Dry Hopping-How Much?

I just brewed a Lagunitas IPA clone and plan on dry hopping with whole leaf Cascade hops in the next couple of weeks. My question is, should I use 1 or 2 oz of the whole leaf hops? The Cascade hops have a 7.5 AA if that makes a difference.

The recipe I was using and am about to keg says this for dry hop.

Dry hops: 21 g. Cascade, 21 g. Centennial for 5 days (brewer cold crashed and left in for 7 days)

For dry hopping AA doesn't matter. I also prefer using several hops for dry hopping.

hophead81 said:

I just brewed a Lagunitas IPA clone and plan on dry hopping with whole leaf Cascade hops in the next couple of weeks. My question is, should I use 1 or 2 oz of the whole leaf hops? The Cascade hops have a 7.5 AA if that makes a difference.

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Just .02; use 1 oz. for 5 gallon especially if this is the first time you brewed it. If you like it, brew it again and add 1.5 - 2 oz. You are looking for aroma, you don't want the aroma to mask everything else. Little steps and enjoy it as you go.
I like to make 10 gallon batches, I dry hop one half and leave the other alone, looking for differences, like and don't likes.....

If you are kegging go with the 1 oz and then add more if needed after a week. If bottling I'd just do the 1 oz to start.

I agree with samc, if you are bottling try 1 oz, it's enough to get a good aroma (especially if you used aroma hops in your batch too). If you like the particular aroma that dryhopping leaves and you want more, you can raise on the next batch.

For the dryhopping blends, I suggest to start with single hops, understand their aroma and then eventually mix in successive beers. Mixing is very engaging and nice and if you do it you can obtain incredible aromas, but if you do it "blindly" you won't be able to distinct what hop gave you a particular good feeling and so on...

Cheers from Italy
piteko

hophead81 said:

I just brewed a Lagunitas IPA clone and plan on dry hopping with whole leaf Cascade hops in the next couple of weeks. My question is, should I use 1 or 2 oz of the whole leaf hops? The Cascade hops have a 7.5 AA if that makes a difference.

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As stated before, Alpha% isn't really a factor with dry hopping on a homebrew scale. I have dry hopped my pale ale with 1 and 2 ounce dry hop additions in the past. I like the hop forward aroma of the 2 ounce addition for that particular recipe. A few of things I've observed - 1 ounce dry hop has noticeably more hop aroma than no dry hop, 2 ounce dry hop has noticeably more hop aroma than 1 ounce, neither were "over the top", and both were at their peak for the first week in the keg; after that the aroma became progressively less pronounced.

Also, I've heard from dependable sources (Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, among others) who state that dry hopping for more than 3-4 days can extract more of a vegetal raw hop aroma and flavor. Taking that and that I don't do a secondary transfer unless I am dry hopping into account, I do and suggest waiting until 3-4 days before you plan to package your brew for consumption to transfer onto dry hops.

In my experience 1oz is a little week for an IPA/Pale ale I would like to see 2-3 oz per 5 gallons.

Brew-boy said:

In my experience 1oz is a little week for an IPA/Pale ale I would like to see 2-3 oz per 5 gallons.

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In mine too, but dryhopping has a particular character that not anybody likes. That's why I voted up on taking a try with 1 oz first, especially if there are aroma hops in the batch too and he is going to bottle.

Cheers
piteko

Brew-boy said:

In my experience 1oz is a little week for an IPA/Pale ale I would like to see 2-3 oz per 5 gallons.

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I personally prefer the same, however, in my experience with Lagunitas IPA (which the OP is attempting to clone), I didn't notice a MASSIVE hop aroma, which I find a 2-3 ounce dry hop addition gives (at least in my brauhaus). It seemed fairly balanced; maybe a little floral hop aroma in he mix there.

It may be a factor that I'm in Michigan and the beer has to come from SoCal and who knows how it was treated on it's transcontinental journey. I never thought that Lagunitas IPA was much of an IPA. It seemed to me to be more of a West Coast style red/amber ale. Again, I don't know if there is and aging factor where the bitterness and aroma have diminished before I consumed it and the folks in SoCal are drinking a different beer than I am or not.
:cross:

I'll try and add some clarification and new questions. I will be bottling the beer and therefore plan on transferring to a secondary and then adding the cascade whole leaf hops. Any clarification on the 1 or 2 oz discussion and how long to dry hop is much appreciated.

What kind of beer are you dryhopping? IPA?

I'd use 2oz for 7-10 days, but I love a huge hop aroma in my IPAs. Longer dryhopping periods tend to impart unpleasant grassy flavors. I recently used over 6 ounces of tomahawk, centennial and amarillo in my secondary and the aroma's are staggering

headfullahops said:

As stated before, Alpha% isn't really a factor with dry hopping on a homebrew scale. I have dry hopped my pale ale with 1 and 2 ounce dry hop additions in the past. I like the hop forward aroma of the 2 ounce addition for that particular recipe. A few of things I've observed - 1 ounce dry hop has noticeably more hop aroma than no dry hop, 2 ounce dry hop has noticeably more hop aroma than 1 ounce, neither were "over the top", and both were at their peak for the first week in the keg; after that the aroma became progressively less pronounced.

