Dry hopping - when, for how long and how ?

[joe1002]

Thanks SC, think I'll try leaving the hops in the cornie, although they may not be in there for 2-3 months :whistle:

 

[abeyptfc]

just watch when dry hopping with pellets in the fermenter, I ended up with this!
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=36364&hilit=**** I was an awesome beer but I still ended up with a bit of hop debris in the bottle after racking it off from the fv to the bottling bucket. it was helluva cloudy and had quite an oily aftertaste, I probably overdone the hopping as I'm a hophead! :

 

[joe1002]

I always use whole hops in a muslin bag. I do wonder though whether that restricts the amount of aroma released into the beer?

 

[NickW]

I always use whole hops in a muslin bag. I do wonder though whether that restricts the amount of aroma released into the beer?

+1 - does this significantly restrict the amount of aroma released.?

 

[RobWalker]

Tell you what, that would make sense. My muslin bag always stinks of hops after dry hopping, but the beer leaves a little something to be desired...

 

[joe1002]

It's worth an experiment at some point I think :thumb:

 

[phettebs]

I have heard the "grassy" myth too. I've never experienced it. I had one keg of IPA that had hops for 4 months! Now, to be fair, it was Cascade and Centennial. I've never done it with English hops. I should try that. :-)

 

[NickW]

Tell you what, that would make sense. My muslin bag always stinks of hops after dry hopping, but the beer leaves a little something to be desired...

I was always under the impression that my leafy floaty hops on the surface wouldn't impart half as much aroma dueto not being submerged :hmm:

 

[RobWalker]

I have heard the "grassy" myth too. I've never experienced it. I had one keg of IPA that had hops for 4 months! Now, to be fair, it was Cascade and Centennial. I've never done it with English hops. I should try that. :-)

I found no grassy flavours when dry hopping cold, but plenty when dry hopping warm that wore off in 2 weeks. apparently the cool will also slow down the dry hopping process (again, an apparently) - so its a bit of swings and roundabouts there!

 

[alanywiseman.]

Here is my two cents. Dry hopping with whole hops I will blend the hops in a food processor this will increase the surface area exposed to the beer. I avoid the musilin bag because this will restrict the amount of beer that actually get exposed to the beer as the hop cones are in contact with each other and not in touch with the beer. I am still to try and dry hop with pellet but I do not see why it would be a problem.

With regards to when I always go post fermentation and leave them till the beer is smelling and tasting how I want it then rack it off the hops. The time for me is not an exact science.

As well as useing pellets I want to try double dry hopping. So instead of dumping all the hops in at once I will dump 50% of the hops then wait about 3 days then dump the remaining hops in. I have read and heard that this gives a brighter hop aroma and flavour.