Poor Dry Hopping Effectiveness

I was hoping to get advice on dry hoping and increasing the aroma from the hops. I am drinking a kit IPA that I dry hopped for a week before bottling. Fermentation was 2 weeks followed by 1 week of dry hoping (1 ounce Cascade pellets in 20L beer) in primary so 3 weeks before bottling. I got impatient (low on beer) and started drinking it after only a week in the bottle. I'm okay with the taste and appearance of the beer but the aroma is disappointing. I don’t smell much hops at all but rather get a lot fruity smells. I have two pale ales in my fermenters now and I will dry hop later this week but I don’t want to repeat this so I was thinking of adding about 3 times the hops. I would rather have tons of hops smell than none. I also thought maybe the fruit smells would mellow out with time and this was a patience issue. This does make sense to me as I think hops aroma is very powerful and even a small amount should stand out against some competing fruit smells. The other thing that comes to mind is how I added the hops. I used a mesh bag and the bag with hops floated to the top so maybe I should add something to sink it? I thought about throwing a sanitized spoon in the bag. Maybe sinking it would improve things? Another idea I had was to increase the amount of hops I added at the end of the boil. I guess with the current batch I’ll just have to put a hops pellet up my nose while I drink it. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

IF your getting a lot of fruit esters in the aroma, you will want to bring you fermentation temp down. This will cut down on the esters and allow for my hope aroma to come through.

I also tend to dry hop with at least 2 oz for 5 gallons of beer...

 

What hops did you use? Some hops have tropical, fruit characteristics to them like amarillo.

 

I used cascade. fermentation was at 20C so it was probably on the hot side.

 

Sounds like you didn't use enough. Id up it to at least 2 oz for 5 gallons. And mix and match. Use a half oz of this, a full oz of that. Have fun with it. I'm a hop head too. Id rather have a pungent aroma than none at all.

 

I do think that the bag reduces the amount of influence that dry-hopping has, but if you use it, definitely get some stainless ball bearings, or bolts or something to hold the bag down.

 

Also the problem I had with mine was the yeast. Did your beer totally clear before you dry hopped? If you have a slow floccing yeast, whatever was in suspension could have attched itself to that hop aroma and pulled it out of the brew when it finally flocced out. Perhaps try cold crashing for a few days next time before you dry hop??

 

There were still some yeast clumps in suspension when i threw in the hops so some yeast snatching the aroma is possible. i don't think i have the capability to cold crash so i will probably go with increased hop quantity and sinking the bag. the only way i might be able to cold crash is to leave the fermenter outside overnight (probably 8C at night but the process would end up a bit uncontolled).

 

Theirs a member on here called bobbrews.. He has a "build your ipa" tread around here.
His words...
My advice for the best aroma would be to quick chill the wort to 150-160 F, then at that point, slow-chill & steep the post-boil hops for 30-60 minutes when the wort is between 100-160 F... not to add the post-boil hops directly after flameout when the wort is piping hot. I find the latter method to be no better than a 1-5 minute addition.

Post 34, found here

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/i-will-build-your-ipa-iipa-322573/

 

I've tried dry hopping with pellets twice and I don't get the same results as I do with whole leaf. Whole leaf to me 2 ounces or more is money

 

Glass marbles (boiled) also work to weigh down the hop bag. You definitely don't want it floating on top.

 

Pellets release their fragrant oily goodness faster than leaf hops, so they are better for whirlpooling and dryhopping (IMO). I've used both many times and I never get the same aroma when using leaf hops late. You don't need to weigh down pellets, since they sink. Leaf hops float so it's better to bag them with marbles or metal washers. Weighing it down with spoons, or large objects can cause problems when you try to remove the bag from the narrow neck of the carboy. Another issue may have been with the kit itself. These kits regularly recommend topping off with plain water, using more than 7% crystal malts, and dry yeasts, "some" of which accentuate malt and mute hop character and do not attenuate well. All bad things for an AIPA.

Amarillo is not tropical. It's fruity, citrusy, floral, and peachy with mild grapefruit notes. This would be an excellent late addition hop or dryhop, as would Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, Nugget, Cascade, Summit, Columbus, Chinook, Horizon, Ahtanum, Galena, or Sorachi Ace in pellet form. You have to use enough of these to make it count. 1 oz. for dryhopping 5 gallons is simply not enough for an AIPA.