Dry Hopping...NOT a fan.

[Coastalbrew]

So I just bottled my first dry hopped beer, and I am VERY under-whelmed. It is an amber IPA. OG 1.067, FG 1.020. I fermented for 8 days starting at 67 then slowly dropped to 65, then dry hopped in primary for another 6 days with .5oz Tettanger, and .5 oz Mount Hood and slowly brought temp back up to 67. Then to the bottles for conditioning. Before adding the dry hops, I took a gravity reading and tasted the sample. It was very nice, a little sweet and green tasting, but had every sign of mellowing into a very enjoyable beer. Today, I took another sample to verify the FG and tasted that sample. The bitterness has increased exponentially and the aroma is well... eh. I thought dry hops were supposed to add minimal bitterness and mostly aroma. I have had the opposite experience. I tried to be careful to limit oxygen exposure during the sampling and hopping. I only had the lid off the fermentor for maybe 5 minutes tops. So I don't think it is oxidation I'm tasting, and its not sour and showed no visual signs of infection or contamination. Any thoughts? Should I have used different hops?

Is there any merit to adding your dry hops at pitching rather than waiting for fermentation to end? It seems to me that this would be better for several reasons: 1 - less risk of oxidation and contamination, 2 - more time for the hop debris to settle out (I dd not use a hop bag for fear of contamination), 3 - less hassle.

What am I missing?

Thanks!

 

[MaxStout]

Dry hopping for too long can result in a grassy flavor.

You can sanitize the dry hops bag in some Starsan or vodka just before adding the hops. The hops themselves have a natural antiseptic property, so they are low risk for introducing an infection.

 

[deadwolfbones]

What he said.

Also, you used hops not particularly known for dry hop use, especially in an IPA.

Lots of people add dry hops at high krausen for the reasons you suggested. As long as you plan to package as soon as you hit FG there's little reason not to do it.

 

[parjay]

Hop dust, for lack of a better term, is very harsh and bitter. Assuming that you had little hop particles in suspension, that could very well give you the sensation of bitterness. I have a feeling that the bitterness will be gone once you carb and chill your beer since most of the particulate will crash out with time.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd be interested in seeing an allegedly "IPA" recipe that advises .5oz Tettanger and .5 oz Mount Hood as a dry hop.
Aside from the strains, the amount used is akin to waiving the hops at the fermentor from afar...

Cheers!

 

[Coastalbrew]

Hop dust, for lack of a better term, is very harsh and bitter. Assuming that you had little hop particles in suspension, that could very well give you the sensation of bitterness. I have a feeling that the bitterness will be gone once you carb and chill your beer since most of the particulate will crash out with time.

You might be on to something here. I put my test sample from bottling in the fridge this morning and let it sit all day. I tasted it again a little while ago and much of the bitterness that I initially tasted this morning had receded. Though there was still substantially more than before dry hopping.

I'd be interested in seeing an allegedly "IPA" recipe that advises .5oz Tettanger and .5 oz Mount Hood as a dry hop.
Aside from the strains, the amount used is akin to waiving the hops at the fermentor from afar...

Cheers!

I misspoke on the varieties, it was liberty not Mt hood dry hop. The original recipe was labeled as west coast amber ale. I called it an ipa. It's definitely not to the ipa standards of most of the modern commercial beers.
The recipe is:

1# pale 2 row
.75# crystal 40
.5# crystal 60
.125# crystal 80
6# Golden light dme

Hops
.8oz Magnum @ 60 min
.2 oz magnum @ 10 min
1 oz Mount Hood @ 10 min
.5 oz liberty @ flame out
.5 oz tettanger @ flame out
.5 oz liberty @ dry hop
.5 oz tettanger @ dry hop

Yeast
Who 051 California ale V

Batch size : 5.25G
Og: 1.066
Fg: 1.020
Srm : 11 ish
Ibu : 37
Abv: 6.04%

Stepped grain at 154* for 45 min then added half dme and started the boil. Added remaining dme at 10 min remaining in the boil. Boiled for 65 min due to a technical issue. Chilled to 65* and pitched.

I'm going to give it a couple of weeks to bottle condition and then see what happens.

 

[Calder]

Dry hopping after fermentation is normal and not caused me any problems. I dry hop over half my beers and I have made a few hundred.

Give it another try before you write it off. But next time use a hop that is known to add aroma/flavor, such as cascade, citra, mosaic, amarillo, ...... there are lots of them. I'lI usually go 2 ozs per 5 gallons; some will say that is not much, but I find it is enough if you have lots of flavor from late boil hops.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. Brewing is a learning process and I am certainly learning tons on every batch I make. I appreciate all the contributors on hbt and the knowledge you all share.

Cheers !

 

[6Tap]

Dry hopping is a wonderful thing!

 

[RPh_Guy]

I only had the lid off the fermentor for maybe 5 minutes tops.

That's 5 minutes too long.

It sounds exactly like oxidation to me. Increased bitterness and lack of hop aroma.

Be careful taking advice from people who keg. The effects of oxidation occur much more rapidly at room temp (when bottle conditioning) compared to keeping the beer cold (when kegging), so oxygen exposure is a lot more forgiving for them.

