To Dry Hop My Pale Ale Or Not?

[Creedy]

Just put down my first BIAB on the weekend and all seemed to go well, except for hops blocking the tap on my urn, but that's another story
The brew was a Pale Ale;

3.50 kg Pilsner
0.20 kg Wheat Malt
0.03 kg Crystal 120
0.65kg Dextrose

33g POR Flowers @ 60m
0.5 tab whirlfloc @ 15m

Mashed in at 64C for 60m
Mashed out at 78C

Straight into a sanitised fermenter and chill down in the fridge to 18C overnight.

Pitch Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast
OG was 1.051 and the brew is bubbling away happily now and smells delicious.
I keep going to the fridge and opening it just to smell what going on, mmmmmm yummy.

Anyway, my thought originally was to dry hop some Styrian Goldings Flowers (which I have on hand) into the fermenter just to give it some extra aroma and pep.
Pale Ales are nice but I'd like to add a little extra "nose" to this brew and thought the Styrian would go well with the Nottingham.

Am I on the right track? I'm not fussed with following styles, it's just for me (if I can keep SWMBO away from it that is).


Opinions and alternate options would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers,
Creedy

 

[reviled]

I allways dry hop pale ales, in fact I could probably count the batches ive done without dry hopping on one hand...

It adds a much better aroma and IMO a better mouthfeel, however can detract a little bit from the quaffability..

Styrians are a nice hop to dry hop with, I normally get some pleasant vanilla tones off of it, so I say go for it!! Start with 25gms

 

[QldKev]

If you want a true Pale Ale, no do not hop it.
If you want a nice Aussie ale, go for it; I do often.

Using Nottingham I would go more the Aussie Ale and dry hop it; as that yeast strips a lot from the beer.

QldKev

 

[reviled]

If you want a true Pale Ale, no do not hop it.

:huh: wtf?

In both english and american pale ales dry hopping is more than acceptable!!

 

[bum]

Yeah, I was thinking the same but each to their own I suppose.

I'm wondering if an all pils base in a pale is going to carry big hopping. I'd go lightly if I did it.

 

[Nick JD]

Sounds like an Aussie PA - I'd also not dry hop. That's a lot of sugaz.

 

[Creedy]

Sounds like an Aussie PA - I'd also not dry hop. That's a lot of sugaz.

It's actually taken from a recipe by AndrewQLD for Coopers Pale Ale that a few people seemed to enjoy.
Link
I just gave it a slight English twist with some Nottingham yeast and my thinking was to continue this a little further with the Styrian Goldings.

Am I worried about strict adherence to styles? ---- Nup
Have I got hops in my hot little hand (actually cold fridge) and want to use 'em? ---- You betcha!

I pitched 3 days ago, and my thinking is that in a day or two I'll drop 20 grams (1g/l) of hops in the fermenter unless there's a real flavour based reason not to.

Cheers and thanks for the feedback,
Creedy

 

[Creedy]

Yeah, I was thinking the same but each to their own I suppose.

I'm wondering if an all pils base in a pale is going to carry big hopping. I'd go lightly if I did it.

Good point about keeping balance between malt and hops.
I'm not after a hop monster here, just a little extra boost.
What would you suggest as far as amounts in my 20 litre brew?


Cheers,
Creedy

 

[petesbrew]

It's actually taken from a recipe by AndrewQLD for Coopers Pale Ale that a few people seemed to enjoy.
Link
I just gave it a slight English twist with some Nottingham yeast and my thinking was to continue this a little further with the Styrian Goldings.

Am I worried about strict adherence to styles? ---- Nup
Have I got hops in my hot little hand (actually cold fridge) and want to use 'em? ---- You betcha!

I pitched 3 days ago, and my thinking is that in a day or two I'll drop 20 grams (1g/l) of hops in the fermenter unless there's a real flavour based reason not to.

Cheers and thanks for the feedback,
Creedy

I say go for it.

 

[Luka]

It really depends on your taste, as you say its just for your drinking pleasure. I say, take a sample when you take a gravity reading, taste it and then make the decision based on that.

I've made APA's without dry hopping, because I've added plenty of hops at flameout and then whrirlpooled, gives great aroma and flavour.

 

[Creedy]

It really depends on your taste, as you say its just for your drinking pleasure. I say, take a sample when you take a gravity reading, taste it and then make the decision based on that.

I've made APA's without dry hopping, because I've added plenty of hops at flameout and then whrirlpooled, gives great aroma and flavour.

