IPA/IIPA's and Dry-hopping - is that where the mouthfeel comes from?

[snailsongs]

I recently had an IIPA at a local brewpub that left a tingling sensation on your lips and coated your mouth with what I could only describe as hop resin, though I'm not sure if that's what it really was.....
......so was it? Is that what you get from large amounts of dryhopping? This beer was stated as having only 90 IBU's, but it tasted like a sweet sticky hop nectar or something. I liked it, and I think it also had a narcotic effect on me, because after I drank two of those I felt like I'd dropped a couple of unisom.......

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Dry hopping contributes only to the aroma of a beer.

My guess is what you tasted was the result of bittering with a "C" hop (Columbus, Centennial, Cascade, Chinook) and/or large flavor additions in the 15-20 minute range.

 

[BierMuncher]

My Tits-Up IIPA has the same sweeter-than-bitter flavor with a large whoosh of hop aroma/flavor. IIPA's clock in around 9%+.

Dry hopping gives you that fresh flavor and aroma...along with the late additions. My IIPA gets dry hopped with 3-4 ounces of hops per 5-gallon batch.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

My Tits-Up IIPA has the same sweeter-than-bitter flavor with a large whoosh of hop aroma/flavor. IIPA's clock in around 9%+.

Dry hopping gives you that fresh flavor and aroma...along with the late additions. My IIPA gets dry hopped with 3-4 ounces of hops per 5-gallon batch.

AND ITS DAMN GOOD!!!!!!

Sorry for the outburst, just saw the name and started drooling and had to share my feelings

 

[Saccharomyces]

The Maharaja clone I brewed "El Dictador" has the same effect ... not sure where it comes from. WHAM the hop aroma hits first followed by the balanced sweetness of the malt and hop flavor, with a lingering bitter finish. After one (or two ) everything else tastes like water and you are too numb to care anyway.

 

[Beerrific]

I would argue that hops, specifically dry hopping, can indeed add mouthfeel to your beer. (As well as aroma, flavor, and perceived bitterness.)

Hops contain polyphenols (tannins) which can have significant effect on mouthfeel. Excess tannins can give you a mouth puckering astringency, this is the effect you normally see from excess tannin extraction from grain (over sparging, etc.). I think that the polyphenols from hops are not excessive enough to give you that mouth puckering sensation. I think that boiling tends to reduce the stability of these compounds so that you tend to only see it in beers that have been generously dry hopped.

Also, polyphenols tend to bind to proteins relatively easily and form the so-called protein-tannin complexes that make beer hazy. This is why dry hopped beers can have a bit of a "hop haze."

 

[Turner_Brown]

The Maharaja clone I brewed "El Dictador" has the same effect ... not sure where it comes from. WHAM the hop aroma hits first followed by the balanced sweetness of the malt and hop flavor, with a lingering bitter finish. After one (or two ) everything else tastes like water and you are too numb to care anyway.

Getting ready to bottle this one tonight. What was your OG/FG on this one?

I ended up with 1.093 and it looks like I'm gonna finish around 1.017-15. I threw in a pound of corn sugar to help dry it out a bit. I was surprised that I got 80+% attentuation out of the American Ale II.

Did you follow the dry hopping schedule? It looked kinda light to me. The recipe that I found only had 2 oz of dry hops.

 

[Turner_Brown]

tasted like a sweet sticky hop nectar or something. I liked it, and I think it also had a narcotic effect on me, because after I drank two of those I felt like I'd dropped a couple of unisom.......

This is a characteristic that I seek out in IIPAs. I absolutely love it. It is very apparent in Maharaja and Hopslam....oh and Hop-15.

 

[snailsongs]

The Maharaja clone I brewed "El Dictador" has the same effect ... not sure where it comes from. WHAM the hop aroma hits first followed by the balanced sweetness of the malt and hop flavor, with a lingering bitter finish. After one (or two ) everything else tastes like water and you are too numb to care anyway.

Yeah, that's the thing that surprised me....it wasn't "bitter" beer per say, but it was intensely hoppy, and there was so much hop flavor in there it had a spice/toxin like effect on my lips and tongue, a little like wasabi, garlic or some other strong "spice".....