Late hop addition or steeping solution to fermenter only for aroma?

[trustyrusty]

Hi Guys,

This one confuses me, and that is not hard

I recently made some ok beers but decided to steep some hops - (worked out proportion of the keg of 12g steeped)
And it improved it after a week in the fridge. This after it was in the keg and pouring...

My question is that it is said late hop addition / steeping / dry hopping for the fermenter is only for aroma..? I tend to disagree - the taste became more hoppy. If I had 19 ltrs of plain water and added 300 ml of steep hopped solution, you could not taste it?

Or is it the least in flavour of all the methods boiling / late addition / flame out / steep etc that they attribute to aroma because it gives it the most aroma with late hop addition / steeping / dry hopping, but it does effect the taste?

thanks

 

[damoninja]

Aroma and flavour are intrinsically linked.

Without assistance from our snouts most people have trouble telling the difference between an apple, cabbage, onion, assuming the texture's the same.

For simplicity the 'aroma' additions are the ones added where less/none of the aromatic oils are lost to evaporation, it's not to say that they contribute nothing but nose.

 

[Jamesco]

Its an indepth read but some argue that dry hopping does increase bitterness, check out the link below.

http://scottjanish.com/increasing-bitterness-dry-hopping/

 

[damoninja]

Its an indepth read but some argue that dry hopping does increase bitterness, check out the link below.

http://scottjanish.com/increasing-bitterness-dry-hopping/

Well I suppose if you eat dry pellets they're kinda bitter.

Are you adding 20kg to your 20L batch? There's your problem.......

 

[Droopy Brew]

Its an indepth read but some argue that dry hopping does increase bitterness, check out the link below.

http://scottjanish.com/increasing-bitterness-dry-hopping/

Yep my tounge tells me dry hopping definitely increases bitterness as well as flavour and aroma. Most other brewers I have talked to agree.
the difference may be the source of bitterness. As I understand it IBUs are a measurement of alpha acids only (I may be wrong) which are only extracted at high temps. However other acids such as cohomulone may add to bitterness and dont need the high temps for extraction.

Whatever the mechanism, dry hopping definitly increases percieved bitterness to my taste.

Edit: should have first read the link I quoted- it says something along similar lines but gives a more technical explaination

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I cant totally agree on that. I do 40lt brews so its 2 keg brews. Often I have dry hopped one but not the other.
With a beer that's a tad on the bitter bite character the dry hopped keg was smoother. As if it rounded off the bitter bite to some degree. As if it lessoned the bitterness, not added to the bitterness.
Dry hopping was with flowers in a large hop sock in the keg. Either 200g fresh wet Cascade flowers or 50g dry flowers.
This has been the common perception I've found by my taste. It may depend on the hops I assume.
Dry hopping like this with something more extreme like Galaxy flowers for example added to lupuline resinous flavour but not really added IBU bitterness.
Just my experience. $0.02.

 

[micka80]

I'll ad my 2c, I had two of the same brews in the fermenter, I do triple batch all grain brews. Anyway dry hopped one with Centennial and one with Columbus. The Columbus one has a dirt taste to it and not enjoyable at all, centennial one is as normal. 100g of hops into 20l, may not add any bitterness but my goodness the flavour can change dramatically.