No aroma from 6 oz dry hop. What gives?!

[CyberFox]

Been meaning to contribute to and bookmark this thread.

In my limited experience, hop flavour is easy enough, hop aroma is end of the rainbow stuff.

It takes a ton of hops and doesn't last long.

Aroma is evanescent.


The other problem is it's never enough for a hophead.

Give the same beer to a bud light drinker they say WOW ... what an aroma

But as soon as we are used to it it's gone.

Can't sense it any more after the first night or 2 it's undetectable

But down to the physics

Contact time, surface area and temperature vs hop charge

Your best bet is recirculating through a Randal or hop back to maximise contact and surface area vs your weight of hops.

5 days constant recirc at your fermenting temp IMO for best results

Then disconnect clean, refill with hops and run cold ish 5-10c to get the illusive "high notes' with something like mosaic + bru 1

Keep us posted

That reminds me of the "lupulin threshold shift": when a really hoppy beer now seems pedestrian. Beers are so hoppy now that it's getting harder to get your hop fix. The goal posts keep moving!

I don't get to brew too frequently, so it makes poor results that much more disappointing. I'm fermenting a pumpkin spice beer right now and I'm going to try cold crashing for a few days to drop any residual yeast, then "dry spice" at 38 degrees for two days. I'm also going to add some ascorbic acid to help prevent oxidation. I haven't dry hopped/spiced cold or used ascorbic acid before, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[OzzyPeeps]

It's the same with any kind of 'tolerance' ...

Same with bitterness.

The more beer U drink the less bitter they seem.

Your taste buds get 'inured' to it.

Changing it up is good.

Mixing up different beers to keep your tastebuds guessing.

But I feel the same way about hops as I do about garlic and ginger in my curries ... no such thing as too much

"Stinging" with hops? Hahahah I laugh at you!

The only thing that will ever stop me is a fatal lupulin overdose!

Have you tried any of the co2 extracts from hopsteiner or Barth Haas?

Hop crack right there

 

[CyberFox]

It's the same with any kind of 'tolerance' ...

Same with bitterness.

The more beer U drink the less bitter they seem.

Your taste buds get 'inured' to it.

Changing it up is good.

Mixing up different beers to keep your tastebuds guessing.

But I feel the same way about hops as I do about garlic and ginger in my curries ... no such thing as too much

"Stinging" with hops? Hahahah I laugh at you!

The only thing that will ever stop me is a fatal lupulin overdose!

Have you tried any of the co2 extracts from hopsteiner or Barth Haas?

Hop crack right there

I agree about tastebuds getting accustomed to flavors. There was one time where I drank nothing but NEIPAs for nearly a month and I switched over to stouts and pilsners for a few weeks. When I tried the NEIPAs again, they seemed way more hoppy than before and I figured it was due to the changeup. It's always good to have variety.

I feel the same way about hops: no such thing as too much. Hop burn would be the only possible downside, but there are ways to avoid that. I'll never have a beer that's too hoppy.

I haven't tried CO2 extracts, but I might in the future. I want to be able to make awesome beer with pellet hops before getting fancy. I figure that if I can make good beer with the basics, then I could really blow it out of the water with the fancier stuff.

When it comes to hop aroma, I'm still on the fence about dry hopping under pressure vs using a blow-off. Some say that aroma can be blown off and I'm not sure if it's true. It seems like most people who dry hop under pressure, due to the concern of losing aroma, usually spund to limit the pressure in the vessel. It seems to me that aroma would still escape anyway once the pressure gets high enough.

 

[BrewZer]

I don't keg or dry hop, so I'm asking this from a process perspective: is it possible you're purging a lot of your hop aroma with those 16X CO2 purges after you drop the hops in?

 

[CyberFox]

I don't keg or dry hop, so I'm asking this from a process perspective: is it possible you're purging a lot of your hop aroma with those 16X CO2 purges after you drop the hops in?