Also, I've heard from dependable sources (Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, among others) who state that dry hopping for more than 3-4 days can extract more of a vegetal raw hop aroma and flavor. Taking that and that I don't do a secondary transfer unless I am dry hopping into account, I do and suggest waiting until 3-4 days before you plan to package your brew for consumption to transfer onto dry hops.

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I think its all in there (at least in my mind).

hophead81 said:

I'll try and add some clarification and new questions. I will be bottling the beer and therefore plan on transferring to a secondary and then adding the cascade whole leaf hops. Any clarification on the 1 or 2 oz discussion and how long to dry hop is much appreciated.

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I say in advance that I don't know the beer you are trying to clone, so all my suggestions are general.

Quantity:
1 oz takes a descrete aroma to the batch which would sum up to your aroma hops (if any); if you never had a dryhopping, I suggest 1 oz to test it.
2 oz take more aroma obviously. An IPA recipe should call this, to balance the bitter and the strong flavour but again, this is a general assumption, you should check your recipe.

Time:
In my opinion 3 days are low for the hops to leave their character. 7 days usually extract a good aroma. 14 days extract more aroma and tend to extract a grassy taste too. More than 14 days go on too much grassy.
I usually go on the last 10 days before bottling.
More infos here

Cheers from Italy
piteko

Note that hops, especially whole leaf hops, soak up beer like a sponge. The more you use, the more beer you lose. IMO it's well worth it to get that good strong aroma and flavor. I've used 2 oz in an IPA and thought it turned out nice. I actually like my IPAs to have veyr strong aroma flavor and a milder bittering.

headfullahops said:

I personally prefer the same, however, in my experience with Lagunitas IPA (which the OP is attempting to clone), I didn't notice a MASSIVE hop aroma, which I find a 2-3 ounce dry hop addition gives (at least in my brauhaus). It seemed fairly balanced; maybe a little floral hop aroma in he mix there.

It may be a factor that I'm in Michigan and the beer has to come from SoCal and who knows how it was treated on it's transcontinental journey. I never thought that Lagunitas IPA was much of an IPA. It seemed to me to be more of a West Coast style red/amber ale. Again, I don't know if there is and aging factor where the bitterness and aroma have diminished before I consumed it and the folks in SoCal are drinking a different beer than I am or not.
:cross:

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Lagunitas is from Northern California. Petaluma is approx 45 min north of S.F. You must be getting some old beer because its nowhere near an amber in NORCAL.

elpenoso said:

Lagunitas is from Northern California. Petaluma is approx 45 min north of S.F. You must be getting some old beer because its nowhere near an amber in NORCAL.

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My bad. I confused the location with Stone, which is down San Diego way.

I get the same thing with Stone beers, too. I brew my pale ale as a clone of theirs (because its one of my favorites based on the specs provided on their website. Mine always comes out WAY more bitter than the Stone version from the local store... until about three weeks in the keg when the bitterness subsides a bit and the aroma changes from dry hops in your face to a pleasant floral note. It's amazing what time will do to a batch of beer, both in the fermenter and in the packaging. I'm sure the Stone Pale Ale that folks in Cali are used to is more like the fresh version of my homebrew than the actual Stone Pale Ale I get here.

I've commented to friends many times (and they concurred) that Lagunitas IPA doesn't taste like what I think of as an IPA. I'm sure folks 3000 miles away are thinking the same thing about Bell's Two Hearted Ale (IPA) made about two hours from here.

Homercidal said:

Note that hops, especially whole leaf hops, soak up beer like a sponge. The more you use, the more beer you lose.

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I usually use a muslin hop bag and, at the end of the dryhopping period, I sanitize my hands and squeeze it. Actually, doing it the night before bottling could be better, since some powder from the bag exits while squeezing.

... but you haven't heard this hot stuff from me

Cheers!
Piteko

2-3 oz is a good guess for a 6-7% abv ipa. Like others said, what's the recipe say? It's not uncommon for a big ipa to have 4-5 oz in a dryhop addition.

Personally I love real hoppy beers.
I have 3 youngs ipa kits on the go and I will dry hop again as before with 300g/10.5oz of hops. Beautiful taste after 4 days of dry hopping and bottled for 4 weeks.

I have a IIPA on 150gr of dry hop,only a 12 litre batch. It is going to be insane,in the best possible way

1oz won't even be noticeable. 4oz dry hop cascade did nothing for my beer. I dry hop 4oz citra to really get the Citrus taste. 3-5days room temp dry hop.


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