# Too Much Dry-hopping?



## Fingerlickin_B (1/4/07)

Hey all, 

Do you reckon 50g of 8.9aa Amarillo is too much to dry hop a 21L batch with? <_< 

Alternatively, should I put even more in a few days after pitching? :super: 

PZ.


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## Steve (1/4/07)

Fingerlickin_B said:


> Hey all,
> 
> Do you reckon 50g of 8.9aa Amarillo is too much to dry hop a 21L batch with? <_<
> 
> ...




FB - ive only dry hopped with about 20gms....I reckon go for it, why the hell not? I'll be round to taste it for sure.
Cheers
Steve


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## Fingerlickin_B (1/4/07)

Steve said:


> I'll be round to taste it for sure.



Will let you know as soon as it's tapped


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## Adamt (1/4/07)

"Too much" dry hopping can supposedly yield a grassy-like taste, maybe from the chlorophyll or something that isnt driven off in the boil.

How much "too much" is though... well when it comes to this forum and "too much hops", too much is just never enough


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## Steve (1/4/07)

righto! :chug:


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## Jye (1/4/07)

Ive dry hopped with 50g and more a couple of times and picked up the grassy aroma. I would start with 40g and see how you go.


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## devo (1/4/07)

The most I've ever really done is 25gm so let me know how it works out.

I've been recently hopping my kegs with 5gm in SS tea bulbs but not done so with Amarillos as of yet.


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## brendanos (12/4/07)

Yeah I've also been detecting an earthy or grassy aroma from dry hopping lately, and I haven't even really been using excessive amounts (usually 0.5-2g/L). It hasn't stopped me though, I still dry hop almost everything. I'm just considering more thoroughly what varieties to dry hop with. Also I used to "freeball" with pellets but have shifted to bagged flowers as I find it gives a rounder/smoother flavour, and less haze that i put down to polyphenol/protein binding.


edit: I suspect freshness also may have a lot to do with the quality and cleanliness of aroma/flavour provided.


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## kook (12/4/07)

A few American IPA recipes I've seen have had around 200g dry hops in a 5 gallon batch.

The homebrew recipe provided by Vinnie Cilurzo for Pliny the Elder has around 190g of dry hops for two weeks, in a 5 gallon batch.

I was planning on dry hopping using ~120 grams of Amarillo in my next brew which will be around 23L in secondary. Do you think this will be too over the top (bearing in mind I want IIPA style hopping) ?


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## Trent (12/4/07)

I have dry hopped with 85g before, in an American IIPA, and I would probably say that over 100g will be fine, as I will probably push it up that direction next time. I dont find Pliny the Elder too OTT as far as hop aroma goes (though it is pretty intense), so 120g will be fine. 190g in a 5gal batch is 10g/L, and you will be looking about 5g/L.
If it is too hoppy, you can send it to me 
All the best
Trent
EDIT - Fingerlickin B, you are only dry hopping about 2.5g/L, ya may even wanna go higher than that. I know that Stone brewery in the states released a double dry hopped IPA, which was dry hopped for a week, then racked off those hops and into another carboy with more hops, from memory it was suggested they used around 5g/L each dry hopping. They also recently did a tripled dry hopped Ruination IPA available only at their brewery recently, so go crazy with your dry hops - I have never noticed a grassy aroma or flavour in any of my AIPA style beers.


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## Fingerlickin_B (12/4/07)

Drinking a similar one right now that was dry-hopped with 30g and after tasting I'm now inclined to think that 50g (only 20g more) will certainly not be enough  

Ah well, still nice, just not nice enough :chug: 

Anyone asked Ross when he'll also be stocking Amarillo plugs or flowers? :super: 

PZ.


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## tangent (12/4/07)

Devo - try the teathings with amarillo in the keg, it's awesome
i filled half the teaball with fresh pellets and chucked it in a cold conditioned APA that was carbed and pouring right. the smell on a beer 5 minutes later was awesome!


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## Slurpdog (12/4/07)

Fingerlickin_B said:


> Drinking a similar one right now that was dry-hopped with 30g and after tasting I'm now inclined to think that 50g (only 20g more) will certainly not be enough
> 
> Ah well, still nice, just not nice enough :chug:
> 
> ...



Slightly off topic but a quick question.
What's the difference between hop pellets and plugs?


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## Stuster (12/4/07)

Pellets






Plugs





Basically, plugs are compressed flowers. Pellets are shredded and pelletised.  Here's some more info.

I think dry hopping is very much a matter of taste. I recently dry hopped a golden ale with 2.5g/L of Amarillo. I'm very happy with the result, but andreic who I sent a bottle to * thought it was a bit too much for his palate and far too much for his wife's.  

Personally, I think that freshness is more important than pellets v. plugs. If anybody disagrees, please feel free to send me two bottles (one dry hopped with plugs and one with pellets) to this address.....



