Dry Hopping an American Amber

[Jeffrey1122]

Hi everyone,
I'm considering dry hopping an American Amber Ale kit. I want to do it in the primary, and I thought I would just dump some pellets in the carboy after fermentation slows. How long should I keep them in, and is it better to use a hop bag since it might make it messy when bottling? Also, any suggestions about what kind of hops might be good?

 

[bob1852]

You want fermentation to be complete before you dry hop, otherwise the fermentation drives off the hop aroma.

I would think Cascade would be appropriate for an American Amber.

 

[Pappers_]

+1 to AZ

 

[bwomp313]

Don't leave the hops in for too long though, only like 5 days. Too long and you'll get grassy vegetable flavors

 

[kanzimonson]

A lot of breweries dry hop at the veeeery end of fermentation.

Usually the grassy complaints come after 10-14 days of dry hopping. Pliny the Elder has 12 days I believe.

And you'll be fine doing it in the primary, you'll just have to be a little less greedy when it comes to siphoning the wort into the bottling bucket. But even if you do pull some hops over, they'll settle to the bottom of the bottling bucket. If any hop particles make it into the bottle, it'll be pretty minimal.

And finally, why not use one of the varieties that went into the boil?

 

[Malticulous]

I prefer to dry hop in secondary and the cold crash before bottling. I dry hop at room temp for 3-7 days and the cold crash 5-7 days. The beer racks clean and clear into the bottling bucket.

 

[Calder]

Don't worry about how long the hops are in the wort. I usually dry hop for 2 weeks and don't get any grassy flavors. I once did it for 4 months, and again, no off flavors.

If you ever experience 'grassy' flavors, then you will learn by experience. My experience is you don't get them; could be I always use pellets, or the hop types I use don't exhibit that characteristic. I would recommend you experiment and not be held to never dry-hopping for more than 5 days because someone said something would happen.

 

[rayg]

Don't worry about how long the hops are in the wort. I usually dry hop for 2 weeks and don't get any grassy flavors. I once did it for 4 months, and again, no off flavors.

If you ever experience 'grassy' flavors, then you will learn by experience. My experience is you don't get them; could be I always use pellets, or the hop types I use don't exhibit that characteristic. I would recommend you experiment and not be held to never dry-hopping for more than 5 days because someone said something would happen.

Yes. I dry hop in the keg, so the hops are sitting in the keg the
entire time I'm drinking it (2.5 gallon, lasts about a month). I like
the flavor from dry hops, so maybe what some people perceive
as "grassy" I perceive as "herbal".

Ray

 

[Malticulous]

Temperature has a effect on dry hop utilization. Results at 40F will be different than at 70F.

Dry hopping in primary for one week works well. But you do need to consider that you will be leaving at least a half gallon behind and that half gallon will sock up more than it's share of your hop goodness. You will need more hops than if you used a secondary.

 

[Jeffrey1122]

What about rubber banding a hop sack over my racking cane when transferring to the bottling bucket? Can I get that extra half gallon then?

 

[devilishprune]

I just bottled an IPA yesterday that I dry hopped in the primary for 30 days. It tasted awesome, and not like grass clippings (I was worried).

 

[kanzimonson]

I think grassyness is one of those eye of the beholder things. I once dry hopped for 14 days and the beer was wonderful. But after a month in the bottle (at room temp), the wonderful hop aromas faded, leaving a puckeringly grassy flavor. Grass is really not the best description - it's more like a bite of bitter turnip greens combined with lemongrass. A sharp, piquant spice.

It's also worth mentioning that temperature of dry hopping is an important factor. I've heard of breweries doing X days of dry hopping at 68ish, and then cooling down to X temp without dropping the hops... I need to read more about this.

 

[Jeffrey1122]

Thanks all. Well, it might not be the conventional thing to do for an Amber Ale, but I'm thinking about dry hopping with 1oz of Willamette hops. Any thoughts?