New England IPA "Northeast" style IPA

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.
Curious if anyone here is recirculating dry hops? I’ve been doing the typical soft crash (55/58F), drop yeast, DH1 24-48hrs with recirc 2x 15 min to turn over the tank, drop hops, repeat with DH2, drop hops, crash to 38F (I live in GA and my glycol chiller isn’t happy in the summer), and package after 72hrs. I have definitely noticed increased and stable haze with a lot aroma/flavor after I started recirculating. BUT way more hop burn that takes at least two weeks of condition to drop out. I am wondering if anyone else does this and has a schedule for recirc dry hops. I am thinking to shorten the recirc time to 5 minutes. I ferment in a Spike C10 (FV - butterfly - site glass - elbow - butterfly - TC tee with gas post to purge pump assembly). Recirc is thru dump port and racking arm with a direct TC topsflow pump mounted).
CCE7ECA2-AA50-401C-81AD-B266258FE935.jpeg
 
Curious if anyone here is recirculating dry hops? I’ve been doing the typical soft crash (55/58F), drop yeast, DH1 24-48hrs with recirc 2x 15 min to turn over the tank, drop hops, repeat with DH2, drop hops, crash to 38F (I live in GA and my glycol chiller isn’t happy in the summer), and package after 72hrs. I have definitely noticed increased and stable haze with a lot aroma/flavor after I started recirculating. BUT way more hop burn that takes at least two weeks of condition to drop out. I am wondering if anyone else does this and has a schedule for recirc dry hops. I am thinking to shorten the recirc time to 5 minutes. I ferment in a Spike C10 (FV - butterfly - site glass - elbow - butterfly - TC tee with gas post to purge pump assembly). Recirc is thru dump port and racking arm with a direct TC topsflow pump mounted).View attachment 777500
I agitate my hops sporadically during dryhoping at 50-56*f over the 24-36 hour period. I personally do not get any additional hopburn from this versus when I would just let them sit there.

How long are you letting it crash before you dryhop? Are you dumping the yeast after it drops out? What yeast strain are you using? Is it something that can work at 58 such as LAIII? Have you tried your process at say 50-52*f to see if it helps?

It could also be your recent hop choice. Are you using Galaxy or any other AUS hops?
 
I agitate my hops sporadically during dryhoping at 50-56*f over the 24-36 hour period. I personally do not get any additional hopburn from this versus when I would just let them sit there.

How long are you letting it crash before you dryhop?
24-36 hours
Are you dumping the yeast after it drops out?
Yup
What yeast strain are you using?
WLP095
Is it something that can work at 58 such as LAIII? Have you tried your process at say 50-52*f to see if it helps?
Haven’t tried this yet, but I will on my next batch
It could also be your recent hop choice. Are you using Galaxy or any other AUS hops?
I’ve been recirculating for the past three batches, all have had Galaxy in the dry hop (2oz/gal and around 30% Galaxy T90). I have noticed less polyphenol as I’ve dropped the recirc time from 1 hour to 30 min, and most recently to 15 minutes. I started recirculating after reading the Wolfe thesis and talking with a local brewery about their dry hop practices. Like other here with the Spike conical, dry hops end up in the elbow at temps below 65F really quickly and the drop in extraction is noticeable to my palette. I do like the increase in haze I get from recirculating and will continue to do so. I haven’t seen too many other home brewers doing this.
CDB934BA-DDEF-4D08-9DEA-35543FBBC10C.jpeg
 
24-36 hours

Yup

WLP095

Haven’t tried this yet, but I will on my next batch

I’ve been recirculating for the past three batches, all have had Galaxy in the dry hop (2oz/gal and around 30% Galaxy T90). I have noticed less polyphenol as I’ve dropped the recirc time from 1 hour to 30 min, and most recently to 15 minutes. I started recirculating after reading the Wolfe thesis and talking with a local brewery about their dry hop practices. Like other here with the Spike conical, dry hops end up in the elbow at temps below 65F really quickly and the drop in extraction is noticeable to my palette. I do like the increase in haze I get from recirculating and will continue to do so. I haven’t seen too many other home brewers doing this.View attachment 777506
Looks great. I'm thinking there's still some yeast in suspension that are interacting with the recirculating hops and creating the hop burn. Sounds like you're doing everything else correctly. I only used WLP095 a few times and haven't had good luck, but that's probably more me and not the yeast. Plus, Galaxy can be harsh. I only use in DH.
 
Totally possible. The yeast love to stick to my sight glass so it’s hard to tell if I’ve gotten it all out on the dump. I’m guess I’ll have to be more patient before throwing the first DH charge in the hopper.
 
