hop aroma

Hi I brewed an ale yesterday and added more hops than usual and was planning on dry hopping the secondary. I like to smell the air comming out of the airlock to smell whats going on and most of my brews smell sweet but this time all I smell is hop aroma, which is what I am going for but just wondering if I should still dry hop. any ideas suggestions would be great.

here is the recipe I made

7 lbs pale malt extract
1 lb wheat
.5lb crystal caramel malt 80L
2 oz chocolate malt
1.5 oz perle 60 mins
1 oz kent goldings 30 mins
.5 oz perle 5 mins
.5 oz kent goldings 5 mins
irish moss

I added the malt extract late in the boil because I can only do a 3 gallon boil at the moment and wanted the hops to come through

OG 1.060
IBU 35

primary: LWood Ale
Bottles: Coopers draught
Licorice Porter

I'm going to say that there would be little gain in dry hopping now. You already seem to be getting the aroma you are after. Sounds like you're going to have a great one there.:cross:

I am going out on a limb and contradicting a more experienced brewer. Take from this story what you will.

I brewed an imperial stout with six ounces of hops in it total. While it was fermenting I freaked because all I smelled coming out was hops. However, two months later I take a sample, and it's perfect. I think the Co2 coming out of the airlock at first somehow carries the aroma of the hops better, and then it mellows into the beer and becomes less pronounced. I'd dry hop. You want aroma, and that's all dry hops give you. You won't get much bitterness.

Edit: I didn't actually dry hop this batch. The six ounces went in right from the get-go. So this might not relate to your conundrum at all.

Taste it when you put it in the secondary and decide on the dry hopping at that time. I've actually dry hopped an IPA at 3 months (in a cornie), because the hop buzz was fading.

I have a question in regard to dry hopping. Since it basically contributes to the aroma: How many ounces or fraction until you are just wasting money?

i'd say no more than 2 oz for a 5 gallon batch. really 1 oz is plenty for me.

Thanks! I was staying at a self imposed 1 oz limit. Seemed more would be just wasteful.

like dave said, all dry hops will gain you is aroma. So it's best to drink beer that is dry hopped as soon as it is conditioned/peaking. Hop aroma will progressively fade with aging, but if all you smell is hops in the secondary, be sure that if you drink your beer within a reasonable amount of time surrounding it's maturity it will be hopped like you want it with out dry hopping it. If you decide to anyways you will still like the beer, even more if you are a hop head. But hey, try it and see what happens, experimentation is the best way to learning and discovering for yourself what ingredients actually do.

those commercial stainless tea balls work great for dry hopping a keg too!

If you have two carboys dry-hop half when you rack and leave half. Or brew the same batch next time and dry-hop it.

All in the name of science, er booze...