Dry Hopping with Crystal / Centennial

[Ouroboros]

I just racked my IIPA to the secondary and naturally want to dry hop it to the gills. I bittered with 1.25 oz magnum and boiled 0.5 oz each of citra and centennial for 20, 15, 10, 5, and 0 min. I don't want to dry hop with too much citra since I found it to be overpowering in its fruitiness the last time I did this.

Centennial is one of my favorite hops, so I definitely want to include an ounce of it. I've got 2 oz crystal plugs in the fridge. I like their aroma, but I'm concerned that the aroma of the rest of my hops would simply overpower that of the more subtle crystal. I was thinking about dry hopping with 1-2 oz centennial and 2 oz crystal.

Any ideas? Should I get more crystal, forget it and do all centennial, or something else?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Ouroboros,
I just got a pound of 'new crop leaf' Crystal and as soon as I opened the bag I got big whiff of cheese (with underlying citrus). I had planned on dry-hopping with them but the cheese aroma has me concerned. Do your Crystal smell like that?

I like Centennial for dry-hopping a lot and considering my concern for my cheesy Crystal I'm prob way too biased to give a good suggestion.

 

[MVKTR2]

Could do a 2:1 ratio of Crystal to Centennial for dry-hopping. Ats all I got!

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[Ouroboros]

Ouroboros,
I just got a pound of 'new crop leaf' Crystal and as soon as I opened the bag I got big whiff of cheese (with underlying citrus). I had planned on dry-hopping with them but the cheese aroma has me concerned. Do your Crystal smell like that?

I like Centennial for dry-hopping a lot and considering my concern for my cheesy Crystal I'm prob way too biased to give a good suggestion.

Cheese? No, I don't get anything like that from it. I though it smelled like kinda herbal with a hint of something flowery. I can understand your reservations. I don't think anyone wants to drink barley con queso.

 

[Ouroboros]

I did find this BYO article about hops where it mentions that oxidation of beta acids can yield a cheesy aroma. I don't know what new crop leaf hops are, but it sounds odd to me that something new would be oxidized. I thought that only happened with improper storage.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I did find this BYO article about hops where it mentions that oxidation of beta acids can yield a cheesy aroma. I don't know what new crop leaf hops are, but it sounds odd to me that something new would be oxidized. I thought that only happened with improper storage.

Yea, that's why I was concerned. I actually have a couple ounces of cheesy Centennial (due to improper storage) in my freezer right now. I e-mailed the supplier Sunday night and had no response this morning. Thanks for your help.

 

[944play]

Ugh.. please do yourself a favor and dump out your cheesy hops immediately. I ruined too many batches with some nacho-flavored Pacific Gems. The flavor stays in the beer even if they're just for bittering.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Ugh.. please do yourself a favor and dump out your cheesy hops immediately. I ruined too many batches with some nacho-flavored Pacific Gems. The flavor stays in the beer even if they're just for bittering.

Thanks for the suggestion 944 but I better get some replacements. I JUST bought them like 2 weeks ago and one of the reasons I chose that variety was because it said 'new crop leaf'. And I still used some for bittering, yikes.

OK, thanks all but enough of my hijack and back to Ouroboros question.

 

[Ouroboros]

How were the hops packaged? The ones I have are in these vacuum-bag sort of things. They're plugs (which I've never used before). What kind were yours?

 

[telejunkie]

I love crystal mixed in but too much I don't like...i'd stick with the 1:1 crystal/centennial, at least for the first go-round. The crystal will basically be an undercurrent...kind of like what willamette can add if you do like a cascade/willamette combo.

 

[Ouroboros]

I love crystal mixed in but too much I don't like...i'd stick with the 1:1 crystal/centennial, at least for the first go-round. The crystal will basically be an undercurrent...kind of like what willamette can add if you do like a cascade/willamette combo.

Well, I picked up 2 oz of centennial to match my 2 oz of crystal plugs. There's already 5 oz of citra and centennial that were in the boil, so any "undercurrent" is going to have to be pretty strong to shine through.

The guy at the LHBS was not exactly helpful. He's just kinda like "really you can do what you want, with that much hopping you can't **** it up unless you really try".