Harsh bitterness from dry hopping

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Orionslove

David
Joined
Nov 1, 2020
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Location
Macau
I tried dry hopping in 3 of my beer batches recently. Before dry hopping, the beer tastes quite nice, hop flavour and bitterness are well balanced, just that I think the aroma can be enhanced a bit more.

Then I went on throwing dry hops into the secondary fermentator (with head space minimized), and boom !!! It gets super bitter, especially with a harsh bitterness at the aftertaste. In addition, there is no significant enhancement on the aroma.

I saw people are saying that dry hop only adds aroma and nothing else, but it seems to be ruining everything. I actually prefer adding the hops at flameout instead.

Anyone experienced that same before? Or was I doing anything wrong?
Any alternative way for enhancing aroma, adding hop tea? (I complete lose confidence on dry hopping now.....)

My recipe was (from Manwell's Pale, Mosaic SMaSH):

size: 7.5L

Pale ale 0.75 kg
Munich 0.75 kg

(all hop pellets)
Mosaic 2.5g @ 60 min
Mosaic 7g @15 min
Mosaic 10g @ flameout
Mosaic (dry hopping) 20g for 3 days (temperature was around 20 degree Celsius)

yeast: Mangrove Jack's M42
 
Last edited:
What you are experiencing is hop burn, which is the binding of protein and polyphenols from the hops. This has been discussed over the past few years heavily on HBT and there are some recent information on how to combat it and reduce it from occurring.

if you use the search feature on HBT and search hopburn, you will find the answer you seek
 
Last edited:
What you are experiencing is hop burn, which is the binding of protein and polyphenols from the hops. This has been discussed over the past few years heavily on HBT and there are some recent information on how to combat it and reduce it from occurring.

if you use the search feature on HBT and search hopburn, you will find the answer you seek

I just tried to make some hop tea with a couple hop pellets, just to try out the taste of different hops.
I think the 'harsh bitterness' actually comes from the dry pellets itself, because the hop tea taste exactly the same as the aftertaste I found in the beer :(

(By the way, since I don't use up all pellets at once, they are not in vacuum packages now. Would this be an issue?)
 
I just tried to make some hop tea with a couple hop pellets, just to try out the taste of different hops.
I think the 'harsh bitterness' actually comes from the dry pellets itself, because the hop tea taste exactly the same as the aftertaste I found in the beer :(

(By the way, since I don't use up all pellets at once, they are not in vacuum packages now. Would this be an issue?)
Squeeze out the air of the package as good as possible, close it with duct tape, into the freezer it goes, no problem.
 
Yes, polyphenols from hops plus there could be even small, solid hop particles coming from the pellets that cause astringency that will persist until these tiny particles or excess polyphenolic aggregates drop to the bottom. This may take several days in a cold place. Some finings may also reduce polyphenols, particles & astringency. You could probably examine this even using the hop tea that you produced (although compounds in the beer may cause additional effects by binding with hop polyphenols).
 
Yes, polyphenols from hops plus there could be even small, solid hop particles coming from the pellets that cause astringency that will persist until these tiny particles or excess polyphenolic aggregates drop to the bottom. This may take several days in a cold place. Some finings may also reduce polyphenols, particles & astringency. You could probably examine this even using the hop tea that you produced (although compounds in the beer may cause additional effects by binding with hop polyphenols).
And it will last longer in beer because yeast cause polyphenol to molecularly bind to proteins which will cause it to stay in suspension longer. That’s why high hopping rate breweries have recently chosen to not dryhop during fermentation and have use colder dryhoping temps to prevent hop creep.
 
Yes, polyphenols from hops plus there could be even small, solid hop particles coming from the pellets that cause astringency that will persist until these tiny particles or excess polyphenolic aggregates drop to the bottom. This may take several days in a cold place. Some finings may also reduce polyphenols, particles & astringency. You could probably examine this even using the hop tea that you produced (although compounds in the beer may cause additional effects by binding with hop polyphenols).

Would you suggest giving a try on gelatin to reduce the polyphenol suspending? Or any other suggestion on the fining?
(firstly to try with the hop tea maybe?)
 
If you are brewing a hazy & hop forward beer, I would probably try to give it some time in a very cold place and preferably under co2 to minimize the oxidation that could also reduce the hop aroma and flavor that you are looking for. Time depends on the size of possible dust particles and the height of the vessel. You can also try what Dgallo suggested, different dry hopping temperature, cold conditioning the beer before dry hopping to reduce yeast etc. although I think the problem is probably the hop dust that goes away with time or fining. Fining can also reduce the pleasant hoppiness and even malt character so it is a trade off and you need to decide and experiment to see what you like. I have noticed that fining with silica gel (biofine etc.) + gelatin (or isinglass) clears the beer and reduces the harshness from dry hops, but it may also reduce some character. Large scale breweries tend to use centrifuge (something that is way out of reach for home brewers) to speed up the natural sedimentation that occurs during cold conditioning. They also tend to have filters that grab dust and insoluble material, see:

beerandbrewing.com said:
While planning to package Mind Haze, a 6.2 percent ABV hazy IPA, Firestone Walker brewers wanted to remove all yeast (which can bring along trace amounts of harsh iso-alpha acids) and hops-pellet dust (which can lead to hops burn, an undesirable “bitter burn in the back of your throat,” according to Brewmaster Matt Brynildson). “We’re selling this beer in the broad market,” Brynildson says, “so we’re centrifuging all the yeast out of that beer, and it still maintains its protein-tannin(polyphenol in complex with beer protein) haze.”
 
