Dry Hopping - when, how much and how?

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New_guy

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I am keen to dry hop my next brew

From reading the main points i have found are:
Dry hop for 3-5 days near end of fermentation
Dry hop at a rate of 1gm/litre
If cold conditioning (I am) throw hops into FV
Hop variety should be an aromatic one not bittering
Dry hopping 20gms of cascade into 20lt of IPA thats just about finsihed up the US05 should do the trick?

Am I in the right track?
 
Sounds like you have it spot on to me, mate.

Definitely use an 'aroma' hop - the US C hops are great on the nose - Cascade Centennial etc.. plenty of them - but yeah, you have it spot on.

So, 1-2g/L should see you in good aroma. I put mine in a coffee mug and boil the kettle [Coffee making type, not your Brew Kettle] Cover/fill the hops in the mug with boiling water. 2 reasons, to activate the hops and sanitise them a little, any risk is a risk. Then just dump the green slurry in the FV!! I usually wait 4 days into ferment, sometimes just dump then in when tipping the cube... You will find 'your' way to do it.

Yes, throw them in the FV, they will drop out and if you are cold conditioning/Crash chilling, even better.

Is your IPA have another 4 days in FV? I would allow about 4 days for the hops to drop, in particular, the yeast activity may be slower and the hops have no guidance to drop with their new found friends.....

In short - dump 'em now - do a D Rest - for 3 days - Crash chill for at least 3 - sorted.

5c. [Metric and all]
 
I used Vic Secret and also Summer... mm lovely, so not always American hops, there are some great aussie ones.
Why not try some different theories? Start of ferment, middle and end.
 
Cocko said:
Sounds like you have it spot on to me, mate.

Definitely use an 'aroma' hop - the US C hops are great on the nose - Cascade Centennial etc.. plenty of them - but yeah, you have it spot on.

So, 1-2g/L should see you in good aroma. I put mine in a coffee mug and boil the kettle [Coffee making type, not your Brew Kettle] Cover/fill the hops in the mug with boiling water. 2 reasons, to activate the hops and sanitise them a little, any risk is a risk. Then just dump the green slurry in the FV!! I usually wait 4 days into ferment, sometimes just dump then in when tipping the cube... You will find 'your' way to do it.

Yes, throw them in the FV, they will drop out and if you are cold conditioning/Crash chilling, even better.

Is your IPA have another 4 days in FV? I would allow about 4 days for the hops to drop, in particular, the yeast activity may be slower and the hops have no guidance to drop with their new found friends.....

In short - dump 'em now - do a D Rest - for 3 days - Crash chill for at least 3 - sorted.

5c. [Metric and all]
Cheers mate sounds good - all sorted
I have a 40gm pack of cascade - is using the whole thing overkill?
 
indica86 said:
I used Vic Secret and also Summer... mm lovely, so not always American hops, there are some great aussie ones.
Why not try some different theories? Start of ferment, middle and end.
I agree - but wanted a "textbook" procedure as a benchmark to start with then gauge from experience
 
Yob said:
Taste is your textbook.. Everything else matters little :)
There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius
 
New_guy said:
Cheers mate sounds good - all sorted
I have a 40gm pack of cascade - is using the whole thing overkill?

40g would be pretty heavy dry hopping.. not stupid but I would say for testing, start with 1g/L.

10c.
 
"40g would be pretty heavy dry hopping"

Agree, I thought I was a hop head but have retreated to 20-25 grams for dry hopping.
 
New_guy said:
There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius
Confucius must not have been a brewer because dry hopping won't add any bitterness. I wouldn't hesitate to dry hop an AIPA at 2g/litre. Although, it does depend on you're taste buds.
 
goomboogo said:
Confucius must not have been a brewer because dry hopping won't add any bitterness. I wouldn't hesitate to dry hop an AIPA at 2g/litre. Although, it does depend on you're taste buds.
His point exactly
 
Hops have bittering compounds aside from alpha acids. Dry hopping won't add IBU but you may still get bitterness. Make a hop tea and tell me there's no bitterness. Chew on a hop pellet (alpha acids are not isomerised yet) and tell me there's no bitterness.
 
I was being facetious regarding the Confucius quote. I didn't intend it to be taken seriously. New_Guy, what commercial AIPAs have you liked? We may be able to make a guess at a dry-hopping rate based on your commercial preferences.
 
goomboogo said:
I was being facetious regarding the Confucius quote. I didn't intend it to be taken seriously. New_Guy, what commercial AIPAs have you liked? We may be able to make a guess at a dry-hopping rate based on your commercial preferences.
All good mate - taking the piss

Commercial favourites:
Mornington Peninsula
Hop Hog (what it used to be)
Sierra Nevada
Brooklyn
Tower
Epic
Boat rocker
 
Looking at your commercial list, I don't think you'll find 2g/litre of Cascade in for the last 6-7 days is too much. It may be more than a couple of those beers use but the difference won't be major. A few years ago, people on this board were throwing around recipes for an Epic Pale Ale type of beer. Some of those recipes had about 4g/l litre of Cascade dry-hopped.
 
Recently dry hopped an IPA with 84g ( 3ounces ) of Seven Sea's ( all the C hops combined at 8.5%AA ) at 18c for 5days. turned a little grassy but the aroma was solid on the nose, when i tapped a beer you could smell it right away.

I have read/heard that dry hopping can be done at ferment temp and then at cold conditioning temps for a double layer of dryhopping.
 
I used to add dry hops near the end of ferment, now I add them in CC.

The difference suprised me, both methods add something different and good, but I much prefer the CC addition as I find you get a more resiny, aromatic addition to the beer. I guess less of the volatiles are driven off by temp/yeast activity.
 
very interesting. i might try and do both in my next IPA or pale ale - didn't realise there would be much difference but am excited to see what that might be.
 
stakka82 said:
I used to add dry hops near the end of ferment, now I add them in CC.

The difference suprised me, both methods add something different and good, but I much prefer the CC addition as I find you get a more resiny, aromatic addition to the beer. I guess less of the volatiles are driven off by temp/yeast activity.
Like the sound of that - I reckon I might start with dry hopping @ start of CC'ing
 
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