Dry hopping with high Alpha acid hops

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JDFlow

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Messages
453
Reaction score
39
Location
Seattle
Anyone ever dry hop with high alpha acid hops? I was reading that they can produce bad unwanted flavors but I don't understand how/why.
 
I do it all the time! They can be "harsh", I guess, but I like the aggressive hoppiness in American IPAs so I use hops like chinook and simcoe for dryhopping. They have high AAUs.

I don't like some hops for late hops or dryhopping, but it's not really just because they are high AAU hops, it's because maybe they taste harsh to me or don't give me the flavor I want.
 
Here's my situation... I'm planning on doing an ipa with leftover hops from summer brews, all are vacuum sealed in my freezer. Galena for bittering, sorachi ace and cascade for flavor/aroma, and Amarillo, hallertau, and cascade for dry hopping. Possibly a little nugget at 30 for some spice to balance the citrus and floral notes I'm going for.
 
Then finish with a nice light keg hopping of Willamette, Fuggles, Simcoe, Galaxy, Summit, and Nelson Sauvin. Should be good! :cross:

Sorry that was not helpful. Just sounds like a lot of hops which might end up good, but I'm not sure you'll pick up the individual character of any of them. I'm afraid to ask about your grain bill!
 
I recently dry hopped an APA with Pacific Gem (14%) and was definitely not pleased with the results. I guess it just depends on the hop you're using and of course your mileage may vary, but I'm letting this batch sit to allow the aroma/flavor to mellow out a bit.
 
Dry hopping with high AA% hops reduces the amount of vegetal matter. As a result, you are less likely to get grassy notes. Also, there some high alpha hops that I would recommends using only as flavor, aroma or dry hops because of their scarcity, cost, and quality. Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo are all scarce and relatively expensive hops. You're better off with a cheaper bittering hop.
 
I'll use Amarillo as an example here...

There is no difference from dryhopping with Amarillo at 7.2% AA or Amarillo at 11.3% AA.

AA% has no correlation to dryhopping aromatic potential since the alpha acids are not isomerized in the cold beer. What matters is how the hops look, smell, taste. But it is possible to have poor quality Amarillo that does not look, smell, taste so good.

I've had the best luck with the high myrcene %, high total oil content hops for flameout and dryhop additions, i.e. Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, Horizon, Centennial, Apollo, Cascade, Nugget, etc.
 
Then finish with a nice light keg hopping of Willamette, Fuggles, Simcoe, Galaxy, Summit, and Nelson Sauvin. Should be good! :cross:

Sorry that was not helpful. Just sounds like a lot of hops which might end up good, but I'm not sure you'll pick up the individual character of any of them. I'm afraid to ask about your grain bill!

4 gallon batch...

8 lbs 2 row
.85 lbs munich
.4 lbs crystal 40
.25 lbs flaked barley

estimated og 1.056

Fermenting with washed 1056. Estimated ABV is 5.7 and I usually hit my numbers so that's probably what it'll be.

Any suggestions on the hop or grain bill? I'm not looking to get a crazy big beer here. I just have a few little bags of good hops I'd like to use before they're no good. I'm not an IPA fanboy but I like them and this will be my first attempt at brewing one. This is actually my first batch that I designed 100%.
 
JDFlow said:
4 gallon batch...

8 lbs 2 row
.85 lbs munich
.4 lbs crystal 40
.25 lbs flaked barley

estimated og 1.056

Fermenting with washed 1056. Estimated ABV is 5.7 and I usually hit my numbers so that's probably what it'll be.

Any suggestions on the hop or grain bill? I'm not looking to get a crazy big beer here. I just have a few little bags of good hops I'd like to use before they're no good. I'm not an IPA fanboy but I like them and this will be my first attempt at brewing one. This is actually my first batch that I designed 100%.

I like the grain bill. It is a little light for an IPA but that's how I make mine because I like to drink more than two without going to sleep.