Last edited:
It's strange you get hop burn ( if hop burn at all - you also mention the beer lacks aroma, which is what dry hopping should amplify - so maybe oxidation aswell? ) with that little amount of hops in the dry hop. I've dry hopped ( 5-5.5 gallons ) bigger batches than you, with anything from 150 to 250 gr of hops and have not experienced hop burn. I don't think it's the hops, etc. but more of a process issue.

Your recipe, although fine on its own, does lack hops, if a more pungent aroma and flavour is what you were after. But more importantly, I fail to see how 1.5 kg of malts yield a beer with more than 4.4-4.5% ABV - and this is with 77% apparent attenaution and 72% brewhouse efficiency. IBUs would be around 30, so not overwhelming. Most importantly with hoppy beers, is to keep O2 away from the beer, or at least minimize it, as its impact is real and can really ruin the beer.

Dry hopping can add perceived bitterness, which will definitely taste bitter/unpleasent in some scenarios. Dry hopping done at a high temperature or left for longer than a few days, along with the freshness of hops or lack thereof, wort density, poor yeast health and fermentation, too much yeast and hop particles in suspension, amount of dissolved O2, etc. etc. - all these can contribute to a lesser final product.

I would also like to know more about your beer: ABV, calculated IBUs, a picture of it in a clean glass, more about your process, dry hopping schedule, length, temp., hops, yeast, etc.
 
If you're leaving hops open and exposed to oxygen for significant amounts of time, that could be your culprit, especially if stored anywhere but the freezer. As alpha acids oxidize they can form compounds that add significant unpleasant bitterness.
 
Yes, polyphenols from hops plus there could be even small, solid hop particles coming from the pellets that cause astringency that will persist until these tiny particles or excess polyphenolic aggregates drop to the bottom. This may take several days in a cold place. Some finings may also reduce polyphenols, particles & astringency. You could probably examine this even using the hop tea that you produced (although compounds in the beer may cause additional effects by binding with hop polyphenols).
I had a similar problem with my NEIPA when I switched from Mosaic to Galaxy for my keg dry hop. The beer was undrinkable and feared I had a dumper. I did some research on this website and read Southern Hemisphere hops such as Galaxy are prone to excess polyphenols. Suggestion was to pull my hop bag from the keg (it had been in a week) and add some biofine. That solved my problem of excessive bitterness and averted me having to dump that batch.
 
It's strange you get hop burn ( if hop burn at all - you also mention the beer lacks aroma, which is what dry hopping should amplify - so maybe oxidation aswell? ) with that little amount of hops in the dry hop. I've dry hopped ( 5-5.5 gallons ) bigger batches than you, with anything from 150 to 250 gr of hops and have not experienced hop burn. I don't think it's the hops, etc. but more of a process issue.

Your recipe, although fine on its own, does lack hops, if a more pungent aroma and flavour is what you were after. But more importantly, I fail to see how 1.5 kg of malts yield a beer with more than 4.4-4.5% ABV - and this is with 77% apparent attenaution and 72% brewhouse efficiency. IBUs would be around 30, so not overwhelming. Most importantly with hoppy beers, is to keep O2 away from the beer, or at least minimize it, as its impact is real and can really ruin the beer.

Dry hopping can add perceived bitterness, which will definitely taste bitter/unpleasent in some scenarios. Dry hopping done at a high temperature or left for longer than a few days, along with the freshness of hops or lack thereof, wort density, poor yeast health and fermentation, too much yeast and hop particles in suspension, amount of dissolved O2, etc. etc. - all these can contribute to a lesser final product.

I would also like to know more about your beer: ABV, calculated IBUs, a picture of it in a clean glass, more about your process, dry hopping schedule, length, temp., hops, yeast, etc.


My recipe was (from Manwell's Pale, Mosaic SMaSH):

size: 7.5L

Pale ale 0.75 kg
Munich 0.75 kg
-> giving 4% ABV

(all hop pellets)
Mosaic 2.5g @ 60 min
Mosaic 7g @15 min
Mosaic 10g @ flameout
Mosaic (dry hopping) 20g for 3 days (temperature was around 20 degree Celsius)
-> calculated IBU is 29

yeast: Mangrove Jack's M42

20201230120029.jpg
 
I had a similar problem with my NEIPA when I switched from Mosaic to Galaxy for my keg dry hop. The beer was undrinkable and feared I had a dumper. I did some research on this website and read Southern Hemisphere hops such as Galaxy are prone to excess polyphenols. Suggestion was to pull my hop bag from the keg (it had been in a week) and add some biofine. That solved my problem of excessive bitterness and averted me having to dump that batch.

The two main suspects to me are the polyphenols and hop particles. In my latest batch, I have added a bit of gelatin and let the beer dry hopped settle for a while, hopefully the hop particles will precipitate. (actually I find the precipitation helped quite a lot when I experimented it with hop tea)
 
Back
Top