Getting good hop aroma?

[triangulum33]

I cant seem to get the hop aroma that I want in my IPAs and Pale Ales. The last IPA I made I dry hopped almost 3 oz of Amarillo in tea balls for 7 days in the keg and I got very little aroma. I'm not after Stone Ruination fumes, just a nice medium IPA scent.
Are late additions a better bang for the buck for aroma and flavor as opposed to dry hop?

 

[waldoar15]

Maybe the hops was old.

 

[triangulum33]

Maybe the hops was old.

They were about 6mo old, but they were in my refer @ 38* the whole time...

 

[Zorin]

I dry hopped 1oz of Cascade and 1oz of Citra for 14 days...the aroma was wonderful. You might need to let it age more.

 

[Malticulous]

I seem to get the best results racking over them loose in a secondary at room temp.

There are some threads on other boards about steeping them at 180F for half hour or longer after flame out. It worked well for me.

 

[triangulum33]

I was wondering if all the oils and aroma stuff was making it out since the hops ended up so packed in the balls after they got wet.

Can you toss loose hops into the primary after active ferm is done in ~5-7 days? Since I started kegging, I only secondary big beers.

 

[Double_D]

It's the tea balls. They keep everything close together

 

[Malticulous]

You can dry hop in primary but you need to compensate for what the yeast cake soaks up with more hops.

 

[mmonacel]

Ditch the tea balls which don't allow the wort to really get into the hops and pull out all the oils. I tend to make a lot of IPAs and let the pellets flow freely (both in primary and secondary) and then strain out with a paint strainer over my racking cane. This way you get maximum aroma / flavor and the transfer is simple.

 

[Double_D]

Yeah I did a dry hopped bitter with pellets and it worked great. I just wrapped my bazooka screen with cheese cloth and I didn't have any problems during transfering from buckets to kegs.

 

[sketerbuck]

A hopback works realy well also.

 

[ztanner25]

keep the hops loose in the wort so that there is more surface area exposed. also, i like to do a 5 minute addition, some at flameout, and then dry-hopped as well. that should do the trick unless you're dealing with old or poor quality hops.

 

[brewmonk]

ever try a hop tea? cold, pre-boiled water for a soak, then add the tea to secondary or keg, and you don't have to strain the cones.

work it till you get the aroma you like. and ues it as your "top up" water???

 

[mrduna01]

This is a great discussion. What does the general brewing public think about dry hopping during primary (at different stages)?

I always dry hop in secondary. I hydrate the hop pellets with a few ounces of RO water, add to the secondary and rack on top.

Why couldn’t we dry hop in the primary when we pitch the yeast? The wort is cool and the action of the fermentation certainly would distribute the hop aroma. Would the fresh hops inhibit the fermentation process?

Should we dry hop during high krausen? No harm as far as infection as the rolling primary fermentation gives off plenty of C02.

I only dry hop during secondary because I often use the primary yeast slurry for other brews.

You wouldn't want to dry hop during fermentation because the production and release of co2 would drive out the hop aroma as well.

 

[triangulum33]

You wouldn't want to dry hop during fermentation because the production and release of co2 would drive out the hop aroma as well.

Ahhh....very good point. Sounds like dry hopping in primary after active fermentation stops will be what I do (if no secondary).

 

[msa8967]

ever try a hop tea? cold, pre-boiled water for a soak, then add the tea to secondary or keg, and you don't have to strain the cones.

work it till you get the aroma you like. and ues it as your "top up" water???

Is this technique similar to using a french coffee press to add hop aroma? I heard part of a pod cast about this before the batteries quit and did not get to hear the actual instructions clearly.

I was thinking of having 3 cups of boiling water added to 2 oz os Cascade inside my coffee press. Let this steep for 10-15 minutes and then press. Cool the tea and add the resulting water/hop tea to the secondary and then rack on top of this (or would it be better pour this in after racking or do 1/2 and 1/2?)

 

[Malticulous]

These aroma tabs might be good but seem too expensive to me.
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HOP-AROMA-TABS-1-OUNCE-P2565C264.aspx

 

[944play]

Is this technique similar to using a french coffee press to add hop aroma?

I did this once, kinda -- I took a quart of hot wort, an ounce of hops, mixed them in a French press, poured it off, fermented it slightly, and used this kraeusen beer to prime a keg. It worked fantastically well. Even though it's fermenting, none of the aromas blow out of an airlock!
Detailed here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/hop-tea-gyle-94183/

 

[BrewThruYou]

The tea balls suck unless they are massive tea balls that I've never seen.

For dry-hopping, I'm preferring 1 gallon paint strainer bags from HD/Lowe's. I picked up a 100-pack of 4" zip ties too for ~$4 that I use to close the bags.

If you want to get fancy, pick up some glass marbles from a craft store to weigh the bag down, then tie some fishing line or unwaxed dental floss around the zip tie. You can keep the hops in the middle of the beer that way.

 

[Conan]

My techniques' similar to BrewThruYou: paint strainer/ cheesecloth bag zip-tied to the 'Out' diptube of my kegs. I tie the thing just enough to keep it tied, then zip-tie the works to the tube. After a few days carbed at serving temp, aroma is noticeable. After a few weeks- wow! Delicious. I'm a huge fan of hop aroma in my beer, and this does the trick well for me. Usually 1-3 ounces does the trick, depending on recipe. Kyle

 

[Yooper]

I've been dryhopping at the end of primary for the last year or so, and in the keg if more hops aroma is needed. It's worked out quite well for me so far. If I'm saving the yeast, I rack onto the dryhops out of the primary, but that's not as common as just adding them to primary after about a week of fermentation after the krausen drops.

 

[elproducto]

I just toss pellets into primary once primary ferm is almost done. Agitate once or twice a day to keep them in suspension.

I do swear though that since I've gone to kegging my hop aroma lasts longer. Purely anecdotal.

 

[Zorin]

Great information here, keep it coming. Thanks

 

[JoeBuch]

I dry hopped 1oz of Cascade and 1oz of Citra for 14 days...the aroma was wonderful. You might need to let it age more.

I came in to suggest just this. Maybe even 2 oz Cascade or another 1 oz of CTZ

 

[Toecutter]

buy a 10 pair box of nylon stockings from Walmart. soak 1 stocking in solution of Starsan. add pellets. You can now cut stocking to size, but leave enough room foe pellets to expand. add marbles or something to weight it down. Tie off top of stocking with fishing line. remove top cap from keg, and flip it over. you will see a small post in the center which is part of the air release valve. use a small zip tie around the center post, pull tight. now tie the fishing line to the tag end of the zip tie. drop the stocking in the keg. The stocking will release the hop oils as you dispense from the keg. i leave mine in untill the keg is empty

 

[Zorin]

The great thing about making beer is, if you don't like what you get then you try it a different way the next time. I just performed a tasting on an IPA I brewed 5 weeks ago. From the moment I poured it onto the glass you could smell the fruity, spicy, hoppy aroma from a foot away from the glass. Mouthfeel was med to high with a nice crisp, slightly bitter finish. Color came in about med to dark amber. Needless to say, i used a variety of dry hopping suggestions from people on the forums and I'm very happy with how the aroma and taste of my IPA turned out. I hope everyone gets their IPAs how they like them.

Enjoy,
Matt