Dry Hopping

[Stunna980]

I have an IPA I have dry hopped for about a week now. What is the best amount of time you should dry hop for. I was thinking of doing 2 weeks but if I'm not getting any more hoppiness out of it I would like to keg it asap. So what is the ideal amount of time to dry hop?

 

[Belmont]

You'll get some different input on this one. I've read that beyond 7 days can cause a "grassy" flavor but I've heard others say they dry-hop for 14-21 days with no grassy flavors. I've typically done 7 days and found that it was enough to get the hop aroma that I was looking for with 1oz of hops in a 5 gallon batch. As for ideal, I don't think you'll get a good answer for that one. Remember that all you're getting is aroma out of dry-hopping. No flavor or bitterness.

 

[bakins]

I generally go 2 weeks, but supposedly 1 week is good enough. I have also put the hops in a hop bag and added them to the keg. THis may give the beer a "vegetable" taste, but I usually drink those fast. (IPA's on tap don't last long around my house.)

 

[keelanfish]

Depends on the temperature. If it's at room temp, around 70f, then 5-7 days is about as long as I would go. If you go longer, you will start extracting some vegetal flavors that I don't think are very good. If you are dry hopping while cold conditioning or even in the keg, they can stay in much longer.

 

[betch]

I have started to dry hop 1 oz for a week then another 1 oz for another week to make my APA taste great. This is also at room temperature. But make sure if you use a hop bag to add some marbles to submerge all the hops, or else they will just float on the top. I first started with 1 oz but found not enough hop aroma and stepped up to 2 oz next batch.

 

[bull8042]

I normally only dry-hop for 7 days. However, my last IPA didn't get bottled when planned and went an extra week without suffering any vegetable-like off flavors. Going two or more weeks is not something I would plan though.

 

[Malticulous]

I've dry hopped half of a 10 gallon batch for just three days and the other half for a week and there was not much difference between the two.

 

[smizak]

Two weeks, pellet and whole, has always worked for me. A couple of those beers were judged by Certified and National BJCP judges at comps, and no mention of grassy aromas/flavors were mentioned.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

I've dry hopped half of a 10 gallon batch for just three days and the other half for a week and there was not much difference between the two.

I have noticed the same thing. Beers that I have dry hopped for 3 days vs. 1 week vs. 2 weeks have all had about the same effect. I am sure there were some subtle differences, but my pallate could not distinguish between them.

With such results, I dry hop for convenience, usually shooting for between 4 and 10 days, or whenever I have time to rack.

 

[schristian619]

I always dry hop for 1 week at fermentation temp (66F), then crash cool for 3-5 days. I have noticed grassy flavors with some hop varieties at longer dry hopping times. I am also a big fan of double dry hopping as mentioned ealier. i should note that I only use whole hops for dry hopping as I have noticed grassy flavors from in every beer that I have dry hopped with pellets.

 

[Stunna980]

Very interesting information, thank you very much fellas!

 

[samc]

I think it pretty much depends on many factors, hard to separate them. As previously mentioned by others, temperature would seem to matter. Also kind of hops, age of hops, form of hops and kind of beer. If for example you are using hops that are well past their prime you will probably start to pick up the off flavors rather quickly. I would save older hops for the boil and use only fresher hops for dry.

Serving your beer at the right temperature goes a long way towards noticing the effects of good dry hopping.

 

[wedge421]

Just did a Black IPA that I dry hopped with 5 oz of hops for 11 days at room temp and I am getting a slight vegetable note. Kind of annoying but im hoping it goes away with a bit of time

 

[zachary80]

What would multiple dry hopping achieve? Just more surface area potentially exposed to the beer?

 

[azoteman213]

What would multiple dry hopping achieve? Just more surface area potentially exposed to the beer?

From what I heard in the following podcast of brew strong (http://s125483039.onlinehome.us/archive/bs_dryhop12-08-08.mp3), double hopping helps reduce grassy flavors by limiting the amount of hops that are exposed to the beer at any given time. Also it was mentioned in said podcast that this can contribute to layering of aromas making a more complex hop profile. Can anyone else comment on this since I have not tried double hopping and cannot speak from experience?