Dry Hopping

[mrobinson]

Hi,

I've currently got a Thomas Coopers IPA kit fermenting and I've got some Galaxy and Amarillo hop pellets coming in a few days. From memory, I think the TC IPA is not at all hoppy, like every other kit I've tried.

I really like strong hoppy flavours in beer, and so from what I've read, I want to put 3 or 4 oz of hops in the secondary for a few days.

My plan, until somebody tells me any better, is to put maybe 1.5oz of each in the secondary during the transfer and leave for 5 days before kegging ( force carb in a cornie ).

This is my first time dry hopping. I've read that these two hops compliment each other well and I know I like galaxy ( I've had it in commercial beers before ).

Does anybody have any thoughts on the amounts, ratio, time, or anything else that I haven't considered?

 

[BeestonHop_John]

hi - I had to use an online converter, as I'm a gram-man, not oz...
But, yes this seems about right to me. I have dry hopped with up to 100g of pellets, so what you're proposing (circa 88g, if the conversion is right) looks pretty good to me. And 5 days will give you a good aroma.
Let us know how you get on with it.

 

[mrobinson]

I've just done the transfer and added 50g of each ( Amarillo & Galaxy ) as they were both in 100g bags.

I intend to keg + force carb on Friday dinner ( 1pm, ish ), put it in the shed to cool for the afternoon and taste it on Friday night. I'll update again then. :drink:

 

[mrobinson]

I've been drinking this all weekend. It's perfectly drinkable, but it's not great. I noticed that the aroma was much stronger than the flavour, and it's more bitter than I'd hoped.

This week I'm going to start a cheap Geordie Bitter kit that I've had around for a while, and I'll try that one with a hop-tea. I think this makes more sense for experimenting anyway, as I can start off weak and add more until I get it right. Easy in a cornie, because force carbonation means I can test straight away.

 

[clibit]

You can only do so much with dry hopping and hop teas I think. Dry hopping is great for aroma. Hop teas I'm still unsure about, I've done a few but I'm not sure it does what I want. Probably down to steeping in just water. I am tending now to use my hops late in the boil, or after the heat is switched off, in the hot wort. And then dry hopping beers when i want that dry hop aroma-hit.

If you want to up the hoppiness of a kit, and add to the hop flavour, I reckon you need to boil hops for 5 to 15 minutes - maybe some for 15, and some for 5, in wort. You could add some DME to boiling water and boil the hops in it. And perhaps dry hop as well, if you want the in-your-face aroma hit.

 

[mrobinson]

Thanks, I'll give that a go. I'm not overly fussed about aroma, more about flavour. Adding just for aroma seems like a waste of perfectly good hops.

 

[clibit]

It certainly uses a lot of hops, and I don't often dry hop myself now, but a big aroma hit of your favourite hop is undeniably wonderful.

I reckon your answer is the short boil with malt extract, the standard way to brew beer is to add hops at the start of a 60 minute boil to bitter the beer, and then within the last 15 minutes to flavour it. Try 15 and 5. It works.

 

[mrobinson]

I've done all grain before, I was just looking for a shortcut to go with the kit because I'm lazy.

I did what you suggested on Monday night. I went with 55g of Amarillo (as that's what I had in) for 15 minutes. It smells good in the fermenter.

I might play with aroma in the future, but I'm experimenting with flavour for now.

 

[clibit]

Cough. 55g is a lot to boil for 15 minutes - it will increase the bitterness. Large amounts of hops are a dry hop thing, I hope your beer isn't too bitter. 5 minutes would be ok. Did you cool the wort quickly after the boil, or get the hops out quickly?

 

[mrobinson]

I got them out straight after the boil by pouring the pan through a sieve, into the fermenter. Adding cold water got it straight down to 18'c.

It didn't occur to me to look up a reasonable quantity of hops for a boil - I assumed that because that was a reasonable amount for dry hopping, it would be ok for boiling too.

 

[clibit]

It will be more bitter than it would have been, Amarillo tend to be around 9% alpha acids - but hopefully not too bitter, and time will subdue it too.

 

[mrobinson]

It tastes amazing btw.

 

[clibit]

Result! You like your hops don't you?

 

[mrobinson]

I do, but I didn't think this was *that* strong, but it wasn't subtle either.