Upper limit for Dry Hopping?

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afro_lou

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So, I've got a couple of recipes from a great local brewery, and boy do they use a lot of dry hops! My question is, is there a real/theoretical upper limit of dry hops in a batch? Disregarding fermenter losses from hop trub, that is...

For example, one recipe calls for a dry hop of 2oz per gallon.

Having had the commercially available version on tap, I can see (and smell!) why they used so much, and it's amazingly delicious. I would think that the total batch size doesn't make much difference, especially when they call for so many ounces per gallon. But does it?
 
I recall watching a Stone Brewing video where they talked about dry-hopping massive amounts on experimental batches... so much that they ended up with more soggy hops than beer. I think in most cases, 2-3 ounces are plenty for a 5 gal batch. I get decent aroma usually from just one ounce.
 
Never have come close to that, but if they have a proven recipe, I say why not? (Then again I'm not paying for the hops) I would love to see how this turns out
 
I'll report back! I'm thinking about upping the recipe size to try to account for dry hop loss...
Also, I think Stone is on to something... Maybe I should just bottle soggy hops...
 
Most I've dry hopped with was 7 oz and I started picking up some vegetal flavors. I did listen to the Hop-Fu brewer on AHA seminar and he suggested gelatin will strip out the vegetal compounds. I usually cold crash and fine prior to dry hopping going into the keg because I've read that you'll lose some aromatics from the yeast dropping out. But I'm thinking now to over-dry hop accepting that I'll lose some aromatics and rely on gelatin to strip away any of that 'green' flavor. We'll see what happens. I have an IPA finishing up right now I'm planning to hit with 6oz/5gal dry hop using this method. I'll probably still throw an ounce or two in the keg.
 
That's a good point. I don't usually add fining agents to the fermenter, but maybe worth a try! Although, I thought that things like gelatin had a higher chance of stripping out all those wonderful hop flavors/aromas. Maybe a shorter than average dry hop time would help keep those vegetal flavors away... Sounds like a perfect small batch experiment kind of thing. 5 one gallon secondaries for different dry hop schedules?
 
My last IIPA I dry hopped with 4oz. 1oz of that was whole leaf hops instead of the pellets I normally use. I lost a bit more than a gallon to the "soggy hops" kind of sucked having less beer bottled but I'll report back on how it taste next week
 
10 oz of dry hops for a 5 gallon batch sounds like a lot (and is a lot, cost-wise) but is not that unusual in the end, especially if you want to achieve a big juicy hop punch in the mouth.

Traditional bottle conditioning done by the average home brewer is essentially a death sentence for hop aroma and flavor. Kegging your will help this tremendously, and you can take it further by just adding more dry hops to your carboy, or even better, by adding bagged hops to your keg.

I don't think there is a relevant "upper limit" to dry hopping... I think that depends more on the relative solubility of the solutes (hop oils/compounds) in the solvent (water and ethanol). I think you'd have to add WAY more than 2 oz per gallon to see saturation of any of these compounds...
 
i've done six ounces in a 5.5 gallon recipe. i am about to dryhop that same recipe again and i plan to cut it to three ounces. i think you are better off doing a two stage dry hop than one massive one.
 
@PrinceOfThePoint : I agree, bottle conditioning would not work for such a dry hop schedule. I keg/force carb anyway, so no worries there. I like your idea of maybe splitting up the dry hop between fermenter and keg... I think these recipes will be the source of a lot of experimenting! Oh, and no way would whole cones be a good idea.
I didn't think about hop solubility in solution before, but it makes sense now that it would be nearly impossible to actually approach that threshold.
@atom : interesting! What is your reasoning behind cutting the dry hop so much? And do you bottle condition or force carb?

Another interesting bit, the same recipe calls for .5oz/gal whirlpooled, which certainly can't hurt!
 
If you sample a batch of heavily hopped brew, and your face starts to cave in from the puckering effect...you may want to taper back on the dry hops the next time around. :cross:
 
Two or even three stage dry hopping is a lot more effective. I like to do two doses for my bigger IPAs, usually about 3oz each dose, for 6oz in a 5 gallon keg. I dry hop at room temp for about 5-7 days per dose.

