Dry hopping

[ekymetal13]

Hi all 

I’m really interested in how much you all dry hop.

And how long you leave them in the fermenter.

Currently I am using about 4 grams a litre, sometimes more if I want a hop hit.

How much are you using, I know it varies with the brew.

Also do you all just throw the hops in the one bag, or a bag for each hop?

Is dry hopping mainly for aroma or will it add flavour as well?

Cheers 

Scott 

 

[Titan]

36 minutes ago, ekymetal13 said:

Hi all 

I’m really interested in how much you all dry hop.

And how long you leave them in the fermenter.

Currently I am using about 4 grams a litre, sometimes more if I want a hop hit.

How much are you using, I know it varies with the brew.

Also do you all just throw the hops in the one bag, or a bag for each hop?

Is dry hopping mainly for aroma or will it add flavour as well?

Cheers 

Scott 

 

Mostly aroma, however because 3 senses are used, sight, smell and taste you will get some apparent flavour.

[Lab Cat]

My inexperienced understanding is dry hopping adds the flavour and aroma, boiling and steeping prior to ferment adds bittering mainly.

Last dry hop I did was 100g. 50-50 of Citra and Mosaic. I threw both of them in a sanitised chux and tied it. Probably a bit much but I didn't leave much room in the bag, so it wouldn't have fully steeped. The beer came out great for flavour and aroma, definitely not over the top.

My current brew is getting 65g of Mosaic and plenty of room to infuse.

[The Captain!!]

Depends on style. 

Most of my hoppy pales are anywhere between 80-190g dry hop. 

 

[ben 10]

1 hour ago, Lab Rat said:

My inexperienced understanding is dry hopping adds the flavour and aroma, boiling and steeping prior to ferment adds bittering mainly.

boiling adds bitterness and flavour. steeping adds bitterness, flavour and aroma, dry hopping adds aroma and flavour

[jackgym]

I don't bother dry hopping now. What effect it has seems to disappear somewhat if you don't drink your brew early.

I like to leave mine 4 weeks in the bottle, so just boil and steep the hops at the beginning e.g. 25g Amarillo and 25g Nelson.

[Lab Cat]

1 hour ago, Ben 10 said:

boiling adds bitterness and flavour. steeping adds bitterness, flavour and aroma, dry hopping adds aroma and flavour

So far, my boiling and steeping has added next to nothing flavour-wise to my beers. My best beer has been dry hopped.

[Beerlust]

28 minutes ago, jackgym said:

I don't bother dry hopping now. What effect it has seems to disappear somewhat if you don't drink your brew early.

I like to leave mine 4 weeks in the bottle, so just boil and steep the hops at the beginning e.g. 25g Amarillo and 25g Nelson.

That's sad to hear mate. I've read multiple comments from you in recent months speaking negatively of dry hopping. I understand they are your personal experiences, but would say you are missing out on one of the true joys of brewing hoppy beers if you haven't had a beer that exuded high aromatic properties. I'd be happy to help look into why this is happening with your brews if you are interested.

 

6 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

So far, my boiling and steeping has added next to nothing flavour-wise to my beers. My best beer has been dry hopped.

As above, but substitute "high aromatic properties" for "high flavour properties".

The offer is there.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty. 

[ben 10]

18 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

So far, my boiling and steeping has added next to nothing flavour-wise to my beers.

i get heaps of flavour from those additions.

8 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

I'd be happy to help look into why this is happening with your brews if you are interested.

listen to him, he made be an opinionated cock at times but makes a stunning beer and knows his hops very well.

[Worthog]

However you want your dry hop aroma, and lesser degree flavour, my suggestion is not Commando the hops because minor 'fallout' can drift into your bottling, and becomes a problem if you harvest your yeast.

If you 'chux' hops, cut off a 1-2cm strip of the chux to use as a tie for your chux bag.

Then only add no more than 40g per chux as I believe in any extra will result in the 'boxer v brief' underpants scenario with no breathing space.

Then of course, when you remove your hop chux after 3 days, give it a 'Lusty' squeeze to get the juice into your wort.

Cheers

 

 

 

[Tömmy8888]

I use a hop bag atm and put some sanitised marbels to help it sink to the bottom. It stays on the bottom for a while until the hops expand and end up floating on top. So far good results. Hop bad cost me $10 bucks each and if you look after it it will last a while. Did commando dry hop once and regretted it so much. 

[ekymetal13]

26 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

That's sad to hear mate. I've read multiple comments from you in recent months speaking negatively of dry hopping. I understand they are your personal experiences, but would say you are missing out on one of the true joys of brewing hoppy beers if you haven't had a beer that exuded high aromatic properties. I'd be happy to help look into why this is happening with your brews if you are interested.

 

As above, but substitute "high aromatic properties" for "high flavour properties".

The offer is there.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty. 