On the hops, any more than three hops and you're not going to really get individual flavors, my opinion only. Cascade and amarillo are great together for flavor and aroma. Sorachi might throw a twist in there. I'd leave the others out. Again, just my opinion.

Didn't mean to sound off earlier, thought I was funny. That's usually when I'm not.
 
I like the grain bill. It is a little light for an IPA but that's how I make mine because I like to drink more than two without going to sleep.

Agreed, I like IPAs with an average abv.

On the hops, any more than three hops and you're not going to really get individual flavors, my opinion only. Cascade and amarillo are great together for flavor and aroma. Sorachi might throw a twist in there. I'd leave the others out. Again, just my opinion.

Yeah, the sorachi ace will add some nice lemony character under the citrus of the amarillo and cascase. Galena is the cleanest bittering hop I've used so I'm sticking with that since it won't interfere with the flavor. I'm hoping the hallertau will bring out the floral essence in the cascade. The only one I'm hung up on is the nugget. It'll either add a good herb/spice balance or derail the whole thing. I might leave the nugget out.

Didn't mean to sound off earlier, thought I was funny. That's usually when I'm not.

I didn't take offense to it, but I also didn't get the joke. No worries, it's hard to communicate cynicism in written form. I fail at jokes consistently in texts and online.
 
Anyone ever dry hop with high alpha acid hops? I was reading that they can produce bad unwanted flavors but I don't understand how/why.

What Yooper said. Some hops are lovely and high alpha, some are pretty much bittering only kind of hops. Most of the dual use hops like Chinook, Centennial, Columbus etc work great for dry hopping.

I recently dry hopped an APA with Pacific Gem (14%) and was definitely not pleased with the results. I guess it just depends on the hop you're using and of course your mileage may vary, but I'm letting this batch sit to allow the aroma/flavor to mellow out a bit.

I hate that hop. Really unpleasant. I'll never use it again. A good example of a high alpha hop to NOT use for flavor/aroma, IMHO. I used the leftovers for bittering, though, with nice results.
 
I dryhop with citra, summit and centennial all the time, no harsh or off flavors. Expensive but worth it IMO. My citra IPA was incredible and everyone loved it. It was the first time people compared it to hoppy commercial brews like Firestone, etc.
 
ludomonster said:
Dry hopping with high AA% hops reduces the amount of vegetal matter. As a result, you are less likely to get grassy notes. Also, there some high alpha hops that I would recommends using only as flavor, aroma or dry hops because of their scarcity, cost, and quality. Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo are all scarce and relatively expensive hops. You're better off with a cheaper bittering hop.

Dry hopping with high AA% hops does not mean you should use less, so the amount of vegetal matter will not be reduced. AA% is only an indicator of the amount of alpha acids in the hop and alpha acids are not what you are trying to extract when dry hopping (or even really when adding hops late in the boil). If I had a recipe that called for dryhopping with an ounce of cascade (a low alpha hop) but I wanted to sub in summit instead (a high alpha hop), I'd probably still use an ounce. Of course, you need to consider the flavor/aroma you are trying to achieve, so you might reduce the amount of dryhop based on that (but not because of the AA%)
 
I hate that hop. Really unpleasant. I'll never use it again. A good example of a high alpha hop to NOT use for flavor/aroma, IMHO. I used the leftovers for bittering, though, with nice results.

Yeah man, I did a dual hop APA with Pacifica and Pacific Gem...it was all New Zealand. Anyways, the dryhopping didn't work out as planned. I just figured I had old hops or something because the aroma coming out of the carboy was garlicky/oniony. They've mellowed out a bit in the bottle, but still not something I would try again.
 
Yeah man, I did a dual hop APA with Pacifica and Pacific Gem...it was all New Zealand. Anyways, the dryhopping didn't work out as planned. I just figured I had old hops or something because the aroma coming out of the carboy was garlicky/oniony. They've mellowed out a bit in the bottle, but still not something I would try again.

