Dry hopping an ipa, Questions

[bprush]

I'm making my first ipa. It's been in the fermenter for 1 week. I have searched the forums but have not come up with a solid answer. I am thinking that two weeks in the fermenter and then dry hop for three to five days. My plan is to taste it every couple days until the aroma is right, and then bottle. Does this sound like a reasonable plan or am i way off.

Recipe is:

6.6 pounds light lme
1.1 lb of spray dried light dme
8 oz crushed victory malt
1 lb crushed carmel malt
2 oz cascade hops 5.0%aa
1.5 oz columbus hops 15.5%aa
1.0 oz cascade aroma hops 5.0%aa

Dry hopping with 1 oz cascade 5.0%aa

 

[smyth]

Love this forum, i just came on here because i was thinking of doing almost the same thing, only difference being mine is the Hopscare IPA kit from Midwest, and i'm thinking of using more cascades to dryhop, probably 2oz maybe a bit more. If i find out anything about it i'll let you know what i get.

 

[JLW]

I'm making my first ipa. It's been in the fermenter for 1 week. I have searched the forums but have not come up with a solid answer. I am thinking that two weeks in the fermenter and then dry hop for three to five days. My plan is to taste it every couple days until the aroma is right, and then bottle. Does this sound like a reasonable plan or am i way off.

Recipe is:

6.6 pounds light lme
1.1 lb of spray dried light dme
8 oz crushed victory malt
1 lb crushed carmel malt
2 oz cascade hops 5.0%aa
1.5 oz columbus hops 15.5%aa
1.0 oz cascade aroma hops 5.0%aa

Dry hopping with 1 oz cascade 5.0%aa

Most of the recipes I have looked at or brewed call for a 5 to 7 day dry hop duration. I have on two occasions dry hopped for approximately 14 days.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Perfectly reasonable...

 

[smyth]

not sure if you guys have any more advice on this, the kit i'm using ingredient list: 6 lb. Briess Gold Liquid extract, 2 lb. Light dried malt extract, 1 lb. Caravienne grain, .75 oz Magnum (Yakima/US), 1 oz. Amarillo, 2 oz. Cascade hops.
Figured doing a dryhop with 2 oz of cascades that i have for probably around 7 days, think that'll be too much as far as the quantity of hops? not enough? it's 5 gallon batch and myself and most of my friends like hoppy beers, i don't want it to be insanely overpowering though either.
thanks

 

[ThePearsonFam]

I personally don't think that there is a way that you could ever over-hop an IPA. But that's my opinion...

 

[smyth]

I personally don't think that there is a way that you could ever over-hop an IPA. But that's my opinion...

that's officially my favorite possible answer to my question
thanks

 

[bprush]

Ok so i took my first hydometer reading today and am at 1.010. That looks to be a few points below expected but then again my original was a few points lower than i expected. In any event, i tasted the hydro sample and it is outstanding.:rockin: Now im wondering if there is any danger in messing this beer up with a dry hop. From what i've read, a dry hop should contibute mostly to the aroma. Any thoughts on how much this will affect my flavor?

 

[ThePearsonFam]

If I had to break down hop additions into a simple way to look at it, it would go something like this:

~60 min hop boil = mostly bittering
~30 min hop boil = mostly flavor
~5 min hop boil = mostly aroma

Dry hop is mostly aroma with some flavor added.

Try this... If you have two containers, then try both... Add dry hops to one with 1/2 your beer dry hopping on it. Let the other 1/2 of you beer remain in the 1st fermenter for the rest of the time. Bottle both, label them appropriately and taste both. I think you'll LOVE BOTH versions AND you'll know what dry hopping will do to your beer for future batches (through personal experience).

 

[JLW]

Ok so i took my first hydometer reading today and am at 1.010. That looks to be a few points below expected but then again my original was a few points lower than i expected. In any event, i tasted the hydro sample and it is outstanding.:rockin: Now im wondering if there is any danger in messing this beer up with a dry hop. From what i've read, a dry hop should contibute mostly to the aroma. Any thoughts on how much this will affect my flavor?

Yes, the dry hops are for aroma. Shouldn't really affect flavor. Here is another thread that may be useful in understanding better.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/understanding-hop-schedule-229240/

 

[integrator]

I have a hopped up wheat that is coming off of 14 days of dry hopping today. You won't hurt anything. I'd go 5 days easy.