I’d be happy to hear any recommendations.

My main style is IPAs and pale ales.

Cheers mate

[Beerlust]

26 minutes ago, Worthog said:

...If you 'chux' hops, cut off a 1-2cm strip of the chux to use as a tie for your chux bag.

Then only add no more than 40g per chux as I believe in any extra will result in the 'boxer v brief' underpants scenario with no breathing space.

I love the analogy. GOLD & true! 

& yes, give it the "Lusty" squeeze after you remove it, before you bin it. 

8 minutes ago, ekymetal13 said:

I’d be happy to hear any recommendations.

My main style is IPAs and pale ales.

Cheers mate

What's your favourite commercial IPA &/or Pale Ale?

Cheers,

Lusty.

[ekymetal13]

Prob my favourite would be any of the Sierra Nevada range.

I like the Cricketers Arms spearhead pale ale.

Also the Monteiths XPA 

cheers scott 

 

[Worthog]

14 minutes ago, ekymetal13 said:

...I like the Cricketers Arms spearhead pale ale....

cheers scott 

 

I can see 50-80g of Amarillo dry hop coming on. 

[Beerlust]

2 minutes ago, ekymetal13 said:

Prob my favourite would be any of the Sierra Nevada range.

I like the Cricketers Arms spearhead pale ale.

Also the Monteiths XPA 

cheers lusty 

 

The spearhead pale could be easily mimic'd, but the Sierra stuff is a little more advanced to clone. What is your current level of home brewer? Kit based, extract based, or all grain?

The Monteiths XPA was a little hard to find info on, but managed to see the colour is quite light & uses a hop combo of Pacifica, Southern Cross & Citra.

For the Spearhead Ale, perhaps check THIS thread out.

Cheers,

Lusty.

[ekymetal13]

45 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

The spearhead pale could be easily mimic'd, but the Sierra stuff is a little more advanced to clone. What is your current level of home brewer? Kit based, extract based, or all grain?

The Monteiths XPA was a little hard to find info on, but managed to see the colour is quite light & uses a hop combo of Pacifica, Southern Cross & Citra.

For the Spearhead Ale, perhaps check THIS thread out.

Cheers,

Lusty.

I’m currently on my 22nd brew.

Also partial extract with grain additions.

Just about to try my first BIAB.

Gaining confidence in every brew and this site is amazing for me.

Cheers 

[ekymetal13]

I’ve just been watching this on utube.

Seems like I could manage this.

And this is a wicked beer !

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

I usually only dry hop pale ales, but my regular red ale has a small 30g Cascade dry hop. Generally about 50-60g for a 25 litre batch, sometimes more. They go in a couple of days before I cold crash the beer, and stay in there until it's kegged, so about 9 days all up. 

I don't know why others are having issues of bugger all flavor and aroma from short boils, steeps and dry hops. For hoppy ales I do a 10 minute boil addition, flameout and cube hop along with the dry hop later and they're always pretty hoppy. Good hop flavor and aroma. That Vic Secret one I did was really nice.

I did notice the hops stood out more when I moved to all grain though, for some reason. Don't know why.

[porschemad911]

I use a stainless hop tube for dry hopping. Currently using it for around 7g/l East Kent Goldings (75g in an 11l batch) in my English IPA.

Cheers, 

John

[jackgym]

12 hours ago, Beerlust said:

That's sad to hear mate. I've read multiple comments from you in recent months speaking negatively of dry hopping. I understand they are your personal experiences, but would say you are missing out on one of the true joys of brewing hoppy beers if you haven't had a beer that exuded high aromatic properties. I'd be happy to help look into why this is happening with your brews if you are interested.

Lusty. 

That's okay mate, thanks for the offer.

I'm across all the dry hopping methods but prefer simply boiling and steeping which produces enough hoppiness for my tastes.

After all, it's hard to improve on excellence. 

 

[Beerlust]

All good Jackgym.

All the best with your brewing moving forward.

Cheers,

Lusty.

[karlos_1984]

I've experimented with dry hopping on every batch, but have only recently reaped the rewards. My first few batches I dry hopped using a hop sock. All brews tasted funny. After some trial and error, I worked out the hop sock hadn't been sanitised properly beforehand, causing off flavours. 

I now do short boils and flame out hop stands and dry hop commando. Huge difference and it's very rewarding. I dry hop commando and cold crash for a week, then I use a grain bag which I boil and sanitise, to strain the beer when I transfer from my FV to a secondary vessel for bottling. This removes any hop.matter that's still remaining after cold crashing. Have had no floaties in my beer and nil infections or off tastes since adopting this method. Takes a little bit longer on bottling day but bloody well worth the effort in the final product. 

[jackgym]

52 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

All good Jackgym.

All the best with your brewing moving forward.

Cheers,

Lusty.

Cheers mate.