Are dry hops over rated?

[samale]

Has anyone tried?

Not sure I haven't.
I have personally started adding more into the boil. One of the beers I sent to Steve he mentioned that the flavour didn't match the aroma. Basically I was using most of the hops for whirlpool and dry hop. I have since changed this but still dry hop using a nylon bag.

 

[phildo79]

I noticed that hop aroma and flavour faded fast with dry hopped beers...until I started doing closed transfers. Now my hoppy beers taste the same to the last pint out of the keg.

 

[smcc]

I dry hop based on style, I think if you are bittering, whirlpool and dry hopping you get different layers of flavour and aroma they all have their place. I agree the dry hop effect can fade quite quickly post packaging I used to go wild thinking you would get more of a hit but it doesnt work this way, After reading the book the new IPA it confirmed that really about 8g per litre is plenty to get what you want so I have cut back on it since then. I have also experimented with DDH but I havent noticed really that it makes that much of a difference. I think its much more important to get the blend of hops right than just focusing on volume.

 

[Clint]

I dry hop based on style, I think if you are bittering, whirlpool and dry hopping you get different layers of flavour and aroma they all have their place. I agree the dry hop effect can fade quite quickly post packaging I used to go wild thinking you would get more of a hit but it doesnt work this way, After reading the book the new IPA it confirmed that really about 8g per litre is plenty to get what you want so I have cut back on it since then. I have also experimented with DDH but I havent noticed really that it makes that much of a difference. I think its much more important to get the blend of hops right than just focusing on volume.

Which book please?

 

[Hanglow]

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?

I guess I am the devil, as British breweries absolutely do dry hop, it is traditional and has been done for well over a century. And while the 15/5 minute homebrew additions might not be used in breweries, hops are frequently added to the hop back or whirlpool in breweries, beer dependent of course.

There does seem to be an under appreciation of a single addition at the start of the boil though in homebrew forums, eg the belief that there is no difference in flavour/aroma from this addition with different hops. Which is of course completely untrue, many great German beers for example have one addition and they have a great (if relatively subtle) noble hop aroma. Which would be completely different to one made with say citra.

Also worth considering that many homebrews suffer terribly from oxidation, so that delicate late hopping certainly gets destroyed in fairly short order

 

[matth]

I have always found dry hopping a bit of a pain in the ****, and a little disappointing (I have only recently started legging so that may change). I always hopstand for hoppy ales, and this last brew tried doing a hop tea rather than a dry hop, which itself was good and didn’t have a bag of hops dragged out of the beer to cause oxidation, but the added bonus was being able to have the used hop tea hops partially drained and reuse them. I used the last lost in split additions at 60 and 30, they still retained their bittering power and some flavour. I’m going to keep experimenting with this as to bin off the dry hops seems a bit of a waste, but I appreciate for all those closely following a style or a recipe this approach wouldn’t help you with the numbers as there is a different level of utilisation, but that’s what I’m trying to work out.

 

[Galena]

At the risk of summoning the devil it’s worth noting that UK breweries traditionally don’t dry hop

According to Wheeler and Protz (Brew your own Real Ale at Home 1993 edition)

The notes that I have been given state that Draught Bass is not dry-hopped. However, the Bass of old certainly was. You may like to try dry-hopping with a couple of cones of Northdown or Northern Brewer

 

[Clint]

A couple of cones...would that have been per keg?

 

[Covrich]

I do the occasional dry hop if it calls for it but tend do prefer late hop additions in boil 10 and 5 plus a 30 min hop stand @80ºc giving it a good stir around aswell. Although I have done both the hop stand and dry hop

I think there are a few things which can affect hop flavour from my expereince muslin bags and hop spiders can reduce it somewhat I find.. agitating a hop spider can help.

But Also yeast choice can make a big difference

 

[An Ankoù]

I've heard and read that some brewers add a hop tea, which, if I understand right is just hops soaked in boioled and cooled water and left overnight to make a tea, which is then strained into the beer. For those who do this, is it as good as dry hopping?

 

[An Ankoù]

Which book please?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-IPA-Sc...=1&keywords=the+new+ipa&qid=1617871505&sr=8-1

 

[smcc]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-IPA-Sc...1617872751&sprefix=the+new+ipa,aps,238&sr=8-1
this one, if you are into hoppy beers and want to improve your process and knowledge its a no brainer!

 

[matth]

I've heard and read that some brewers add a hop tea, which, if I understand right is just hops soaked in boioled and cooled water and left overnight to make a tea, which is then strained into the beer. For those who do this, is it as good as dry hopping?

I’ve only recently started this, I’m not sure anything can be gained from overnight it’ll you are using heated water. I use a standard bodum 1 litre cafetière, and boil the water and let it cool to 75 degrees c, then pour over the hops - give it a good stir, put the lid on - then leave for as long as I remember, usually over an hour, but less than overnight. I’ve found about 50grams of hops to be the maximum and possibly too much for full utilisation on that size cafetière

 

[An Ankoù]

I’ve only recently started this, I’m not sure anything can be gained from overnight it’ll you are using heated water. I use a standard bodum 1 litre cafetière, and boil the water and let it cool to 75 degrees c, then pour over the hops - give it a good stir, put the lid on - then leave for as long as I remember, usually over an hour, but less than overnight. I’ve found about 50grams of hops to be the maximum and possibly too much for full utilisation on that size cafetière

Does it taste the same as dry hopping?

 

[Braufather]

I noticed that hop aroma and flavour faded fast with dry hopped beers...until I started doing closed transfers. Now my hoppy beers taste the same to the last pint out of the keg.

how do you dry hop in a closed system? I was thinking of putting dry hops in a keg, purging it then closed transfer, to keg, then 3 days later rack again to another purged keg. But if a faff, so since I’ve gone to closed transfers I am actually dry hopping less.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I’ve only recently started this, I’m not sure anything can be gained from overnight it’ll you are using heated water. I use a standard bodum 1 litre cafetière, and boil the water and let it cool to 75 degrees c, then pour over the hops - give it a good stir, put the lid on - then leave for as long as I remember, usually over an hour, but less than overnight. I’ve found about 50grams of hops to be the maximum and possibly too much for full utilisation on that size cafetière

Do you add the hop tea to the primary or secondary fermenter?

 

[An Ankoù]

Do you add the hop tea to the primary or secondary fermenter?

I haven't tried it, as i said earlier, but logic would seem to dictate that it's added in the secondary to replace the aromas that have been driven off by the fizzing and farting of the primary fermentation. Otherwise a hop steep at <80C would be sufficient.
But I wonder if we are not expecting too much from dry hopping and "a couple of cones added to the batch" might, indeed be sufficient to freshen to hop flavour.

 

[Galena]

A couple of cones...would that have been per keg?

That was for a 23 litre final volume

 

[Covrich]

Do you add the hop tea to the primary or secondary fermenter?

I have done it before once or twice but I would add it at batch priming stage

 

[thegrantickle]

plus I got a few gushing bottles with dry hopping, other have noticed this too.

This is called Hop Creep. Essentially, hops contain some enzymes / cultures which can break down complex sugars in your beer, turning them into fermentable sugars, which the yeast then consumes and ferments. Simcoe is particularly bad (or good, depending how you look at it) for this. I have had it a number of times - recently I brewed a 'Pale Ale' which was meant to finish at 1013 but actually went all the way down to 1004 (7.1% rather than 5.3%). Which is fine, but it's a lot drier and boozier than I was intending it to be.

To avoid the bottle bombs, just leave it till the gravity has stopped dropping in the fermenter before bottling...