Lots of hops for a few days vs not as many for more days

[the-adjunct-hippie]

Perhaps this has been discussed before, but a search brought up nothing.

Speaking of dry hopping,
what would be the difference in using the same hops with the same batch, but split in two, 1 using, say, 2 oz of hops for 4 days vs 1 oz of hops for 8 days?

I'm sure the experiment has been done before, and I'm sure I could do this myself but I've done so much brewing lately that I don't really want to waste the resources to find out so I figured I would ask here first to see if anybody's done something like this.

Thanks!

 

[balrog]

Haven't tested. Intuitively however, dry hopping "rate" is usually discussed as something in 5-7 days. I expect the beneficials are extracted within that time frame. And hops have a given amount of oils that can be extracted via dry hopping so having twice as much would make me think more (aroma for instance) extraction potential. The difference of 4 to 8 days may not make a difference but if 5-7 is max typical then my suspicion is for your specific proposal would see twice the aroma gained because of twice the hops.

note however that this is one one man's freakishly ungrounded theoretical musing.

 

[Smellyglove]

Hops get "old" pretty fast. If you leave it it for a longer time, my "research" over the years says that it will fade from aroma to taste.

If you want fresh taste, and aroma, you do #1. If you just want to piff up the taste a little bit, without the super-freshness, you go #2.

4 vs 8 days is a huge difference on the nose, given the same amount. You've lost much of that "freshness" after about day 3-4.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

Hops get "old" pretty fast. If you leave it it for a longer time, my "research" over the years says that it will fade from aroma to taste.

If you want fresh taste, and aroma, you do #1. If you just want to piff up the taste a little bit, without the super-freshness, you go #2.

4 vs 8 days is a huge difference on the nose, given the same amount. You've lost much of that "freshness" after about day 3-4.

Agree whole-heartedly. IME, 3-4 days kicks up the aroma, anything more and you're pushing more flavour, less aroma.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Something like 80% of the small molecules come out within 24 hours, the bigger molecules take a bit longer, but there's no great advantage in leaving hops in for more than 2-3 days. So 1 oz for 8 days is pretty much the same as 1 oz for 4 days, you're not doubling the flavour from doubling the time.

 

[thehaze]

From experience, I like more hops for a shorter time, something like 2, maybe 3 days. I've tried longer with no real benefit whatsoever. The aroma I got from hops which sat more than 2-3 days was in no way more pungent, in your face, fresher than the aroma from the hops that had under 72 hours contact time with the beer. I've brewed more than 20 batches lately, where hops sat only 2 days and I couldn't be happier. But as a side note, I have met people that didn't seem to mind dry hopping for 10 days, but their beers lacked aroma and flavour.

 

[the-adjunct-hippie]

Sweet, thanks for the replies.

I'm thinking about rotating out the current 3-day old hop additions with fresh ones. I've got a 3-way split batch right now - same base, three different types of dry hops. I'll probably evacuate the hops that are in there (at 3 days currently) and just place a fresh drop of the same type/amount of hops so I can get even more flavor and aroma, for another 3 days. That way I'm not extracting grassy flavors or anything.