Hop doubts

[Dadux]

Hi guys,

So im brewing an APA with Polaris hops and im usually not a fan of high bitterness or high hop content beers but i wanted to givw it a try. But i have not played much with hops so i have a few questions.

In this case i have a 15 liter batch where i added 15 grams of Polaris for 30 minute boil and 20 grams when it dropped under 60°C. This is not much for an APA (altough im going for medium hop flavour, just want to start low) so i am thinking on dry hopping it. However these Polaris has a whooping 19.8% AA and they also contain 4ml/100g of oils. Now i have searched the internet with mixed answers here. But if i have such a high AA content will this affect the beer in dry hopping? Also since the oil content is so high shouls i use less than i would with some other hop? Because for example Perle has around 1ml/100 grams so does that mean that the aroma of Polaris is 4 times as strong? In that case i may just leave it be.

In any case if i dry hop i would only add 10-20 grams more but i would like some advice on how a high AA and oil content would affect the beer.

Also my hops are in pellet form and the main part of the fermentation is done and the yeast sedimented. If i add the pellets will i get the hop matter when i rack cause it will be on top? Dont want bottles filled with green bits... And how long should i let them be in there until i rack? Probably cant cold crash. I also have a hop bag which might help i guess

Thank you in advance,

Dadux

 

[PADave]

AA doesn't matter for dry hopping. The temp needs to be above 180 to isomerize the alpha acids, which is where you get your bittering.

 

[Dadux]

what about oil content?

 

[Smellyglove]

what about oil content?

The oils will leach out into the wort as long as the hops are in contact with the wort. The higher temperature the faster. For instance, if you'd dryhop cold vs warm for 3 days you'd notice that the warm sample would have a lot more hop-punch.

 

[Dadux]

great but do hops with more oils carry more flavour and should i adjust the ammount according to oil content or not...?

 

[Smellyglove]

great but do hops with more oils carry more flavour and should i adjust the ammount according to oil content or not...?

Oh yes definitely. If you'd set cascade and Mosaic up against each other in equal amounts the Mosaic-beer would have more intense flavor in it from the hops.

 

[Dadux]

ok ok thanks. Still undecided then, cause cascade has 0.8-2.5ml and mosaic 0.8-3 but polaris has 4-5.
Thanks for the help nontheless

 

[PADave]

Remember flavor is going to be different than bitterness. Only thing you can do is try it for yourself and see if you like it. If not, do something different next time.

 

[Hopsimus]

I used Polaris hops in a moderately hopped saison, a bit over a year ago.
I found them to be quite strong flavor/aroma wise. Much more so than lower oil hops.
I dry hopped with about .3 oz (~8.5 g) (adjusted to a 4 gallon batch - roughly the same as your 15 liter).
I'd recommend going light, at least for the first try.

You could always pull a sample on the day you would dry hop to see if you think more flavor is in order. It won't be exactly the same since there will be no carbonation yet, but it might give you an idea on whether to do the dry hop or not.

As for the dry hopping process, I typically dry hop in a bag myself. I get slightly lower utilization that way, but have learned to adjust accordingly. If you don't use a bag, the hops will generally drop out after a day or two anyway, but your mileage may vary.
Most people these days recommend dry hopping for 3 to 5 days. I went for 5 in my saison.

Cheers!

 

[Dadux]

i added 20 grams after the boil while cooling, so that may count as "dry hopping" a bit. I do so because since i stir the wort to cool it and its hotter (i add always under 60ºC, but it cools down fast to 35 or so) the extraction is faster and i only leave it for a few hours. For now that is all the aroma/flavour hops i used. 15 grams of polaris also boiled for 30 minutes, dunno if sth will remain after that.
So that might be enough. I guess i will open to measure OG and probably add another 10 grams.
Thanks fro the input guys.

 

[RM-MN]

i added 20 grams after the boil while cooling, so that may count as "dry hopping" a bit. I do so because since i stir the wort to cool it and its hotter (i add always under 60ºC, but it cools down fast to 35 or so) the extraction is faster and i only leave it for a few hours. For now that is all the aroma/flavour hops i used. 15 grams of polaris also boiled for 30 minutes, dunno if sth will remain after that.
So that might be enough. I guess i will open to measure OG and probably add another 10 grams.
Thanks fro the input guys.

I think this is closer to what people call whirlpool addition rather than dry hopping. With the wort that hot you probably drove off some of the aromatic oils that would still be there if you dry hopped.

 

[Dadux]

IMO its an inbetween. i dont hold the temps there, and they go down quite quick. Im sure some of the aroma is driven off but not as much as with whirlpool. But yeah, some do. One of the reasons i wanted to do the dry hop.

 

[Smellyglove]

ok ok thanks. Still undecided then, cause cascade has 0.8-2.5ml and mosaic 0.8-3 but polaris has 4-5.
Thanks for the help nontheless

If you're going for the oil-content route you really need to get the batch-information for the pack of hops you bought. But after just sampling different hops you'll know where they're at when it comes to intensity. But if a hop is stated as 2.5-3 you know it's higher than a hop at 1.5-2. 0.8-2.5 (as you found a generic number for the Cascade) doesn't say much, as the span between those two numbers is pretty high.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

great but do hops with more oils carry more flavour

They do - but it's not a linear relationship, you can't say "hop A has 4x the oil of hop B, so I should use a quarter as much of hop A". The flavour does not directly depend on the total oil content, it's very dependent on the exact makeup of the flavour compounds. And Polaris is a weird hop in many ways, not just with its huge alpha and oil content, but its actual flavour. So Polaris isn't the ideal hop to start playing with if you "have not played much with hops".

I'd tend to just go for it though.

 

[Smellyglove]

Are you interested in some hop oil?

Like in a weakly lit alley and the first shot is free?

 

[SanPancho]

great but do hops with more oils carry more flavour and should i adjust the ammount according to oil content or not...?

as NB noted above, there is no linear relationship between flavor intensity and oil content.

got a buddy who works for one of the bigger supply groups and they do little homebrew size testers of all the hops that come in- standard recipes. per his experience- theres no link to the intensity of the hop based solely on the oils.

and with regard to polaris- be careful with that one. i ruined a beer with it as bittering. tasted like eucalyptus. no bueno.