 

[gotsum411]

I dry hopped my last English IPA for a week with 2 oz cascade hops, and it came out perfect, fantastic aroma, and very delicious. The hop aroma mellows a bit after a couple of weeks in the bottle, so dont be nervous about the first bottle you crack open.

 

[erikpete18]

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about over-dryhopping an IPA. Remember, some of that hop aroma will fade over time, so what might taste perfect to you right now won't taste nearly as hoppy 6-12 months down the line (assuming you can keep them around that long ).

 

[KevinW]

Dry hopping is good and 2oz cascade for 7-10 days is a good formula but if you really want a lot of hop flavor I recommend late hop additions.

If you put the 2oz of cascade in at flame out or 1oz at 5 min and 1oz at flameout you should get a substantially bigger hop flavor than from dry hopping without effecting the bitterness very much.

Just an idea!

 

[joetothemo]

My best IPA was 14 days in primary, 7 days in secondary racked onto 2 oz Cascade. I am currently repeating this process on a batch now.

No need to open it up to taste. The hops know what to do, they don't need your help.

You can't help them...But, you could screw up your beer by dipping into it every day or two (contamination/oxidation)... Trust me. I have done this.

 

[BryceL]

Ok so i took my first hydometer reading today and am at 1.010. That looks to be a few points below expected but then again my original was a few points lower than i expected. In any event, i tasted the hydro sample and it is outstanding.:rockin: Now im wondering if there is any danger in messing this beer up with a dry hop. From what i've read, a dry hop should contibute mostly to the aroma. Any thoughts on how much this will affect my flavor?

I'd say go for the dry hop. I just did an IPA with 5 oz of Comumbus with various boil additions. The recipe didn't call for it, but I decided to add a 2 oz dry hop with Cascade. I fermented for 10 days, took a hydro/taste test, added the 2 oz of whole Cascade hops and let that go for another 10 days. Just moved it to my keg last night and took another taste test and was very pleased with the results. As others have stated, the flover profile between my two taste test was still very similar, but it added a very nice aroma. I plan on letting this carb/condition in the keg for 3 weeks before taping into it.

 

[BryceL]

My best IPA was 14 days in primary, 7 days in secondary racked onto 2 oz Cascade. I am currently repeating this process on a batch now.

No need to open it up to taste. The hops know what to do, they don't need your help.

You can't help them...But, you could screw up your beer by dipping into it every day or two (contamination/oxidation)... Trust me. I have done this.

+1 on that. No sense in pulling samples every couple days, I don't think it's worth the risk of contamination. I try to limit myself to two samples throughout the process. Just stick to 5, 7, 10 or however many days of dry hop you feel will give you good results. You can always change it up on the next batch if it wasn't quite what you were expecting.

 

[bprush]

Sounds like a plan. I'm gonna let it in the primary til two wks are up and then throw in the dry hops for another 5 to 7 and bottle. I like the split batch idea too but I will wait til my next ipa for that. I just want to get a good one in the bag first before I start to get experimental.

 

[ShermanTank]

Dry hopping is good and 2oz cascade for 7-10 days is a good formula but if you really want a lot of hop flavor I recommend late hop additions.

If you put the 2oz of cascade in at flame out or 1oz at 5 min and 1oz at flameout you should get a substantially bigger hop flavor than from dry hopping without effecting the bitterness very much.

Just an idea!

Brilliant!

 

[bprush]

I tied the hop pellets up in cheesecloth and threw them in. Smell coming through the airlock is pretty damn good. I will update at bottling here in about a week on the changes in aroma/taste

 

[joetothemo]

I tied the hop pellets up in cheesecloth and threw them in. Smell coming through the airlock is pretty damn good. I will update at bottling here in about a week on the changes in aroma/taste

Cool. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[integrator]

pantyhose does the best job I've found..... sounds funny but works amazingly well. You can clean, sanitize and reused them too.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

pantyhose does the best job I've found..... sounds funny but works amazingly well. You can clean, sanitize and reused them too.

The question is, how do you get the misses into the carboy??? And... Where do the hops go???? hmmm? **pinky finger precariously pointing toward the corner of my mouth**

 

[bprush]

already had the cheesecloth but the pantyhose idea sounds sexy