Thank Luka, good advise, I'll take a SG tonight and decide then. I'll let my taste buds do the hard work. They might as well get used to it anyway


Cheers,
Creedy

 

[Scruffy]

Nice recipe.
If it's your first foray into AG and you want to learn all sorts of nonsense before you lose any enthusiasm, buy yourself some glass demijohns (5l ones - or just even one) and split the brew - Dry hop one, add wood chips, add vanilla pods/chillies/kittens/chicken carcasses whatever...

...of course this requires you to wear a lab coat and adhere to anally methodist codes of cleanliness and fervent piety.

Personally, I'd bung the Styrians in and get rid of that nasty POR taste compliment this countries finest...

Have fun!

:icon_cheers:

 

[Creedy]

Nice recipe.
If it's your first foray into AG and you want to learn all sorts of nonsense before you lose any enthusiasm, buy yourself some glass demijohns (5l ones - or just even one) and split the brew - Dry hop one, add wood chips, add vanilla pods/chillies/kittens/chicken carcasses whatever...

...of course this requires you to wear a lab coat and adhere to anally methodist codes of cleanliness and fervent piety.

Personally, I'd bung the Styrians in and get rid of that nasty POR taste compliment this countries finest...

Have fun!

:icon_cheers:

Haha, Kittens and chicken carcasses?
They're ones that are not on my (large and increasing) list of things to investigate.
But maybe I should think about it though, after all everyone loves kittens? maybe they could have more potential uses?
Is this the secret to "Kemptown Black Moggy Mild"? and do they use real whale in "Humpback Pale Ale"?

As far a the POR goes, I actually liked the smell of the fresh flowers, all sticky and sweet smelling, almost reminded me of an illegal herb I encountered as a young whipper snapper


Cheers,
Creedy

 

[Fourstar]

If you want a true Pale Ale, no do not hop it.
If you want a nice Aussie ale, go for it; I do often.
Using Nottingham I would go more the Aussie Ale and dry hop it; as that yeast strips a lot from the beer.
QldKev

I have to agree somewhat.

Most brewers are way too heavy handed with their hopping rates in pale ales. Also, if they are not filtering or fining their beer, wether its crash chilling, isinglass, gelatine etc the hop resin laden yeast is not palatable and thorws the balance out of whack. Sure, i enjoy hoppy APAs but they are usually more balanced towards an IPA w/respect to their IBU:GU than a APA when homebrewed, its a little OTT. Dry hopping in small amounts in a relatively balanced bright APA = good. Late and Dry hopping aggressively and serving it as turbid as the gulf of mexico = not good.

Atleast thats to my palate anyway. Take Epic for example, a nice and birght well dry hopped beer thats still got malt balance. if you got that exact same beer and dumped a whole bunch of the yeast and trub they filter out which is wearing a coat of hop resin = bad.

Turbidity in small amounts is ok, take Kooinda for example. a great pale ale thats turbid.

 

[hazard]

If you want a true Pale Ale, no do not hop it.
If you want a nice Aussie ale, go for it; I do often.

Using Nottingham I would go more the Aussie Ale and dry hop it; as that yeast strips a lot from the beer.

QldKev

Don't understand. Most English pale ale is descended form India pale Ale = plenty of hops and dry hopping as well. Many of the recipes in Wheeler's book specify a few cones (either fuggles or EGK). I made a clone ESB recently and added 1.5 pugs of EKG and it has come out wonderfully - a well rounded hoppiness, not sharp or bitter, that blends well with the malt.

On the other hand - Australian pale ale = Coopers. As far as I know, Coopers has a bittering addition only. No late hops, no dry hopping.

So, I would have thought it was the other way around. Do you have any examples of dry hopped Australian pale ale?

 

[bum]

Most English pale ale is descended form India pale Ale

Wait. What?

 

[hazard]

Wait. What?

Yeh, India pale ale is actually from England, not from India.

Or do you have something else in mind?

 

[bum]

Yeah, the second one. I see where your logic is going, that pales are a watered down version of IPAs, but this is very much not the case. Exact opposite, in fact.

 

[petesbrew]

What, so the English stole pale ale from India? And softened it down because it was too hoppy? Aaaah I seeeeee. :blink:

 

[Scruffy]

Nah, India hadn't been invented. In fact the invention of India coincided with the invention of glass, and all them porters what people used to drink in clay or pewter pots looked crap in glass - people could see the bits of hemlock and weevils. So the used a filter from ye olde Craftbrewer and invented pale ale. Interestingly, some dutch sales people invented hops and the because king of England was a bit savvy decided to generate a bit of tax revenue. And the rest is history.
**** the internet is clever isn't it...