How many hops is too much?

[FATC1TY]

But say you wanted to intentionally create a sweeter maltier beer and dry hop the bejeezus out of it... would that add a lot of the hoppy aroma and neglect the bitterness that comes from those hops? And how much, so?... Is there a way to measure the effect of the hops in relation to the time in the boil? (or not in the boil at all in terms of dry hopping..?)

Sure, you could, but if you want a sweet malty beer, you could mash higher, which would leave a higher finished gravity. You could use less hops for bittering, and add most all of them inside of 5 minutes in the boil, and gain minimal bittering from them.

Ultimately, you'd need a decent level of bittering to make the beer even drinkable.

Dry hopping will add aroma, which is turn is linked to flavor as well.

There is a way to measure how much the hops contribute to the boil in terms of bittering. IBU's.. The higher the AA, and the longer it boils, the more bitter it will be.

If it's not boiled, it won't contribute any real measured bitterness to a beer.

 

[ifearnothing0]

I disagree - A 15% beer compared to a 4% beer, or a dry beer compared to a malty beer with the same IBUs will have a ridiculously different hop profiles/tastes. If you don't believe me, try a dogfish 120; 120 IBUs and cant taste a damn one of them!

Dogfishhead 120 tastes like really syrupy pre- fermented wort I couldn't taste and hops , didn't even really taste like beer or even a barley wine , but some people like me actually paid 10+ dollars for a 12oz bottle of it ... I'm an huge ipa fan but I would definitely not recommend any of dogfish heads ipa's , there are much better and much more realistically priced beers out there in my opinion .. Or ya could just make your own haha

 

[mytommygundont]

But say you wanted to intentionally create a sweeter maltier beer and dry hop the bejeezus out of it... would that add a lot of the hoppy aroma and neglect the bitterness that comes from those hops? And how much, so?... Is there a way to measure the effect of the hops in relation to the time in the boil? (or not in the boil at all in terms of dry hopping..?)

This is a slippery slope because your brain can perceive sweetness from aroma. So if you "dry hop the bejeezus out of it" , your brain could potentially tell you the beer is sweeter than it really is.

 

[ifearnothing0]

It is easy to over bitter. But hard to over aroma.

I agree with HopSpunge ... Which has me worried about my latest batch , it's a 5 gallon partial mash clone of Avery's Maharaja iipa I like .. It calls for 7.5 oz of hops and I've brewed 7 ipa's out of my 10 batches ... But this 1 calls for 3 oz of Columbus at the start of the boil !?!? Does this sound off to anybody but me ? All the other ipa's I've done only call for 1 oz at the top end of the boil

 

[FATC1TY]

I agree with HopSpunge ... Which has me worried about my latest batch , it's a 5 gallon partial mash clone of Avery's Maharaja iipa I like .. It calls for 7.5 oz of hops and I've brewed 7 ipa's out of my 10 batches ... But this 1 calls for 3 oz of Columbus at the start of the boil !?!? Does this sound off to anybody but me ? All the other ipa's I've done only call for 1 oz at the top end of the boil

That is alot of bittering hops, but could be proportional depending on the grain bill, and the recipe.. A really big sweet beer needs some serious bittering to tame the sugar.

 

[ifearnothing0]

Yeah there wasn't much for specialty grains but it had 11 lbs of extra light dme and a lbs of cane and a lbs of crystal sugar

 

[wiggybrewer]

+1 Yooper! Totally agree. Apa and Ipas are my favorites.