How long is too long to dry hop?

Brewed a Zombie dust clone back in October. I gave it three weeks to finish fermenting and then dry hopped and promptly got so busy I haven't bottled or kegged. So that's 6+ weeks of dry hopping. How is this going to effect my beer?

I've only done 5-7 days in my experience with it, but I've heard of people dry-hopping up to 2 weeks. Not sure at what point the grassiness starts to appear.

As stated, you will get a sort of vegetal taste from sitting on the hops too long, but also the hop flavor/aroma/bitterness will start to slide off if they sit too long. One thing I have noticed about homebrew (or perhaps it is just the hops that I am getting) is that the alpha will start to fade off faster than most commercial brews.

That is probably more closely related to quality of ingredients though, I would imagine.

I really didn't intend to go this long, it just kinda happened. I have always gone 7-10 days in the past, but this autumn/winter have gotten a bit out of hand.

I guess I'll be ready for a grassy Zombie Dust clone...

muthafuggle said:

I really didn't intend to go this long, it just kinda happened. I have always gone 7-10 days in the past, but this autumn/winter have gotten a bit out of hand.

I guess I'll be ready for a grassy Zombie Dust clone...

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You could always sample it now and let us know.:cross:

unionrdr said:

Zombie's in my grass ale? High Plains Zombie? Grasslands Zombie? Thought of a few names for ya just in case...

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I split the batch with half using Notty and the other S-04. I was going to call them Nottie Zombie Punch and Zomb Potion #4, but High Plains Zombie is sounding good about now...

I'll get off my lazy a$$ tomorrow and taste 'em and report my findings.:fro:

I dry hop for two weeks with no issue. I've heard Russian river goes for three weeks.

I dry-hopped an amber ale for 56 days once and I thought it came out fine. of course, it wasn't the plan originally (son was born early and had to be in NICU for 3 weeks) but it still made a very drinkable beer. I believe it was only an ounce of cascade though. FWIW I usually shoot for 10-14 days for dry hopping.

I just dry hopped a RIS with 3 ounces of hops for a month and it was amazing, no grass at all. I don't think the grassy-ness people are getting is coming from the amount of time the hops are in.

Okay, I tasted and bottled today. Maybe it's the citra hops, but I'm getting NO vegetal or grassy flavors at all. Actually, I am pretty impressed with myself, cause this is a hellufa beer!

As far as the split batch goes, (one Nottingham and one whitbread fermentation) they both ended up around 1.010, the Notty dropped more brite than the S-04. The Nottingham has more "high end" brassy bitter top notes, but the S-04 has a better finish and I think it would be easier to drink more than one.

The continuous hopping and FWH left a smooth, significant, complex bitterness with great taste and aroma. The Notty has more aroma, the S-04 has less aroma, but more hops taste.

I wouldn't worry about it. Neither would I plan on dry hopping for that long on purpose, but it won't automatically make it grassy.

I dry hopped an 8.5% Belgian IPA with a sh*t-ton of hops once for 5 and a half weeks inadvertently (due to my daughter being born) with no grassy, vegetal, or otherwise undesirable flavors. I'm sure I may have lost some of the dry hopped intensity, but aside from that there were no issues.

I brewed Ed Wort's IPA, which I bottled this past Saturday. Dry hopped for more than I intended...ended up going for 17 days. Tasted and it was delicious, though I can't say that I'm crazy about the Cascades. I used cascade for aroma/flavor/DH and although it tasted really good it didn't have the complexity of the centennial's i used the first time. We shall see after carbing...hoping it'll be ready for christmas day.

This just happened to me last week. I brewed an IPA back in August, dry hopped after 2 weeks in primary, and then got caught up with other stuff and just left it. Eventually I just figured it was ruined/infected so I left it, but after reading the thread on infected beers I got the courage to go taste it. It was awesome except almost all of the hop flavor was gone. I added another 2 oz. of Cascade and am bottling tomorrow.

Circumstances have forced me to dry hop for longer than intended before too. While the beer was not the same as it was with my normal 7 to 10 day dry hop, the beer was fine. The grassy vegetal flavor replies come up every time this subject does.

Sorry to bring this topic back from the dead (zombie thread for Zombie beer).

I had a whole beer last night and it is astringent as hell. It tastes like green tea that was steeped in boiling water for about 15 minutes. It's not completely overpowering, but I don't think I could drink more than one of these in a row.

Dammit.

Oh well, I guess I'll cold crash them in the bottles to see if they get any better and just drink 'em one at a time. Or hand them out to friends who have already had a few and can't tell the difference.

Good to here back. I hope it gets better. Let us know when it's done conditioning if it tastes any better. I bet it does.

Dry hopping shouldn't add to the bitterness in that way, so I wouldn't necessarily attribute that to the dry hopping alone.

Regardless though, that alpha will die off soon and hopefully they will be easier to drink before too long

HollisBT said:

Dry hopping shouldn't add to the bitterness in that way, so I wouldn't necessarily attribute that to the dry hopping alone.

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I had always heard that too, but my black IPA seemed to pick up some additional bitterness in the samples I took before and after the dry-hopping period. Although, it may have just been that the fermentation over that week toned down the sweetness enough to let the existing bitterness shine through.

five years later.....I wonder how it turned out....