Favourite British hop for dry hopping

cheshirehomebrew · Jun 25, 2019

I replace the 5 day hops for fresh ones, generally I use leaf hops as they don't disintegrate and get through the material I use. As for the grassy note I have no idea, others on here will do though

GerritT · Jun 25, 2019

Did anyone here EVER experience the grassy taste?
Starts to sound like a myth.

Hoddy · Jun 25, 2019

Just stop the messing about and dry hop it with 100g of English grown cascade if you hell bent on "English hops". Assuming at your volumes you get circa 14g-16g/l. If not add more......

You'll thank me later.

An Ankoù · Jun 25, 2019

GerritT said:
Did anyone here EVER experience the grassy taste?
Starts to sound like a myth.

Absolutely. Got a few bottle of Wychwood Hobgoblin IPA 5.4% and the dominant hop flavour is what I would call "grassy".
It may be that some perceive this flavour in a different way than others. The "grassiest" beer I ever made was when I dry-hopped something with cascade pellets. I've never used cascade in dry hopping since. Finished all the beer though!
My favourite English late and dry hop is First Gold. Has anyone else tried this one?

Malt Muncher · Jun 25, 2019

Hoddy said:
Just stop the messing about and dry hop it with 100g of English grown cascade if you hell bent on "English hops". Assuming at your volumes you get circa 14g-16g/l. If not add more......

You'll thank me later.

I dunno, seems like a lot! I've no fear of dumping huge amounts of american or oz hops in, but I made an IPA using all EKG and all I got was grass. That did have 60g at 10mins, 45g at flameout and 45g dry hop tho, so I think that was overdoing it. I think I need to scale back to avoid the grass, so next time I'll just do 25g at 10 mins and 25g dry hop.

Malt Muncher · Jun 25, 2019

An Ankoù said:
Absolutely. Got a few bottle of Wychwood Hobgoblin IPA 5.4% and the dominant hop flavour is what I would call "grassy".
It may be that some perceive this flavour in a different way than others. The "grassiest" beer I ever made was when I dry-hopped something with cascade pellets. I've never used cascade in dry hopping since. Finished all the beer though!
My favourite English late and dry hop is First Gold. Has anyone else tried this one?

I'll be using first gold on my next attempt at an English IPA, I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks!

terrym · Jun 25, 2019

An Ankoù said:
My favourite English late and dry hop is First Gold. Has anyone else tried this one?

I like this hop too and I have two Prima Donna (alias First Gold ) dwarf hops in pots in the garden as do others on here including @Dutto at his place in La Belle France (from what I understand), so if you talk to him nicely I'm sure he could provide you with the odd rhizome or two wink...

Dutto · Jun 26, 2019

terrym said:
I like this hop too and I have two Prima Donna (alias First Gold ) dwarf hops in pots in the garden as do others on here including @Dutto at his place in La Belle France (from what I understand), so if you talk to him nicely I'm sure he could provide you with the odd rhizome or two

As @An Ankoù only lives just up the road he knows where the Prima Donna is ...

... the only problem being that after nearly THREE YEARS I am still waiting to a see a single flower!

It there's nothing showing by this October, the two of us will definitely be looking at splitting up the rhizome in the hope that another hop plant will be able to fertilise it. (It would be just my luck to carry the only infertile Hop Plant in existence all the way over to France!)

terrym · Jun 26, 2019

Dutto said:
As @An Ankoù only lives just up the road he knows where the Prima Donna is ...

... the only problem being that after nearly THREE YEARS I am still waiting to a see a single flower!

It there's nothing showing by this October, the two of us will definitely be looking at splitting up the rhizome in the hope that another hop plant will be able to fertilise it. (It would be just my luck to carry the only infertile Hop Plant in existence all the way over to France!)

Are you sure its female plant which, as far as I know, is more likely to produce cones?

Dutto · Jun 26, 2019

terrym said:
Are you sure its female plant which, as far as I know, is more likely to produce cones?

The original rhizome cost me £15 and came from a reputable supplier so I hoped it would do well.

After two years of disappointment, this year I should be there at "Harvest Time" (September & October) so I should find out whether it is producing any cones.

In 2017 it took off like a train in virgin soil, in 2018 I mulched in a load of seasoned compost and earlier this year I fed it a load of nutrients and rearranged the trellis arrangement to encourage it along the fence.

When we left France in May it was looking good. I had pruned back all but five shoots that were already climbing up the trellis, so I'm still hopeful that it will produce some cones this year!

