Please help me figure out dry hopping for my IIPA

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.

akpingel

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2009
Messages
94
Reaction score
7
Location
Huntersville NC
So here is my simple IIPA recipe that I put together:

12lb Northern Brewer Gold LME
1lb Simpsons Golden Promise - crushed and steeped
boil 60 mins 3.0 Columbus
boil 60 mins 1.0 Cascade
boil 30 mins 2.0 Cascade
boil 15 mins 0.25 Cascade
boil 15 mins 0.5 Amarillo
boil 5 mins 0.25 Amarillo
boil 1 min 0.25 Amarillo
dry hop????

PacMan Yeast

OG 1.081 FG: ? I plan to let the beer ferment for 3 weeks in the primary and then age the beer either in bottles or secondary. I plan to dry hop about 7 days before bottling.
I need some advice on the aging and dry hopping. Im skeptical about getting any benefit from dry hopping, as this beer will need to age for quite some time. This would be the case if I let it bottle condition for several months. I guess I could let the beer age for a long time in a secondary, then add hops before bottling and pitching some additional yeast.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Why would you want to age it so long? My goal when brewing a hoppy beer is to drink it as young and fresh as possible. I was drinking my last double IPA just about a month after brew day (1 week in primary, 10 days on dry hops warm, 2 weeks on keg hops while force-carbing cold). Two months later the beer was already starting to fade when it kicked. I realize you have to bottle condition, but that is no reason to delay. The sooner you are drinking the beer the more of that fresh hop character you’ll get to enjoy.

The golden promise malt is a waste unless you are going to be doing a mini-mash (it has starches that need converting), and even then I don’t think you’ll taste a difference in a big IPA. I would probably swap out some of the malt extract for a pound of sugar to ensure the beer finishes dry enough. I’d also up the finishing hops, .5 oz in the last 10 minutes doesn’t a IIPA make (you could shift those 30 min hops closer to the end, you have plenty of bitterness as it is).
 
I guess that is why I was confused... I thought it needed to age assuming it was going to have a strong burn from the high attenuating yeast and warm temps. Subsequently I backed off the finishing hops and opted to dry hop before bottling.

You're right about the golden promise the wort was a little sweet but no color at all before I added the extract.

I brewed the batch on Weds of last week and its still bubbling well. I could rack it to dry hop on Saturday assuming the bubbling has mostly stopped, and bottle a week after.
 
I like to dry hop before the beer is completely done fermenting. That way the yeast will metabolize any oxygen that is introduced with the hops. You don't want to add them too soon though, or you will lose all that great aroma to outgassing. Give it a week to ferment and then rack onto the hops.

Did you decide what to dry-hop with? You seem to be doing a cascade/amarillo IIPA, so why not stick with those? Amarillo is a great dry-hop. Columbus is pretty good too. So is Cascade. If you want to mix it up a little, go for Centennial or Simcoe maybe.
 
Amarillo is great. If you stuck to the hop schedule you posted above, I would consider doubling the dry-hop. As oldsock pointed out, you are bittering heavy on your hops. A larger late-addition balance would have contributed to flavor and aroma. Dry-hopping is another way to add those.
 
Amarillo is great. If you stuck to the hop schedule you posted above, I would consider doubling the dry-hop. As oldsock pointed out, you are bittering heavy on your hops. A larger late-addition balance would have contributed to flavor and aroma. Dry-hopping is another way to add those.

Agreed, Amarillo is great.

Since you are light on the finishing hops I'd up the dry hop, 3+ oz wouldn't be out of the question if you like a really aromatic hop character.

If you are fermenting warm that is an area to focus on next time, the bigger the beer the more important it is to hold fermentation temps down (70 internal would be the highest I would go). The hops will cover some minor fermentation sins, but if you have hot alcohol there isn’t much you can do.
 
Thanks for the input. Temp seems to be holding steady right at or under 70 degrees in the house. Of course im out of town now so all bets are off what the girlfriend did to the A/C :cross:

Ill do 2-3oz of the amarillo. I do have a muslin(?) bag I can use, or should I just drop them straight in before racking the beer over to the secondary?
 
As IPA's don't require any real aging, I personally wouldn't even secondary. I'd just dryhop in primary for 7-10 days and then bottle. If you dry hop and then secondary, you'll lose some of that great aroma as the hop flavors recede over time.

I use a nylon mesh hops bag. Many just toss the hops in. I think that I get similar hops aromas without adding all the hop gunk to the bottom of my fermenter. In the end, more beer in bottles. At least that's what I tell myself. I think it's just easier with a bag. Just my two cents. Others may disagree.
 
Cool. Im going to get it moved over to the secondary and just drop the hops right in the carboy before racking over the beer. Im sure its going to be a PITA, but I want to harvest the yeast from the primary, and Ill be fine if I lose a bottle or so of total volume. :mug:
 
Transferred this beer to secondary today to dry hop. Gravity was measured at 1.02, which is about .005 points to high according to hopville. It tasted pretty good. good malty + bitter taste, but too much alcohol burn taste. I hope it mellows out a bit but my expectations are its going to remain this way. Additionally, as many of you predicted there is almost no aroma at the moment, but I dry hopped almost 3 ounces of Armarillo :rockin:

I plan to bottle it up next sunday assuming the FG is achieved.
 
Back
Top