Hop matter into carboy: flavor difference?

Back in November, I took a crack at a Pliny clone. Transferring the beer to the carboy brought alot of hop matter into the carboy (filter got stuck so I had to knock it a few times to loosen it up). After fermentation, I cooled and racked to a keg. In the keg I hit it with 3 oz a whole leaves in a carboy for almost two weeks.

The problem: the beer seemed just over-the-top grassy. I know most people say a week is the maximum time. Some say two weeks. I am guessing the issue wasn't the dry hopping, but perhaps the insane hop matter going into the carboy after the boiling, acting as "dry hops" almost?

Could be, and it could be all your dry hops in the fermenter for two weeks. People say 2 weeks is the maximum with nornmal dry hopping rates. Pliny obviously has much more than normal dry hopping rates. To get around the vegetative taste, Vinnie would dry hop in two additions.

Basic Brewing posted a good podcast last week about trub in the fermenter, they did an experiment comparing the difference between trub and no trub. Check it out, pretty interesting results.

IMO - 3oz of whole hops would certainly give your beer a much more grass/vegetation characteristic than if you had simply used 1oz of pellet hops. I like using whole hops (most are homegrown) at the end of the boil but get much better results using pellet hops for dry-hopping.

I've experimented with filtering the hops pre-fermentor and/or letting loads go into the conical. No real difference in flavor. This has become less of an issue recently since I've done more hop-busting (14oz in 5gal) and less dry hopping.

Disclaimer: I hate vegetal characteristics and dispise Simcoe as a dry hop.

Brew on!


The problem: the beer seemed just over-the-top grassy. I know most people say a week is the maximum time. Some say two weeks. I am guessing the issue wasn't the dry hopping, but perhaps the insane hop matter going into the carboy after the boiling, acting as "dry hops" almost?[/QUOTE]