Dry Hop?

[nik555]

Hello everyone,

I just finished my primary ferment on an AG IPA. I sampled a bit when transfering to my secondary. It tasted smooth but I do not have the desired bitterness I was looking for. Should I do a dry hop? And if I do, any recommendations on how long to and the method I should use? Thanks!

 

[HibsMax]

Dry hopping adds flavour and aroma, not bitterness. To get bitterness out of the hops you need to boil them. Maybe you can make some hop tea and add that? I've never tried that so it's just a guess.

 

[Golddiggie]

As already stated, dry hopping doesn't add IBU's... It adds wonderful hop flavor/aroma though.

Personally, I'd rather have tons of hop flavor/aroma in an IPA/PA than high IBU's...

What recipe did you brew? Did you use any software to figure out how many IBU's you would get from the hop bill? If you've been brewing hop bombs, and drinking mostly hop forward (or hop bitterness bombs) with high IBU's you're probably becoming desensitized to the IBU's.

Personally, I like my English IPA's in the 40-50 IBU range. I also add 1oz of whole hops as it goes into the brew fridge (in each 3 gallon keg). I get wonderful hop aroma/flavor that way for the entire keg. For me, it's all about flavors that you can drink, without having the bitterness pucker your face. Then again, I think most American IPA's are nasty bottles of bitterness. Especially the DFH 90 minute (and above) IPA's...

 

[nik555]

Thanks for the advice. I used a recipe out of the Brookland homebrew book. It was for a Simcoe IPA, it required 3oz of simcoe hops during a 60min boil adding a 1/6 of the simcoe every 15mins.

 

[Golddiggie]

Thanks for the advice. I used a recipe out of the Brookland homebrew book. It was for a Simcoe IPA, it required 3oz of simcoe hops during a 60min boil adding a 1/6 of the simcoe every 15mins.

What AA% were the hops you used and what did the recipe call for? Hop AA% can (and very often does) change from harvest to harvest. You can have a significant change in AA% from one year to the next. If the recipe called out 12% AA hops and yours were 9% then that would be why it's not what you expected.

Also, if you're adding the hops every 15 minutes, adding 1/6 of the total, you had either hops left over, or you added more at the 60 minute mark. Or you did it every 10 minutes (not 15)...

 

[nik555]

I never even considered the percentages. That is something I will keep in mind here on out. Thanks for the advice. I believe that I put the first of the hops in at boil, then at 15, 30, then every 10 mins. So I did end up using all the hops.