Dry hopping question

Is dry hopping a good idea for an English pale ale and if so, when should I make the dry hop addition? Thanks.

-AJ

Dry hopping is good for lots of brews, IMO, but then I'm a hophead. Pale, amber, ESB, and IPA's for example are all good dryhopping brews. Just take an ounce or two of your flavor/aroma type hops and dryhop in the secondary.

EDIT: What's your recipe?

Dry hopping tends to be more of a “requirement” for American Pale Ales.

Hop aroma should be moderately low to moderately high (compared to moderate to strong in an APA).

Hop flavor and aroma should be prominent, but not overbearing.

I wouldn’t personally dry hop, but I like my ESB’s with a good dose of late additions for some firm hop flavor.

To remain true to style, I would do a 1 minute addition and not dry hop, and I'd keep the bitterness around 25-30 IBUs.

If you don't care about following the BJCP guidelines you can dry hop if you want to. It's your beer after all.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll give the dry hopping a shot and see what happens. Dry hopping doesn't do much for bitterness (or at least that's the way I understood it), so hopefully it won't come out too bitter.

@HOOTER:
.5 lbs Crystal 120 L (steep for 20 mins at 150 F)
6.6 lbs Northwestern Amber LME (Added while approaching boiling point)
1 oz EKG (bittering, 60 mins)
1 oz EKG (finishing, 10 mins)
Wyeast English Ale Yeast 1056

For the dry hopping I would be using .5 oz of Fuggles I have left over from my first batch.

-AJ

When dry hopping how long does it take for the hops to sink to the bottom, if at all? I dry hopped when I transfered from primary to secondary (5 days ago) and there is a pretty good coating of hops residue on the top of the beer. I used pellets.

I love dry hopping! It gives a hop character that is unique. This doesn't mean everything has to be a hop bomb. Often I'll just do a half ounce. The way I do it is after racking to the secondary I wait until the beer clears and there is no activity at all (usualy 2-4 days after dropping if the beer was in the primary a sufficient amount of time) Then I put an ounce or so whole or plugs in a hop sack weighted with stainless steel ball bearings, let then gently drop to the bottom and rack off after about 10-14 days later. I think you get better results if you use whole or plug hops that are totaly submerged (weighted down) and if you can keep the temps to below 66F.