MagnusTS · Jun 26, 2019

Malt Muncher said:
Anyone ever used first gold for dry hopping? I've got a bunch lying around and wondering if they'd work well

I've used First Gold as a dry hop a few times, I love it. Really nice spicy marmalade kind of flavour

Hoppyland · Jun 27, 2019

GerritT said:
Did anyone here EVER experience the grassy taste?
Starts to sound like a myth.

Well, as far as I'm concerned this could be similar to "homebrew twang".
After drinking and brewing beers for over 40 years, I haven't the remotest clue what either of these "things" are.
I regularly hop my beers with (for 25l) 100g of late addition and another 100g of dry hops. To me, they taste like hops. OK, at this hopping level I'm talking Amarillo, Simcoe, Mosaic, Motueka, Citra.... But I also brew what I think are rather hoppy "Trad English" beers, so I use EKG or Fuggle. Lots of them.
I've never tasted a beer that I thought was "grassy". Could be a shame - I love the smell of freshly-mown grass, and I could imagine it really going well with a light-bodied beer.

Alex.mc · Jun 28, 2019

Regarding Fuggles, Last year I was fortunate to get to try some wet hopped golden ale brewed with Fuggles straight off the Bine. It was really nice, notably floral and the Mint note was very pleasant.
I liked it so much I've planted a Fuggles bine in my garden so hoepfully in a year or 2 I can have a go at wet hopping.

GerritT · Jun 28, 2019

Alex.mc said:
Regarding Fuggles, Last year I was fortunate to get to try some wet hopped golden ale brewed with Fuggles straight off the Bine. It was really nice, notably floral and the Mint note was very pleasant.
I liked it so much I've planted a Fuggles bine in my garden so hoepfully in a year or 2 I can have a go at wet hopping.

In a few years EVERY NEIGHBOUR can have a go! It grows an inch per day in this weather and not much slower underground! Reason why the missus only allows me to grow in big pots.

Alex.mc · Jun 28, 2019

GerritT said:
In a few years EVERY NEIGHBOUR can have a go! It grows an inch per day in this weather and not much slower underground! Reason why the missus only allows me to grow in big pots.

You're not wrong!! I noticed a couple of weeks back it was growing strongly and marked the second growing shoot's point on the cane it was going up before the string. 24 hours later it had grown more than 1.5 inches!

An Ankoù · Jun 28, 2019

GerritT said:
In a few years EVERY NEIGHBOUR can have a go! It grows an inch per day in this weather and not much slower underground! Reason why the missus only allows me to grow in big pots.

You might even get a crop this year.
Last year I planted a cascade, a centennial and a challenger. Got a crop enough from the centennial and the cascade for a late hop addition and hop stand in 5 gallons of each. The Centennial made a gorgeous perfumed beer. The fragrance desn't last forever, though, six months is stretching it.

Dutto · Jun 28, 2019

To all that have successfully grown what is apparently a "weed" I say ...

"You are unmitigated swine for boasting about it!"

Malt Muncher · Jun 29, 2019

Hoppyland said:
Well, as far as I'm concerned this could be similar to "homebrew twang".
After drinking and brewing beers for over 40 years, I haven't the remotest clue what either of these "things" are.
I regularly hop my beers with (for 25l) 100g of late addition and another 100g of dry hops. To me, they taste like hops. OK, at this hopping level I'm talking Amarillo, Simcoe, Mosaic, Motueka, Citra.... But I also brew what I think are rather hoppy "Trad English" beers, so I use EKG or Fuggle. Lots of them.
I've never tasted a beer that I thought was "grassy". Could be a shame - I love the smell of freshly-mown grass, and I could imagine it really going well with a light-bodied beer.

American hops seem to be different, I never get the grass even when I throw in ridiculous amounts. If you want a real grassy hop, you can try dry hopping with a few oz of Boadicea. Super grassy! Not totally unpleasant, just not what I'm looking for.

After reading Graham Wheeler's "CAMRA's Brew your own British real ale" I noticed that all the recipes have a LOT less hops than I was putting in, so now I'm thinking that when it comes to English hops, maybe less is more. I'll need to experiment for a while and figure this out I think.

GotOneBrewin · Aug 10, 2019

Malt Muncher said:
I'll be using first gold on my next attempt at an English IPA, I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks!

How did it turn out?

Favourite British hop for dry hopping

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