Masking phenols/esters with dry hopping

Is this an advisable technique? I'm brewing a pale ale, and the fermentation temp must have been too high (~70 - 72), because the hydro sample has a clove taste. I'm not adverse to this flavor, but for this particular beer I would prefer to get rid of it (or just hide it).

Could a medium quantity (.5 oz) of dry hopping with Centennials mask it?

I think dry hopping would mask some off flavors. First, I would age the beer for awhile in your kegerator. Some of those flavors may diminish in a few weeks of cold conditioning. You can always add hops later.
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mbird said:

I think dry hopping would mask some off flavors. First, I would age the beer for awhile in your kegerator. Some of those flavors may diminish in a few weeks of cold conditioning. You can always add hops later.
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Sadly I don't yet have a kegerator (which is probably what caused the flavors to begin with). I don't think dry hopping will HURT the quality of the beer either way, so maybe I'll just go ahead and do it.

I think that would be a waste of hops, personally. But otherwise, there's no harm in trying!! Especially if you feel you need to do something to save the beer.

noeldundas said:

I think that would be a waste of hops, personally. But otherwise, there's no harm in trying!! Especially if you feel you need to do something to save the beer.

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Why a waste? Because the beer would turn out poorly regardless of the dry hopping, or because it would turn out poorly only AFTER dry hopping?

hopvine said:

Why a waste? Because the beer would turn out poorly regardless of the dry hopping, or because it would turn out poorly only AFTER dry hopping?

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Maybe I'm just being an @ss. But my thought is that if you don't like it now it's unlikely that it will truly improve with hopping, that's all. But you may mask it, and there's probably no risk of making it worse.

That's just my opinion based on past experiences. When my beer gets funky flavours, phenols or esters, I can't help but notice it - it's like drinking failure every time I take a sip!

Ignore me, and go for it! Just make sure you let us know how it turns out!

Dry hopping adds mainly aroma and probably won't mask the clove taste. A few weeks of cold conditioning should help with that. If it was my beer I would put it in the back of the closet and forget about it for while.

Thanks guys, I'll leave it in secondary for a few weeks and check it again.

If you haven't already seen it, this thread might help you feel better about your chances of ending up with a good beer:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

I do disagree that dry hopping is mainly for aroma though. It definitely adds aroma, but it also adds flavor, especially with a large enough hop charge (1-3 oz for 5 gallons). On the extreme end of the spectrum, Imperial IPAs like Pliny the Elder and Stone Ruination get huge aroma AND flavor from large dry hopping charges.

If you really needed to do it, a good size dry hop could help cover up the "clove" taste. I would use more than .5 oz of Centennial though. The down side would be that, as the dry hop flavor and aroma started to fade with age, you would like notice the clove again.

hopvine said:

Thanks guys, I'll leave it in secondary for a few weeks and check it again.

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secondary is not the place where it time is going to "cure" it.

That's not where the people in my thread talk about.... it needs to be bottled or kegged under pressure...In fact, sorry to say I don't believe there is anything wrong with your beer, except the. If you are judging a beer in primary, or secondary, you are really prematurely judging your beer.

I caution anyone to not make premature judgements about your beers UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHIED THE ENTIRE PROCESS, all the way to bottle conditioned.....Then if after the three weeks minimum for normal grav beers, THEN you think about socking it away for weeks or months.....

Your beer has a huge journey to go through, it goes through a huge amount of biochemical transformations, and one of the most important is that little bit of fermentation that happens in the bottle.

I don't thin it would hurt to dry hop, after all who among us doesn't thinnk there is such a thing as too much hop aroma/flavor?

But still don't judge the beer until it has been carbed and condidtioned in the keg or bottle for awhile. I usually don't render a judgement to a beer's flavor til it's around 8 weeks...and if there is something wrong at that point I know it is not "green" anymore, so any problems "real," then I just stick it away for awhile longer.