8 months ago #1448 by xenon
Replied by xenon on topic Dry Hopping Like a Pro
I'm well into drinking the second batch and the dry hop had no real noticeable effect to the nose or hop character...It is slightly more bitter which is interesting as first batch was 18l vs 25L this time. Its a different beer to the first due to the mash temp 65 vs 66 and final volume. first batch was 7.3 abv and had more body. Second batch 4.7abv and still flavour-some but a bit watery. On the whole for a basic recipe it is a winner and is very drinkable.

cheers

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