Dry hopping

[kakistos_uk]

Me again!

I'm about to dry hop two beers and wanted some advice.

I have a Coopers pilsner which is 2.5 months old. I've got 100g hallertau hops and was going to add 40-50g for around 5 days - does this sound okay? I want flavour, not bitterness.

My question is, after removing the hops and bottling - how much further should I leave it? I've read the hops start to decline after a while? Homebrew improves with age so should I wait another and THEN hop it?

Happy homebrewing (and new year)!

:grin:

 

[GerritT]

Greg Hughes advises to remove the hops after about a week, to avoid a potential unwanted 'grassy' aroma, so 5 days sounds good.
Funny now you mention it: indeed I heard 2 different opinions. 'Leave beer to let it become better', and 'Drink hoppy beers as fresh as possible'. Perhaps some of the seniors have something to say about this.

 

[Lambais]

For hoppy beers, the best is drinking as much fresh as possible, otherwise you may lose the hop aroma... Some styles will have benefits with aging, such as RIS, Belgian Quad, Wee Heavy, etc. where the time will allow to the beers to keep improving by a bio-transformation (not sure whether this is the correct therminology in English)...

Regarding the DH, yes 5 days will be enough for a good result, more than this you have the risk of the grassy off-flavor.

Cheers!

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[terrym]

First, dry hopping is more about hop aroma rather than flavour. Using a hop tea is more about flavour than aroma.
Try this for dry hopping.
A Newbies Guide to Dry Hopping Your Beer - The HomeBrew Forum
You will need to leave your beer to allow it finish fermenting before you add the hops or the CO2 will strip out the volatile aroma oils. I normally leave my beers at least 10 days before I add the hops.
The quantity of hops to add depends on a number of factors, including the style of beer, the hops being used, and your personal taste. After you have dry hopped a few brews you will find out what suits you best. My start point is 50g.
Also pellets are better for dry hopping rather than whole hops since they present a greater area for the beer to extract the hop goodness.
You will then need to decide how you add the hops. Either chuck em in or in a nylon or muslin bag. Personally I think nylon mesh is better than muslin because it doesn't wet unlike muslin. Anyway I chuck em in and use a small nylon sock over the end of the inlet to the siphon tube.
I usually leave my hops in for six days, four days at fermenting temperature, and then two days in the cold which finishes the yeast drop and also encouarges the hops to drop if they are not in a bag.
Finally the effect of a dry hop does tail off. I reckon its nearly gone after about four months although that is dependant on the hop type and the quantity used.
If you want to go the hop tea route add cooled boiled water at about 85*C to your hops and leave to cool to about 20*C. I work on 100ml water for every 10g hop pellets. Less water and it forms a thick sludge and more and it starts to dilute your brew. And although some people filter out the hop bits before adding the liquid to the brew I chuck everything in.

 

[kakistos_uk]

For hoppy beers, the best is drinking as much fresh as possible, otherwise you may lose the hop aroma... Some styles will have benefits with aging, such as RIS, Belgian Quad, Wee Heavy, etc. where the time will allow to the beers to keep improving by a bio-transformation (not sure whether this is the correct therminology in English)...

Regarding the DH, yes 5 days will be enough for a good result, more than this you have the risk of the grassy off-flavor.

Cheers!

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Thank you for the response - the 2nd one I have to hop is a wee heavy. It is only 6 weeks old. I was going to leave it 3 months before bottling. Should I dry hop it earlier or wait and then dry hop? It's my first attempt with the style.

 

[Lambais]

Thank you for the response - the 2nd one I have to hop is a wee heavy. It is only 6 weeks old. I was going to leave it 3 months before bottling. Should I dry hop it earlier or wait and then dry hop? It's my first attempt with the style.

Hi kakistos, do you really want to make a dh on a Wee Heavy? It will run out of style, but obviously you can do it if you want to try new stuffs (that's the best part of being a homebrewer) :)

If you want a classic Wee Heavy, you don't need make a DH on it.

Cheers

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[Lambais]

Hi kakistos, do you really want to make a dh on a Wee Heavy? It will run out of style, but obviously you can do it if you want to try new stuffs (that's the best part of being a homebrewer) :)

If you want a classic Wee Heavy, you don't need make a DH on it.

Cheers

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