Dry hopping an already hoppy brew - will I ruin it?

[btrots87]

Hey everyone, this is my first time posting and I was hoping for some advice about dry hopping my AIPA. This is only my third brew and I'm hoping for something with plenty of aroma and flavour from the hops but I'm also worried I'll overdo it.

The brew I've got in the FV is:

1.5kg light LME
2kg light DME
0.25kg wheat DME
0.5kg dextrose
0.1kg crystal 60L
30g simcoe @ 45m in
25g citra @ 30 min
20g citra @ 10 min
10g galaxy @ 10 min
20g each citra and galaxy @ 5 min
Dry hop 20g each citra and summer for 7 days

Pitched 2 packs US05
OG 1.071
IBU 54.17
ABV 6.75%

It's been in the fermenter 7 days @ 18C now and I was planning on dry hopping tonight but after having a taste there is already quite a bit of aroma and flavour going on (it's delicious actually). Do you think this will lessen over time or should I cut back or even skip the dry hopping? I don't want to over hop it and ruin it now.

 

[Yob]

kegging or bottling?

do you have the ability to cold condition?

 

[technobabble66]

Umm ..... Can you possibly over-hop an AIPA??

I thought the principle of AIPA was there's no such thing as too many hops.
Too many hops is the raison d'être of AIPA.

Edit: more sagely advice would be that the amounts you're talking about should be fine and will just add a little more aromatics. I find the aromatics you're experiencing from the FV now might fade by the time you get to it from the bottle/keg; so a bit of dry hopping will help boost it back up for a while.

 

[Spiesy]

If you no chill, the 70g of high alpha hops you added throughout the last 10mins would have contributed a fair wack of IBU that you may not have accounted for.
At the very least, that's the flavour you're getting now.

Recipe looks okay to me.

You may find some of that hop aroma fades over time, so your dry hopping may give it a little more legs.

 

[brewermp]

Correct me if I'm wrong guys but dry hopping adds aroma not flavour so you will be sweet mate.

 

[btrots87]

kegging or bottling?

do you have the ability to cold condition?

 

[btrots87]

I do have the ability to cold crash it once it's done however I've never done that before, this is the first brew I've done since finishing my fridge.

It will be bottled too.

 

[btrots87]

Umm ..... Can you possibly over-hop an AIPA??

I thought the principle of AIPA was there's no such thing as too many hops.
Too many hops is the raison d'être of AIPA.

Edit: more sagely advice would be that the amounts you're talking about should be fine and will just add a little more aromatics. I find the aromatics you're experiencing from the FV now might fade by the time you get to it from the bottle/keg; so a bit of dry hopping will help boost it back up for a while.

Thanks, I guess that's what I was wondering, only being my third brew I really don't know what the consequences of adding too many hops will be. Consensus seems to be that I'm worrying for nothing though so that makes me feel better.

 

[bigmacthepunker]

Wow, third brew, you done some research before, unfortunately I can't give any advise as is still a newbie myself, but loving my new hobby, and have met some wonderful people. Best luck with the brew. It reads very nice.
Cheers
Big G

 

[Spiesy]

Correct me if I'm wrong guys but dry hopping adds aroma not flavour so you will be sweet mate.

Yes, aroma - but it also gives the perception of more hop flavour and bitterness.

 

[sponge]

Don't worry about leaving the hops in there for exactly 7 days if you are dry hopping either. I normally DH for 2-4 days, but keg/bottle when I'm happy with the aroma.

 

[btrots87]

Yeah I was planning on dry hopping for 4-5 days then CC for 2-3 days before bottling.

 

[btrots87]

So it's been in the bottle about 9 days now, tried my first one today. Really happy with the flavour and aroma, next time I might increase the amount of steeped grain a bit. Only thing is it's very hazy, I think it's chill haze. I didn't use any additives and only CC'd for 3 days. I guess next time I'll CC for a week or so, or maybe add some kind of clearing agent to it.

All things considered, very happy with how it turned out.

 

[manticle]

Hops can add haze too.

 

[btrots87]

I was wondering if that might be the case, the last brew I did was with no temp control at all and it still came out reasonably clear. Just an APA though so nowhere near the amount of hops. Will chilling for a week or so remove haze caused by the hops or should I just learn to live with it?

 

[manticle]

Chilling may not remove all of it but it will still help appearance and flavour so do it.

 

[Judanero]

Add some brewbrite (I use a 600 ml water bottle 3/4 full of room temp tap water to pre-mix before adding to kettle- i.e.- add the brewbrite to the bottle and shake it like a polaroid picture for 30 secs) 5 mins before flameout, and crash chill as per normal. I like to dry hop during crash chill phase ~ 72 hours.

Additional step of gelatine ( 1 tsp mixed into 1 cup of ~ 80c water added to keg in my case, people add to primary similarly) at the end of cc for around 24-48hrs.

You should end up with pretty/if not crystal clear beer.

 

[btrots87]

Thanks for the tips guys, I have an amber ale fermenting at the moment so it's too late for the brewbrite for this one but I might try the gelatine and chill for a week.