That's a good point, but I still have no clue if aroma loss from purging is a myth or not. It's similar to how it's thought that using a blow-off during dry hopping, instead of dry hopping under pressure, could lead to aroma loss. I wish I had a definitive answer.

16 purges at 30 psi is my usual practice. For my last beer, I decreased it to 10 purges at 6 psi and I still didn't have big aroma. That was with a 6 oz dry hop, which I think should be enough. I also dry hopped under pressure. I've also tried continuously purging while adding the dry hops and it didn't seem to make a difference.

I'm going to try dry hopping my next beer with ground up hops at 38 degrees with a blow-off attached to see what happens.

 

[HM-2]

Are you rousing at all, or just dumping and leaving?

I've had intermittent issues getting decent dry hop extraction over the years, but my currently process (which works pretty reliably) is fairly similar to yours.

Can you dump the yeast as well? I've noticed significantly improved hop flavour and aroma from dumping trub before dry hopping.

 

[Bassman2003]

Cyber, I am not trying to promote anything as I make these just to share, but my transfer video is complete if you have not seen it...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...d-pressure-transfer-video-is-complete.729035/

 

[Redhouse Brewing]

That's a good point, but I still have no clue if aroma loss from purging is a myth or not. It's similar to how it's thought that using a blow-off during dry hopping, instead of dry hopping under pressure, could lead to aroma loss. I wish I had a definitive answer.

16 purges at 30 psi is my usual practice. For my last beer, I decreased it to 10 purges at 6 psi and I still didn't have big aroma. That was with a 6 oz dry hop, which I think should be enough. I also dry hopped under pressure. I've also tried continuously purging while adding the dry hops and it didn't seem to make a difference.

I'm going to try dry hopping my next beer with ground up hops at 38 degrees with a blow-off attached to see what happens.

I used to have same issue until I tried a recommendation by Denny Conn. If I’m making an IPA (not hazy) then I soft crash after fermentation to 45°F for 24 hours. Add the hops and purge 3 cycles. I leave the hops for 48-72 hours. Then crash down to 34°F for 24 hrs and then do closed transfer into a keg that has been filled with properly mixed star san and purged out with co2.

If I’m making a hazy (NEIPA) then I dry hop on day 7. There was study done by a chemist at Wyeast that found dry hopping on day 7 gave the best stable haze/turbidity. I’ll have to say this findings are definitely accurate. My hazies have been stellar since I started using that advice. I do set the spunding valve to 12 psi when dry hopping hazies.

Give those recommendations a try and see if it helps. I know it helped me and now all my beers come out excellent tasting with plenty of aroma that lasts throughout the keg.

 

[CyberFox]

Are you rousing at all, or just dumping and leaving?

I've had intermittent issues getting decent dry hop extraction over the years, but my currently process (which works pretty reliably) is fairly similar to yours.

Can you dump the yeast as well? I've noticed significantly improved hop flavour and aroma from dumping trub before dry hopping.

I'm not rousing, but I'm going to grind the hops into a powder, so there should be no problem getting good extraction even in cold temperatures. I also can't dump the yeast because I ferment in a keg. I'm going to cold crash before dry hopping for my next batch, so no yeast should be in suspension. We'll see how that goes.

Cyber, I am not trying to promote anything as I make these just to share, but my transfer video is complete if you have not seen it...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...d-pressure-transfer-video-is-complete.729035/

That's an awesome video! That's the kind of video anyone could use who's trying to figure out the setup. I do everything the same except using a spunding valve.

I used to have same issue until I tried a recommendation by Denny Conn. If I’m making an IPA (not hazy) then I soft crash after fermentation to 45°F for 24 hours. Add the hops and purge 3 cycles. I leave the hops for 48-72 hours. Then crash down to 34°F for 24 hrs and then do closed transfer into a keg that has been filled with properly mixed star san and purged out with co2.

I'm trying a similar technique with my next beer. I've also heard about dry hopping on day 7 for the best haze. I'm not really aiming for clear or hazy. All I really care about is it being unfiltered.