* Andrei was the winner of the A-League tipping comp and all the losers B) were supposed to send a bottle to the winner. I finally got round to sending him a bottle so now I can feel superior and berate the rest of you. Come on send him a beer, ya mugs. :lol:


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## Trent (12/4/07)

Slurpdog
Plugs are whole flowers that have been compressed into a tiny little 14g "bale". Pellets are whole flowers that are basically put through a grinder, and come out the other end looking like chicken feed pellets. Pellets give you more bitterness per gram, and temd to be very mess when dry hopping with them. Plugs or flowers seem to take a little longer to impart their aroma goodness, but are still great, especially a really fresh lot. When the plugs are wet, they separate into little flowers, pellets just form a big goopy looking thing.
Hope that helps. Others can probably point you to pics of plugs and pellets. I am not that computer savvy. Maybe log onto craftbrewer, I am sure there are some pics there.
All the best
Trent
EDIT - not only computer illiterate, but also a slow typer! Stuster beat me by minutes!


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## mika (12/4/07)

Just as thought, what would happen if you steeped the hops in some hot water and then let it cool before pitching in the secondary ? The steeping should release the hop oils a little more and it may get away from the ' grassy' taste.

Just a thought. I'm in the last days of my current job, so feeling rather bored and decided to check up on AHB, see what was going down.
So if my post is complete rubbish, just ignore me and carry on :-D


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## Pumpy (12/4/07)

28 grams Styrian Golding flowers here 

Grassy taste ?

Mooo !!

Cant say I noticed it 

suggest you try 25 grams if you never dry hopped before .

pumpy


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## devo (12/4/07)

That looks yummo pumpy. I'm keen to try dry hopping with whole flowers but Ross looks to be ou of stock at the momment.


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## brendanos (12/4/07)

mika_lika said:


> Just as thought, what would happen if you steeped the hops in some hot water and then let it cool before pitching in the secondary ? The steeping should release the hop oils a little more and it may get away from the ' grassy' taste.



I'm not sure which way the scales tilt regarding density of the finished wort versus alchol content, but the alcohol is said to help extract the aroma components of the hops, like when extracting essential oils from herbs/flowers etc. Whether or not this makes it a better medium for steeping hops than hot water I do not know...


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## Ross (12/4/07)

devo said:


> That looks yummo pumpy. I'm keen to try dry hopping with whole flowers but Ross looks to be ou of stock at the momment.



I think you're mistaken, we have plenty of styrian goldings flowers - beautiful for dry hopping an ale.

cheers ross


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## andreic (12/4/07)

Stuster said:


> I think dry hopping is very much a matter of taste. I recently dry hopped a golden ale with 2.5g/L of Amarillo. I'm very happy with the result, but andreic who I sent a bottle to * thought it was a bit too much for his palate and far too much for his wife's.
> 
> Personally, I think that freshness is more important than pellets v. plugs. If anybody disagrees, please feel free to send me two bottles (one dry hopped with plugs and one with pellets) to this address.....
> * Andrei was the winner of the A-League tipping comp and all the losers B) were supposed to send a bottle to the winner. I finally got round to sending him a bottle so now I can feel superior and berate the rest of you. Come on send him a beer, ya mugs. :lol:



Stuster, I very much enjoyed tasting your beers and am grateful for your contribution (which I was not expecting at all). I am not very active in the home-brew "community" but the exercise of receiving a few beers and providing feedback makes me want to join a case-swap or something in the future so I can receive feedback on my beers as well as tasting different contributions from others. cheers mate :beer: 

On topic - I think I agree that dry-hopping is a personal taste. I did quite enjoy the beer Stuster mentions but there was definitely a finish that I am not used to (kind of drying with a bitter kick?). I am about to try and brew a few AG APAs over thee next month so maybe I'll start training myself to be a hophead...

cheers, Andrei


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## JSB (25/5/07)

Just polishing off the Amarillo Ale....

20 grms of Dry Hops to much for this lil' digger - too grassy.

Any thoughts from the crowd ?

Cheers
JSB


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## tangent (25/5/07)

i would have put about 2-4gms in a hop ball and keg hopped. dunno about 20gms


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## devo (25/5/07)

JSB said:


> Just polishing off the Amarillo Ale....
> 
> 20 grms of Dry Hops to much for this lil' digger - too grassy.
> 
> ...





20gm in the secondary and then 10gm in the keg does the job just fine.


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## Trent (25/5/07)

Crikeys!
I will put up to 75g in secondary for my AIPA and IIPA's. Dont dry hop with less than about 45g per batch now. Maybe I am little wierd?
T.


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## Stuster (25/5/07)

I'm with you, Trent. I'm not up to the75g mark yet, but I did hop 15L of Amarillo ale (an ND Fresh Wort) with 40g of Amarillo. Some thought it was too much, but not me. :chug: 

Dry hopped two batches lately with 20g for 15L batches and was they definitely need more _to my taste_.


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## willanth (29/5/07)

I have dry hopped 26 liter batches with two ounces of a blend of hops that I put together for a Double IPA that turned out beautifully. I think it really depends on what hop medium you use, how long you're leaving them in, and the kind of beer you're after. I was using whole hop flowers, and only a small amount of ones with a real high AA. It was chinooks, goldings, haller's, mt. hood's and cascades from what I remember.

Cheers,
Will


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