I dry hop in the keg using a mesh bag and some unwaxed floss. When it's ready to pull I put on a pair of disposable gloves, dip em in star san up to my wrists for a minute, and then open the keg and very carefully squeeze the bag for all it's worth. I use pellets primarily, and my beer loss from this is very small. I do not get any vegetal elements from this, and get huge hop aroma that lasts. I use this procedure whenever I dry hop and have been getting very good results. It also makes yeast collecting a little easier as I don't have hops floatin around everywhere. If I had a conical fermentor I would probably try free ballin in primary, but I use sankes for fermentors and this works for me.
 
Don't some of the historic IPA recipes ask for the equivalent of 20-30oz of cones between bittering and dry hop? Amazing it would make beer rather than soup!
 
As others have said for IPA's instead of one massive dryhop I go with smaller multi stage dryhops. In our PtY clone we do 4 dryhop sessions.
 
Great info, @Brettomomyces ! I had no schedule to go off of, other than "2oz/gal dry hop," so splitting that up seems reasonable. Also, I'm transitioning from carboy to sanke fermenters, you're saying you can drop 3-ish ounces in your sanke in a hop bag and are still able to get the swollen bag out? I always had troubles with that in carboys.

@Roadie , what kind of schedule are you using for your PtY? I'm sure you're using close to, if not more, than this recipe; so I'm interested in just how much you split it up.

And now I don't feel too crazy for considering 2oz/gal... 20-30oz would be crazy! I mean, unless that's a full barrel recipe or something...
 
@Roadie , what kind of schedule are you using for your PtY? I'm sure you're using close to, if not more, than this recipe; so I'm interested in just how much you split it up.

This is for 10 gallons.

1.0 oz Simcoe Hops (11.7%) - dry hop #1
1.0 oz Amarillo Hops (9.4%) - dry hop #1
1.0 oz Warrior Hops (15.4%) - dry hop #1
2.0 oz Columbus Hops (14.0%) - dry hop #2
2.0 oz Centennial Hops (10.9%) - dry hop #2
1.0 oz Simcoe Hops (11.7%) - dry hop #3
1.0 oz Chinook Hops (10.0%) - dry hop #3
0.5 oz Warrior Hops (15.4%) - dry hop #3
2.0 oz Simcoe Hops (11.7%) - dry hop #4
1.0 oz Amarillo Hops (9.4%) - dry hop #4
1.0 oz Columbus Hops (14.0%) - dry hop #4
 
Nice! Looks pretty similar to what I'm looking at, except mine's all Mosaic.
Now, I assume you're starting dry hop #1 after primary fermentation, and then, what, a few days between the rest? Something like 2 weeks of dry hopping?
 
Great info, @Brettomomyces ! I had no schedule to go off of, other than "2oz/gal dry hop," so splitting that up seems reasonable. Also, I'm transitioning from carboy to sanke fermenters, you're saying you can drop 3-ish ounces in your sanke in a hop bag and are still able to get the swollen bag out? I always had troubles with that in carboys.


I actually dry hop in my corny kegs. So I fill the kegs, drop in the mesh bag with hops, tie it to the handle, and purge the crap out of it. 5 days later, pull the bag out and repeat with fresh hops. After that addition I move it to the kegerator and finish carbing, then serve when it's ready.
 
I actually dry hop in my corny kegs. So I fill the kegs, drop in the mesh bag with hops, tie it to the handle, and purge the crap out of it. 5 days later, pull the bag out and repeat with fresh hops. After that addition I move it to the kegerator and finish carbing, then serve when it's ready.


Ah! Makes sense. Sounds like a good way to go. Thanks!
 
Nice! Looks pretty similar to what I'm looking at, except mine's all Mosaic.
Now, I assume you're starting dry hop #1 after primary fermentation, and then, what, a few days between the rest? Something like 2 weeks of dry hopping?

I start dry hop #1 in primary then rack to keg and use this http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Dry-Hopper-with-twist-cap_p_155.html tied to some dental floss for successive dryhopping. After 4 days of each hop session I remove the stainless dryhopper, dump hops, rinse out, resanitize, fill with new hop addition, tie it with dental floss again and drop in. Keg is kept at room temperature. Of course I purge with CO2 after each new hop addition is added.
 
I start dry hop #1 in primary then rack to keg and use this http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Dry-Hopper-with-twist-cap_p_155.html tied to some dental floss for successive dryhopping. After 4 days of each hop session I remove the stainless dryhopper, dump hops, rinse out, resanitize, fill with new hop addition, tie it with dental floss again and drop in. Keg is kept at room temperature. Of course I purge with CO2 after each new hop addition is added.


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