Grmblz
Well-Known Member
Fully agree but there's a couple of problems, back in the day I was a manager for Fullers [oak barrels not kegs, and drawn with a hand pump, no top pressure (CAMRA reg's)] and I could write a small book on dry hopped cask conditioned ales.
Problem number one is obvious, many of the hops we now want to use are not available as cones, and rhizomes can't be purchased, bio risk, propriety material etc.
Number two is probably not as obvious, using London Pride as an example, and assuming correct conditioning/cellar procedures, once tapped the window for serving good fresh ale was 3 days, after that it starts to go downhill fast, and at about 5 days is taken off and sent back to the brewery, I believe it was to get a refund on the tax paid.
It takes a few days to condition a barrel (very much dependant on the individual barrel) and ideally the barrel should be tapped within a week of delivery, so we have a couple weeks max from filling the barrel to finishing it, in this time frame the usual problems associated with dry hopping (vegetal flavour, grassiness) don't occur, in addition the actual amount of hop cones in a barrel of London Pride is surprisingly small, about a couple of handfuls in 36 gallon.
On a home brew scale however where a keg may be on for an extended period, and the trend is for higher dry hopping rates the whole vegetal thing becomes an issue.
It appears our options are,
1: Remove hops from serving keg, and tolerate fading hoppiness over time.
2: Leave hops in and expect the grassiness/vegetal effect.
3: Or my preferred option DRINK MORE BEER! although getting through 19ltrs of DIPA/NEIPA in a week is probably beyond my capabilities.
All this excludes the array of hop matter alternatives such as oils etc but then we run into the old availability to us in Australia, and increased cost of these products. Apologies for the long post.
