Voss

[Dorst]

Pellets in a dry-hop end up in suspension. When you drink a beer with still a lot of hop in suspension it creates a harsh bitterness that also coats the tongue (gets a bit raspy and numb). A beer can have a really low calculated IBU but still taste sharply bitter this way.

A good cool crash/rest will make the dry-hop fall out of suspension. If you cool crash at ambient temperatures it might need a bit more time to fully fall out of suspension. Also sampling the beer at packaging increases the chance of there still being some hop in suspension. Could this be the case?

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

It's had a cold crash in the fridge at 3.5c for three days, then transferred to the storage vessel. Do you think this is enough? It might be different once carbonated. However it does need more vanilla which may also help but I am waiting until it's carbonated first in case I overdo it.

 

[The Baron]

As you know Lisa the initial bitterness will subside a bit with a couple of weeks maturation to help things along a little

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

To be honest it needs to be started on by the weekend cos at that point we will be running very low or completely out.

Dorst could be right that now the stuff has dropped out, it might not be as bad.

 

[Dorst]

Pellets in a dry-hop end up in suspension. When you drink a beer with still a lot of hop in suspension it creates a harsh bitterness that also coats the tongue (gets a bit raspy and numb). A beer can have a really low calculated IBU but still taste sharply bitter this way.

A good cool crash/rest will make the dry-hop fall out of suspension. If you cool crash at ambient temperatures it might need a bit more time to fully fall out of suspension. Also sampling the beer at packaging increases the chance of there still being some hop in suspension. Could this be the case?

3 days should definitely be enough in my experience. I think that you can tell quite easily what kind of bitterness it is by sampling it. Unexpected bitterness from a beer that's only supposed to have 23 IBU can most likely be traced back to a hop stand or dry hop.

I think that the baron's suggestion makes a lot of sense (let it sit for a bit), but I understand that this is not an option. I hope 5 days is enough time to mellow out.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

We will drink it anyway ha ha!

 

[The Baron]

5 days will help it deffo

 

[Kinneuchar]

I’m still experimenting but I’ve found that using a 20g lupomax teabag (Mosaic, Citra or Amarillo) works best for me. I just throw it into a corny keg before packaging and I then purge with CO2.

The concentrated lupomax hop pellets have less vegetal material so the taste is not grassy. At least for me that is!

In order to test how the keg hopping experiments are going, I use the teabag method in one corny keg and I use a 5L mini keg for the rest of my 23L batch without any hops.

So far, I’ve only had one brew which tasted better in the 5L than the corny. It was a heavily dry hopped IPA and the 5L version was lovely and sweet whilst the beer in the corny keg had a heavy hop aroma (old school IPA flavour) and was not as sweet.

I haven’t used a screened hop tube nor normal dry hop pellets yet which I fear could be a bit grassy. But I might give it a try because I’ve read that Cascade and Azacca are best used cold side but I can’t find them in lupomax form…

Hi, sorry hope Im not hijacking this thread, but I'm about to give the 5ltr mini kegs a go and wondered about the dry hopping regime. My preference would be leaf hops using the "tea bag" method but no idea on shelf life. My idea is to buy one of those klarstien machines in order to serve chilled homebrew from mini kegs. Any help/tips greatly appreciiated.

 

[fgoulding]

If you’re talking about keg hopping, then the using a hop bag (as a teabag) should work. I don‘t have a lot of experience with leaf hops, so maybe someone can help with how much to use.

As for shelf life, my 5ltr mini kegs don’t stick around too long for that to be an issue