Thanks for this info - it's good to be aware that this is another hop that has potential for the dreaded onion/garlic profile. I've had this issue with Summit (as have many others). It sounds like this may be batch/harvest specific though since many folks love Summit and have indicated they have never gotten these flavors/aromas. I think it has something to do with the timing of the harvest - if left on the bines too long, the hops start to go towards onions and garlic.

Unfortunately, my one bad experience with Summit has scared me away from it.
 
I have been enjoying using Galaxy for dry hopping, i like the deep passionfruit kind of spice it provides. Its best after a few weeks in the bottle though, when i try it green it can be a bit much.
 
Yeah man, I did a dual hop APA with Pacifica and Pacific Gem...it was all New Zealand. Anyways, the dryhopping didn't work out as planned. I just figured I had old hops or something because the aroma coming out of the carboy was garlicky/oniony. They've mellowed out a bit in the bottle, but still not something I would try again.

I don't remember having that character. Mine was more like berries, but REALLY harsh and pungent. I love pungent, but this was harsh and unpleasant. There are plenty of awesome hops out there, so no use wasting one's time with Pacific Gem.
 
That sounds like a crazy hop combo you got going for you. If you want to clean house go for it just to do it but I think you could spread some of those out for a couple of brews. But that might just be me, I only like to use a few hops so I can try and identify what each one brings me.
 
That sounds like a crazy hop combo you got going for you. If you want to clean house go for it just to do it but I think you could spread some of those out for a couple of brews. But that might just be me, I only like to use a few hops so I can try and identify what each one brings me.

Just to play the contrarian here...I've really enjoyed beers I've made where I have used a mix of different hops - it seems to add additional complexity and makes the beer more interesting. Mixing hop profiles that are fundamentally similar is one way to do this - like using several different citrusy hops (Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, etc). Another way to go, and one that I have really started using/thinking about is mixing different types of flavors - like using a single citrusy hop (say, Amarillo) and pairing it with something more on the "spicy" scale, like Saaz. I really liked the hop profile of one of my latest beers where I used Motueka, Saaz, and EKG. Of course, there is certainly a law of diminishing returns and it is possible to just muck the whole thing up with too many different hops.

Clearly, there's nothing wrong with using a single hop in a beer (for various reasons), but it can also be wonderful to play with multiple hops to generate a novel "hop experience".
 
Just to play the contrarian here...I've really enjoyed beers I've made where I have used a mix of different hops - it seems to add additional complexity and makes the beer more interesting. Mixing hop profiles that are fundamentally similar is one way to do this - like using several different citrusy hops (Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, etc). Another way to go, and one that I have really started using/thinking about is mixing different types of flavors - like using a single citrusy hop (say, Amarillo) and pairing it with something more on the "spicy" scale, like Saaz. I really liked the hop profile of one of my latest beers where I used Motueka, Saaz, and EKG. Of course, there is certainly a law of diminishing returns and it is possible to just muck the whole thing up with too many different hops.

Clearly, there's nothing wrong with using a single hop in a beer (for various reasons), but it can also be wonderful to play with multiple hops to generate a novel "hop experience".

I use EKGs a LOT with American and other hops and it always plays well with them.

Made a Belgian IPA a few weeks ago that used Columbus for first wort hops, EKGs @ 20 min, Tettnanger @ 10 min. Tasted good at sampling, then dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin. Haven't tasted it since dry hopping, but had lovely results dry hopping a barley wine with Nelson Sauvin before, so sure it'll be tasty. Bottling it on Sunday or so.

EKGs go great with Amarillo, Cascade, Simcoe, etc etc. Just have to use a bit more of them than the American ones as the American ones often have a stronger character and can overwhelm the EKGs, IMHO.
 
I did one version of my APA with German Haulertauer & Czech Saaz 1oz each at 20 & 10. Nice spice with a tiny bit of that piney thing.
 
Back
Top