Coastalbrew
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- Oct 26, 2018
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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!
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!