Are dry hops over rated?

[Duxuk]

I first heard of dry hopping in the 1980s and have used it in nearly every brew since. Until recently, when I’ve dropped the dry hopping and brewed what I consider better beer. They are plenty hoppy enough and the hop flavours persist for a long time. I find the later the hops, the quicker the effect fades. I used bittering hops today then 100g of Mosaic evenly split at 15, 10, 5 Nd flameout, without pre cooling.
At the risk of summoning the devil it’s worth noting that UK breweries traditionally don’t dry hop and often don’t add any hops after 5 mins from the end. Does anyone else feel that hopping too late gives a short lived effect and is a relative waste of hops if you’re not consuming the beer really young?

 

[The Baron]

Yes I do agree the later the hops the quicker the hoppiness leaves the beer in conjunction with a dry hop you will get that burst of hops but it fades. The reason most people when wanting to use large amounts of hops dry hop is that if you use them in the boil you can get a beer well above the IBU bitterness that some brewers like.
I personally virtually do whirlpool hopping with a dry hop as I do not like high bittered beers and the wife is very susceptible to bitterness than me.
Its one of those questions of how do you get the hops in the boil for longevity without the IBU's taking over?

 

[foxbat]

I never dry hop.

 

[Sandimas]

I gave up dry hopping a few years ago: I'll wait 10-15mins after the boil has finished for the temp to drop, so as not to add any extra bitterness, then add my final hops for a 30min steep. I used to alternate between a steep and dry hopping and I personally couldn't tell any difference, plus I got a few gushing bottles with dry hopping, other have noticed this too.

I guess if you're doing kits with no boil you have no option but to dry hop.

 

[Clint]

The British Ale book from GW has quite a few recipes that say "dry hop with a few cones..."
With my ongoing Tribute cone the first couple of tries were good but lacked "hoppiness", particularly aroma. As soon as I added a flame out/hopstand addition it was sorted.

 

[An Ankoù]

Its one of those questions of how do you get the hops in the boil for longevity without the IBU's taking over?

Easy peasy, Baron. Use noble hops throughout. My favourite is Saaz, but mittelfrüh, tettnang and others of the same ilk are just gorgeous. You need a shedload for bittering, but you can do late additions, particularly with alpha acids around 2.5 to 3.5 %. In my opinion, they're unsurpassed.
In English styles, sticking with Goldings and Fuggles produces lovely beers. I sometimes think that high alpha hops have been bred to save money- fewer hops for the same bitterness, but it's compromise. That's not to say some lovely flavours haven't emerged, but so have some ghastly ones, too.

 

[The Baron]

I am not saying in your case but the gushing can be caused by dry hopping and hop particles still being in the beer causing nucleation

 

[The Baron]

Easy peasy, Baron. Use noble hops throughout. My favourite is Saaz, but mittelfrüh, tettnang and others of the same ilk are just gorgeous. You need a shedload for bittering, but you can do late additions, particularly with alpha acids around 2.5 to 3.5 %. In my opinion, they're unsurpassed.
In English styles, sticking with Goldings and Fuggles produces lovely beers. I sometimes think that high alpha hops have been bred to save money- fewer hops for the same bitterness, but it's compromise.

Trust you to have a answer, I do not dry hop with my ales/bitters and only use british or british style hops in them too which are generally lower AA's but I do like a American hopped beer and I then do whirlpool hopping at 80c to mitigate IBU's.
I am now thinking of not dry hopping myself too and upping the whirlpool/hopstand

 

[doccy]

If you dry hop with a muslin bag wouldn't that negate any residue? I do agree about the hop taste fading quickly with a dry hop though

 

[The Baron]

If you dry hop with a muslin bag wouldn't that negate any residue? I do agree about the hop taste fading quickly with a dry hop though

Yes it would help tremendously and that's what I do but it depends on how fine the bag is. Some brewers just throw the hops in though as it is perceived to give more flavour from the hops which can create the residues

 

[doccy]

Yeah that's what I heard as well, I used to just to throw them in too, but because I bottle beer things quickly got very messy with that method

 

[marshbrewer]

I no longer dry hop, well hardly ever, preferring to use flame out additions (I know they are supposed to be different, I just prefer flame out hops). I'm also quite into 30min additions (in addition to the bittering addition at the start of the boil) which are a bit old fashioned these days I suppose, but I am convinced they add more than just bitterness.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

This is a spendid post and just what makes this forum so good. Cheers all. I've not dry hopped much and will try hop stand soon.

 

[simon12]

I like hoppy beers quite bitter so prefer to just have large late (and some early) additions rather than dry hopping or whirlpooling.

 

[Clint]

I've done a hopstand on the ESB I've got in the brewfridge...it's virtually done and the smell is very promising indeed!

 

[The Baron]

I've done a hopstand on the ESB I've got in the brewfridge...it's virtually done and the smell is very promising indeed!

I do Whirlpool/Hopstands in virtually all my Ales and Bitters so I can cram in more hops for flavour and no bittering hops again so I can cram in the hops and keep the IBU's down

 

[Sadfield]

Yes I do agree the later the hops the quicker the hoppiness leaves the beer in conjunction with a dry hop you will get that burst of hops but it fades. The reason most people when wanting to use large amounts of hops dry hop is that if you use them in the boil you can get a beer well above the IBU bitterness that some brewers like.
I personally virtually do whirlpool hopping with a dry hop as I do not like high bittered beers and the wife is very susceptible to bitterness than me.
Its one of those questions of how do you get the hops in the boil for longevity without the IBU's taking over?

Counterbalancing bitterness with sweetness and water treatment helps. Getting the mash pH, and subsequent beer pH, right, can have a significant affect on hop utilisation and isomerisation, higher pH can result in more bitterness. Add to this, elevated sodium levels can temper the perception of bitterness, where as high sulphate levels can increase the perceived bitterness.

The problem with dry hopping, and why they may be viewed as over rated, is that they are very susceptible to oxidation and storage temperature.

As for dry hopping. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, it all depends on the style of beer being brewed and the type of hops used.

It's interesting reading some of the previous comments that dry hopping and late boil/hop stands are viewed as alternatives to each other, choosing one over the other, rather than them being two techniques that compliment each other.

 

[samale]

Surely it depends on the style of beer. I can't see you hitting the mark with a Neipa with out a big dry hop.

 

[Clint]

Surely it depends on the style of beer. I can't see you hitting the mark with a Neipa with out a big dry hop.

Has anyone tried?

 

[The Baron]

Hi Sadfield if I am making a hoppy/American beer I tend to use both whirlpool and dry hop. If I am making say a ale or bitter I now generally just use whirlpool and no dry hop so that I can cram in loads of flavour hops so I do both but I think I will try a Hoppy/American beer in the future and just whirlpool with no dry hop to see if I can get the same effect but a longer life on the hops. I tend to always have a mash PH of 5.2 to 5.4 by using Acid Malt.
I will report what I find when I do my next Hoppy beer that way on this thread