I made bland beer! Can I save it with hops?

I brewed and all grain batch of 7.8 % abv ipa that turned out kind of bland.I know I made some mistakes already with this one...I overshot my abv by 1%....then I think the fermentation temp was too warm around 77 deg f because summer was starting and my basement warmed up a little.So after fermentation I was tasting a lot of alcohol in the beer, so I let it sit for 3 months, which did away with most of the alcohol taste, but also softened the beer as well so much that it tastes pretty bland.I really don`t want to drink it this way, so I thought about dry hopping it in the corny by dumping a tea strainer full of hops in, and drinking it that way.Any suggestions of what kind of hops best suited for this purpose? and how much to use?Has anyone else made a bad beer , then saved it with a later addition of hops?I really don`t want to dump this beer, but I can`t drink it in the state it`s in now.

sounds like a good plan to me. what were your hops at brew time? I'd dry hop with your flavor or aroma hop, or something complimentary. If you have bland beer you may want to dry hop with like 2 ounces? should liven it up a ton.

here was my hop schedule...2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 2 days)
1.00 oz nugget [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 46.8 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (15 min) Hops 10.1 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (10 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 5.3 IBU

Needs moar dry hop!

I'd hit it with cascade/amarillo, (my favorite dry hop combo...but I've only tried two...). I tied some hops into a muslin bag, dropped it into my keg with a SS hose clamp for weight, and after only a day it was an entirely new beer!

Well, you can't over-hop an IPA and after three months of aging, the nose is fading. I frequently save my dry hopping until just before putting a keg online. Hit it with 1/2 oz for a week. If that doesn't do it, do a second round with a different hop.

Amarillo is also my favorite for dry hopping an IPA. Go for it.

Honestly you need to dry-hop for at least 3-4 times that long. The fewest amount of days that I ever dry-hop an IPA is for 7 full days.

Went to the lhbs and got 2oz of amarillo gold ... Will drop in tonight and see how it goes....thanks for the good advice

If you need more bitterness- you can make a "hop tea" with some of the hops, and pour that in. Just do a small boil on the stove with some of the hops, strain it, and pour it in.

MacBruver said:

If you need more bitterness- you can make a "hop tea" with some of the hops, and pour that in. Just do a small boil on the stove with some of the hops, strain it, and pour it in.

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Agreed. A hop tea in my opinion will change the flavor more. Dry hoping is nice, but I don't find it really changed the actual flavor a whole ton, it mostly changes the smell.

I just made a disappointing bitter so I dropped about a tablespoon of coriander seeds and a little bit of orange peel (none of the white stuff) in the keg, took it out two days later, ended up with a pretty good beer that I can no longer call a bitter.