Should I Dry Hop My Bitters?

[matt76]

1. Should I be dry hopping my bitters?
2. What hops should i use? E.g. can I use more traditional British types like EKG, Fuggles etc. or is something you only do with modern trendy US hops like citra etc?
3. What amounts should i use brewing in mind it's a bitter not an IPA

I was drinking a bitter of mine the other day (see here - 21IBUs first gold for 60 mins and 8.5IBUs more at the end for 5 mins) and i thought it's good but it could do with a little more hoppiness - just a gentle touch, not a mega hoppy in your face IPA. How do i make that happen? I just want a little bit more of the hop flavour and aroma to come through - at the moment i feel like I'm mainly just getting bittering from the hops.

Also, i noted from the really good 1950s film in this thread they were dry hopping in the barrels, what I assume was a traditional bitter as opposed to a traditional English IPA.

I had assumed dry hopping was reserved just for IPAs but perhaps I'm completely mistaken about this???

GH has a number of bitters in his book but i don't think any of them are dry hopped.

Any advice to help my ongoing brewing education appreciated!

Cheers,

Matt

 

[MyQul]

Basically put, Its your beer so you can do whatever you like. But thats not very helpful though is it.

I guess it depends how 'traditional' you want to go. Some of the hops we have now would have been completely unavailable to the bitter brewer of yester-year but I have no doubt that they would have used them had they been able to get their hands on them.

As for dry hopping, putting them in the cask is a very traditional thing to do so I say go for it. Personally I like to not dry hop my bitters but do the late addition as a 10 and a 0 min addition. This gives plenty of hop flavour imo/to my tastes. I generally add 20g@10min and 20g@0min for a 10L batch. Scaling this up to 23L gives 38g@10min/0min but if I ever did a 23L batch Id probably round it up to 40g each just to make things even

 

[Drunkula]

I had assumed dry hopping was reserved just for IPAs but perhaps I'm completely mistaken about this???

Yeah, it's as old as the hills.

I normally start with 10g per gallon and then tweak it from there. With cascade/citra/columbus you really notice it but British hops need more so I'd happily put 100g of EKG in as a dry hop.

 

[matt76]

Thanks chaps

I get it that "traditional" hops like FG/EKG/Fuggles have roughly half the AAUs of Simcoe/Citra/Amarillo etc so you need to add more.

The bitter i mentioned started life as inspired by St Austell Tribute, though wasn't intended to be a clone. That said I note the clone recipes call for a load of Styrian Goldings at flame out so in hindsight perhaps there's a hint there

 

[Horners]

1. Should I be dry hopping my bitters?
2. What hops should i use? E.g. can I use more traditional British types like EKG, Fuggles etc. or is something you only do with modern trendy US hops like citra etc?
3. What amounts should i use brewing in mind it's a bitter not an IPA

I was drinking a bitter of mine the other day (see here - 21IBUs first gold for 60 mins and 8.5IBUs more at the end for 5 mins) and i thought it's good but it could do with a little more hoppiness - just a gentle touch, not a mega hoppy in your face IPA. How do i make that happen? I just want a little bit more of the hop flavour and aroma to come through - at the moment i feel like I'm mainly just getting bittering from the hops.

Also, i noted from the really good 1950s film in this thread they were dry hopping in the barrels, what I assume was a traditional bitter as opposed to a traditional English IPA.

I had assumed dry hopping was reserved just for IPAs but perhaps I'm completely mistaken about this???

GH has a number of bitters in his book but i don't think any of them are dry hopped.

Any advice to help my ongoing brewing education appreciated!

Cheers,

Matt

In the Wheeler book there are quite a few bitters here he suggests bunging a handful of cones in the cask. Certainly the Youngs Special - cant remember which hops the DH were but they werent EKG or fuggles. Tasted amazing, I will check notes later.

 

[Sandimas]

In the Wheeler book there are quite a few bitters here he suggests bunging a handful of cones in the cask.

He suggests some Styrian Goldings in Old Peculier - I've done it with and without, and with is definitely better.

Styrian Goldings is my go-to dry hop for British bitters, 10g for a subtle aroma 20-30g for a bit more.

 

[Horners]

In the Wheeler book there are quite a few bitters here he suggests bunging a handful of cones in the cask. Certainly the Youngs Special - cant remember which hops the DH were but they werent EKG or fuggles. Tasted amazing, I will check notes later.

50g of Target pellets was the dryhop in the Youngs Special

 

[Hoppyland]

I get it that "traditional" hops like FG/EKG/Fuggles have roughly half the AAUs of Simcoe/Citra/Amarillo etc so you need to add more.

Nope. Dry hops add no bitterness to the beer (you need heat to develop that), but are there for aroma. This is why Brewdog can get away with ultra-large additions of high AA hops to things like Punk IPA without making it undrinkably bitter. For a traditional tasting English Bitter you should definitely use traditional English hops - as much as suits your taste. But, it's your beer, so add as much of whatever hops you like the taste (or smell) of

 

[Zephyr259]

Along similar lines to MyQul my bitters and English pales get 2 - 3 hops additions in the last 15 mins generally around 35g - 50g in 15L using hops like First Gold, EKG and Saaz.

I recently did a clone of Orkney Corncrake with/for a friend and finally got to taste it last night. 25g of Styrian Goldings at 15 min, 25g at 5 min and 50g at flameout for a 15 min hop stand (while everything settles so the Grainfather pump doesn't choke), this has a pretty big hop character but very pleasant compared to the in your face nature of US hops. I had considered a dry hop too but decided to avoid it to aid bottling as the kit he had blocked the bottling stick with dry hops.

 

[matt76]

Thanks all for the suggestions, much appreciated ;

(apologies for not responding sooner, been away for work)

Will put these ideas into practice in upcoming brews. I notice there have been a couple of similar posts recently so clearly something folks still find a bit mysterious!

Cheers,

Matt