Dry hop a Pilsner

[Ray1314]

Anyone have any success in dry hopping a Pilsner in the keg? I have way more Pilsner than I want to drink, and was hoping I could turn it into more of an APA tasting beer.

I was thinking about maybe adding Citra or Amarillo but worried I’d just be ruining a perfectly good lager and wasting 100g of hops!

 

[Dave 666]

I'm far from an expert, but really love dry hopped ales. And if it turns out anything close to the aldi small (330ml) dry hopped lager then you could be onto a winner.

I really want to try dry hopping again myself, but after a ruined brew last year with 150g ish of dry hopping going to waste as I look to have either introduced an infection by opening the lid off the fv or used unclean hops I'm rather reluctant to try again using the same process.

But as I'm trying fermentation in the pressure barrel soon I might give it another go as it's a single opening and that is that. Though what process would you use to dry hop in the keg if you don't mind me asking?. As I guess it's after fermentation has fully completed and simply adding the hope during the conditioning stage?. In which case how do you plan to extract the hope afterwards?.

 

[MrRook]

Anyone have any success in dry hopping a Pilsner in the keg? I have way more Pilsner than I want to drink, and was hoping I could turn it into more of an APA tasting beer.

I was thinking about maybe adding Citra or Amarillo but worried I’d just be ruining a perfectly good lager and wasting 100g of hops!

What hop did you bitter with?

 

[Ray1314]

What hop did you bitter with?

Bittered with Magnum, also has a 5 min addition of Hallertauer Mittlefrueh.

 

[Ray1314]

I'm far from an expert, but really love dry hopped ales. And if it turns out anything close to the aldi small (330ml) dry hopped lager then you could be onto a winner.

I really want to try dry hopping again myself, but after a ruined brew last year with 150g ish of dry hopping going to waste as I look to have either introduced an infection by opening the lid off the fv or used unclean hops I'm rather reluctant to try again using the same process.

But as I'm trying fermentation in the pressure barrel soon I might give it another go as it's a single opening and that is that. Though what process would you use to dry hop in the keg if you don't mind me asking?. As I guess it's after fermentation has fully completed and simply adding the hope during the conditioning stage?. In which case how do you plan to extract the hope afterwards?.

The beer is already properly lagered and carbonated, my plan was to throw in a hop sock with 100g of citrusy hops, weighed down. I'd just be leaving it in there whilst I drink the keg so don't have to worry about how to remove the hops.

 

[An Ankoù]

Never tried dry hopping a Pilsner, but might give it a go during the diacetyl rest when I make my next one. By the way, I find my Pilsners come into their best after 6 months or more and they're just as good twelve months or more after bottling. So you could just bottle it to free up your keg and then drink it when you fancy one.
I certainly wouldn't dry hop the beer at lager temperature, nor would I leave them in there for an extended period.

 

[Ray1314]

Never tried dry hopping a Pilsner, but might give it a go during the diacetyl rest when I make my next one. By the way, I find my Pilsners come into their best after 6 months or more and they're just as good twelve months or more after bottling. So you could just bottle it to free up your keg and then drink it when you fancy one.
I certainly wouldn't dry hop the beer at lager temperature, nor would I leave them in there for an extended period.

Thanks for the advice, definitely worth considering just bottling it.

 

[matt76]

Adnams do a Galaxy dry-hopped lager - I believe @foxbat is currently brewing something inspired by that, though I'm not sure he plans to dry hop it.

There's also Camden Show Off which is a really hoppy lager or Intensely Hopped Lager (IHL). I've had it though I didn't do a back to back comparison with anything - from memory, sure, nice enough if you like hoppy APAs & AIPAs though there comes a point when it's so hoppy that you have to ask why not just make it with an ale yeast and call it an APA/AIPA.

Personally though I'd say go for it and report back - I appreciate you're not in a position to split it now, but I might be inclined to keep half normal and dry hop the other half for comparison.

Good luck

 

[Ray1314]

I'm leaning towards your suggestion matt76. I wanted to compare Weyermann premium pilsner malt with their Barke pilsner malt so made 2 identical 23L batches. Now I'm left with a full keg, and an almost full keg of pilsner. Thinking 50g Citra, 50g Amarillo and 50g Summit.

 

[MrRook]

Bittered with Magnum, also has a 5 min addition of Hallertauer Mittlefrueh.

I dry hopped my last pilsner with mittlefruh.

 

[Ray1314]

I dry hopped my last pilsner with mittlefruh.

Interesting, do you think it improved your standard Pilsner?

 

[MrRook]

Interesting, do you think it improved your standard Pilsner?

Yes it did what I wanted it to. It was a small dry hop to add just a bit more flavor and aroma.

 

[terrym]

I added hops to several Coopers Euro lagers and Pilsners I did using, separately, Saaz (40g dry hops), Hallertau( 25g hop teas with both the tea and hops into FV) and Motueka (40g dry hop). I felt that in each case I would not have wanted to have used any more hops or it would have been too much for me to suit the style. The Hallertau hop tea was definitely the most noticeable. My favourite was probably the Motueka.

 

[Ray1314]

Small update - I added 6ml of Citra hop aroma oil to a traditional Pilsner that had been in the keg forva couple of months. Result was uninspiring. Perhaps a little change in flavour, although I'm not sure if youd call it an improvement.

 

[labrewski]

I done a coopers 86 day pilsner in fv for 26 days dry hopped with hallerteur 50g for 3 days transferred to another fv for 2 days bottled 2 weeks later had a very tasty pint I would describe it as a mild fruity ale very easy and drinkable I like strong flavour ipa so it did well not to disappoint me