Dry hopping with Pellets = Very Bitter!?

[Unkle77]

I recently did a Vermont style IPA with all pellet hops. After the primary fermentation I racked the beer and added some more pellet hops for another week.

The taste after the primary fermentation was possibly a bit sweet but had the right bitterness and was cloudy as expected.

After the additional dry hopping stage the beer became unbearably bitter!

Does anyone know how this could have happened? Is it from the dust of the dry hop additions being left suspended in the beer? As from my understanding there should be no alpha acid extraction at 18c.

 

[stz]

Hop burn is a flavour some people like, but comes from having literal bits of hop pellet in suspension. I consider it a flaw resulting from inadequate settlement time and/or packaging. Usually it'll settle out in keg and the beer will be better for it. But honestly, some people like that flavour and think it is the sign of a super fresh IPA.

 

[Ghillie]

It is common for dry hops to come across bitter, certainly in the very early stages. Over a matter of days in a keg, it will subside. Likewise if bottle conditioning, the perceived bitterness will be all but gone at the two week mark.

 

[Druncan]

My strong HLME IPA (6.5%) 23l has an additional 100g Falconers Flight dry hop pellets in a bag in @ 1.0015 and finish 1.005 rather than just time. I wring the fook out of the bag to get max flavour. However, I leave then all my beers a month in the keg. No additional clarification as I cold crash @ 2/6*C for 1 week. It works.

 

[strange-steve]

Dry hopping can definitely increase perception of bitterness, as well as change the quality of the bitterness, making it seem more harsh or lingering. This is more to do with polyphenol extraction rather than alpha acids, this is what is sometimes called hop bite. What sort of hops were they out of interest?

 

[Unkle77]

I've done a bit of an experiment, we had some of the beer in a 5ltr keg so I cold crashed it. This did not clear the cloudiness of the beer and the sample I took was the same bitterness.

I since added kwikclear finnings, this removed all the suspended particles and has left a clear beer, however it still has the same bitterness. This is now a few months after the brew.

 

[Unkle77]

Dry hopping can definitely increase perception of bitterness, as well as change the quality of the bitterness, making it seem more harsh or lingering. This is more to do with polyphenol extraction rather than alpha acids, this is what is sometimes called hop bite. What sort of hops were they out of interest?

They were Citra, Mosaic and Amarillo