 

[RM-MN]

o I just bottled my first dry hopped beer, and I am VERY under-whelmed. It is an amber IPA. OG 1.067, FG 1.020. I fermented for 8 days starting at 67 then slowly dropped to 65, then dry hopped in primary for another 6 days with .5oz Tettanger, and .5 oz Mount Hood and slowly brought temp back up to 67.

I think you have your temperature management backwards. Starting the fermentation cool restricts the esters the yeast can produce resulting in a cleaner flavor but when the fast part of the ferment subsides the yeast tend to quit before finishing the cleanup of any intermediate products. I let the beer come to room temp starting at day 5 or maybe at day 7 to encourage the yeast to keep going. I even do the dry hopping at room temp.

A good read, short and to the point: http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[Coastalbrew]

That's 5 minutes too long.

It sounds exactly like oxidation to me. Increased bitterness and lack of hop aroma.

So procedurally how do you dry hop without oxidation when bottling?

 

[RPh_Guy]

So procedurally how do you dry hop without oxidation when bottling?

Hah I'm the wrong the one to ask because I don't make hoppy beer, but I know of some good options...

1. Minimize the time that the lid is open. You shouldn't need more than a few seconds and just open enough to add the hops.

2. Add hops during fermentation
OR
3. Add some sugar/wort along with the hops.
OR
4. One clever idea I saw was to already have the hops in the fermenter but attached above the wort with magnets.
AND/OR
5. Get a CO2 tank to purge the headspace after opening and closing the fermenter.

 

[JohnSand]

I think you are wise to give the beer more time. Let us know how it works out.

 

[bobeer]

I keg now but I bottled for a long time too. I thought that the little amount of fermentation that happens to carbonate the beer would take care of the oxygen that's caught in the bottle? Perhaps I used to drink my beer too fast back in the day but I never noticed any major affects of aeration from bottling.

The good thing here is, if you don't like the flavor the dry hops provided, the hop aroma and flavor fades pretty quickly. Maybe just leave them be for a couple extra weeks and get working on your next batch. Any bitterness you think you got from the dry hops should mellow and fade quickly.

 

[Homergah]

And make sure you come back and let us know how it turns out!

 

[couchsending]

There are so many things wrong with a lot of what you did there. Your average commercial ipa these says is dry hopped with 5-10 times the amount of hops you used and usually with hops considerably more aromatic than those.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of all the commercial mega hoppy beers. Brewing is a learning process and I felt like some experimentation so here I am. I'll give it some time and will see how it goes.

Cheers!

 

[Coastalbrew]

OK here's the update on my batch. It has been bottle conditioning for 3 weeks and it has mellowed substantially from bottling day and even from the sample I tasted after 2 weeks of conditioning. It has turned into a very tasty beer. So I am willing to say that perhaps dry hopping might be worth some additional experimentation.

This experience has made me wonder about something though. . .I've heard so many people say that you want to drink dry hopped beers sooner rather than later because the hop aromas fade. Based on this batch the hop aroma has improved with age and the initial bitterness has faded. So what gives?

 

[SoCal-Doug]

[non-scientific explanation] Oils and hop lupulin glands in suspension from dry hopping will give you a heavy hit of bitter, harsh and green as they get stuck on your taste buds, back of the tongue and throat. Far more than boiled hops. As the beer ages a bit, it settles out, breaks down, and becomes more soluable and mixes in. Hence "smoothing out" the harshness. This all of course varies with the type of hop, freshness of the hops used, time in solution and the process used.

Die hard hop heads that want a zillion IBU's of hazy hop bits, to smack them in the forehead with every sip, prefer that fresh hit and want to feel the burn. Ok, I say that partially in jest, but that's essentially what's happening. And... the hit from some types of hops is much less offending than others. One may be smoother, or more grassy and bitter, or more aromatic and less chemical like, or whatever.

 

[RM-MN]

So I just bottled my first dry hopped beer, and I am VERY under-whelmed. It is an amber IPA. OG 1.067, FG 1.020. I fermented for 8 days starting at 67 then slowly dropped to 65, then dry hopped in primary for another 6 days with .5oz Tettanger, and .5 oz Mount Hood and slowly brought temp back up to 67

i think you have your temperature control backward. You want to start the beer cooler to control the production of esters and possibly fusel alcohol, then let the beer warm when ftermentation is nearly complete to encourage the yeast to eat any unwanted byproducts. My schedule starts the ferment at about 62, then after 5 to 7 days allows the beer to warm to 70 to 72 where it stays for another 5 to 10 days which would inlcude dry hopping for the final 5 to 7 of those days.

http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[Coastalbrew]

i think you have your temperature control backward. You want to start the beer cooler to control the production of esters and possibly fusel alcohol, then let the beer warm when ftermentation is nearly complete to encourage the yeast to eat any unwanted byproducts. My schedule starts the ferment at about 62, then after 5 to 7 days allows the beer to warm to 70 to 72 where it stays for another 5 to 10 days which would inlcude dry hopping for the final 5 to 7 of those days.

http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

I don't have temp control in my fermentation at this point, so it all depends on ambient temp in the house. So far I'd say I haven't had any issues with off flavors in the beer (at least that I can detect). So I'm not overly concerned about it.