Hi - wondering about others' experiences with dry hopping
My usual process has been to let the beer ferment to completion, then add my dry hop charge. I store my pellet hops in the deep freeze (-20 deg), in their original packet, with the air purged as best i can and closed with those ikea clips. Then they are stored in what are supposed to be airtight containers to keep them away from the other items in the freezer. I measure my charge, into another bag to purge with CO2, then add loose into the fermenter, avoiding splashing. Let sit for 2 days at fermentation temp (I'll usually go up a couple of degrees - say 18 to 20 if an APA with US-05 - to let it clean up), then cold crash with finings for 2 days and keg
I seem to often be getting an unpleasant additional flavour to my dry hopped beers, particularly if I use a higher charge. I can only describe this as being like chewing on the actual pellets themselves (which I often do to taste them, or to make sure they don't taste like the old cheese, off flavour/aroma from storage). It gets better with age, but doesn't go away
Does anyone else have this experience? If so, how did you solve it?
My most recent effort was a pale ale with 30g each of mosaic, amarillo, citra and simcoe (120g in total). The beer is good, though it would be a heck of a lot better without that extra flavour. I don't taste it in heavily dry hopped commercial beers.
Some of my hops are about 6 months old (that I've had them for) - everything that I've read indicates they should be ok. My next trials will be to do the same thing again with only brand new hops and see. Otherwise, adding just before fermentation is complete to see if that scrubs out that flavour.
Any experience making those changes or other suggestions? Otherwise, I just think I'll leave dry hopping altogether - though I know that there a very tasty dry hopped beers around, I can't seem to be good at it myself!
My usual process has been to let the beer ferment to completion, then add my dry hop charge. I store my pellet hops in the deep freeze (-20 deg), in their original packet, with the air purged as best i can and closed with those ikea clips. Then they are stored in what are supposed to be airtight containers to keep them away from the other items in the freezer. I measure my charge, into another bag to purge with CO2, then add loose into the fermenter, avoiding splashing. Let sit for 2 days at fermentation temp (I'll usually go up a couple of degrees - say 18 to 20 if an APA with US-05 - to let it clean up), then cold crash with finings for 2 days and keg
I seem to often be getting an unpleasant additional flavour to my dry hopped beers, particularly if I use a higher charge. I can only describe this as being like chewing on the actual pellets themselves (which I often do to taste them, or to make sure they don't taste like the old cheese, off flavour/aroma from storage). It gets better with age, but doesn't go away
Does anyone else have this experience? If so, how did you solve it?
My most recent effort was a pale ale with 30g each of mosaic, amarillo, citra and simcoe (120g in total). The beer is good, though it would be a heck of a lot better without that extra flavour. I don't taste it in heavily dry hopped commercial beers.
Some of my hops are about 6 months old (that I've had them for) - everything that I've read indicates they should be ok. My next trials will be to do the same thing again with only brand new hops and see. Otherwise, adding just before fermentation is complete to see if that scrubs out that flavour.
Any experience making those changes or other suggestions? Otherwise, I just think I'll leave dry hopping altogether - though I know that there a very tasty dry hopped beers around, I can't seem to be good at it myself!