My next NEIPA will be an all citra lupomax/mosaic dry hop - maybe it all comes down to the Galaxy T90. It’s a good point I hadn’t considered.
Beer looks good. Another thing you could try to prevent the hops from sinking at cold Dh temps would be letting the hops warm up first and then mushing them or breaking up the pellets for better surface area to help them float. You could also set up with triclamps to be able to blast co2 through the elbow to resuspend the hops
 
So.... I'm not arguing or being contrary, but it seems like these temps would give you a high starting gravity, and tons of fermentables for a low final gravity, and a "thinner" beer, subjectively speaking? This strikes me as backwards from enhancing body. I really don't know but it doesn't feel right.

So one thing that has been driving me crazy is my FGs.

For the longest time, I thought my NEIPAs were finishing too low. My first 3 were Braufessors recipe from this thread. This was 2017-2018. Using Gigayeast GY-54. I really liked these beers and just found that they didn't quite have that mouthfeel that Treehouse gets. I was getting 1.013-1.014 as my FG, mashing at 154.

Then I made the Trinity Julius clone with the S04/T58/WB06 mix, mashed at 156, and finished at 1.009. I loved the beer, but still felt the mouthfeel wasn't quite right. However, it wasn't any thinner than my previous attempts, despite finishing with a significantly lower FG.

Then I started messing around with my own recipes, using WLP095 and mashing at 156. Same thing. They tasted great and I really liked them. But the mouthfeel still wasn't what I had in my head. These finished anywhere from 1.010 to 1.014. I just couldn't seem to get that FG up, which I assumed would get me the fuller mouthfeel.

All of this was back when every brew day was marked by one disaster or another. The first few were back in my outdoor brew pot + propane burner days and then my first few grainfather brews. I'm forgetting to make a starter, my pumps are clogged with hop matter, etc. I was using a Fermonster and learning closed transfers but clogging my disconnects when filling the kegs and having to expose my beer to o2 anyway. That's how my first 10 years of brewing generally went, hence my handle.

At some point everything became easy. I learned my grainfather. I've made some mods to address its limitations. I ferment in kegs with floating dip tubes. Brew day is less stressful, I hit my number consistently, etc. I've got a dedicated brew room that makes it easier.

This year I set out on a mission to find a grain bill and process that achieved the appearance, mouthfeel, and head I wanted. I always got the big hop flavor and aroma, so I figured I could mess with hops once I had that solid foundation.

I started with 1318 (first time), mashed at 158, no oats. The beer finished at 1.020! I finally got over that 1.014 barrier! By a lot. And....I didn't love it. It was okay. The mouthfeel was fuller but it felt sort of underattenuated to me. And while the yeast gave some good flavor, it seemed to overpower the hops. It wasn't the fresh hop bomb of my earlier beers. The head was A+

I tried again, this time with Spelt. Figured maybe the high FG was a fluke. But I finished at 1.021 and the mouthfeel was the best I've achieved. I'd be happy with that mouthfeel for all my NEIPAs. Still wasn't quite the fresh hop bomb my old ones were, but it was better than the previous batch and I felt like I was really zeroing in on my mouthfeel. But since the FG was about the same and the mouthfeel so improved, I started to think the FG maybe wasn't the end all.

So I wanted to see what would happen if I got the FG back down a bit--maybe to 1.016 ish. But I didn't want to lose that fantastic head I had, which I assumed was related to the 158 mash temp. So I went with a hockhurz thinking the low beta rest would help lower the FG and the high alpha rest would preserve the foam. But I was also beginning to think 1318 was overpowering my hops, so I did a split batch and pitched 1318 into one and WLP095 into the other. This would let me see whether the hockhurz got me a lower FG with 1318 and also whether the loss of hop character was due to the yeast.

The results?

Well, I showed you the pics a few pages back. Both oxidized to hell and taste terrible. lol. I don't have a clue what happened. And both finished at 1.020, which made no sense to me.

That was discouraging and I decided to take a break from the NEIPAs. Made a Cold IPA, revisited an old american wheat recipe I had, and then made a gose. I did use hockhurz for these hoping to make them fermentable and also maintain good foam. Just tapped the Cold IPA and its pretty good. The others are fermenting. But I'm ready to try again. I'll probably pretend that split batch never happened and try a hockhurz again, maybe with A24.

I'd give you a tl;dr version but that would require me to draw conclusions from all this and I haven't figured that out. So, I'll leave you with this instead:
 
Beer looks good. Another thing you could try to prevent the hops from sinking at cold Dh temps would be letting the hops warm up first and then mushing them or breaking up the pellets for better surface area to help them float. You could also set up with triclamps to be able to blast co2 through the elbow to resuspend the hops
I used to rouse with CO2 but it was more work than it was worth. At least in my hands. The aroma and flavor extraction from recirculating is unreal. But as with any technique, there are pros and cons. The astringency is a real hamper. Does no one else recirculate dry hops?
 
I think this is a bit of a lost art to use step mashing to build body or a more fermentable wort. I do think its an important aspect for body in NEIPAs as well. Like @murphyslaw Ive been doing variations of the Hockhurz method. I did a few with the mid 150 step but have ditched it. I am pretty much going with 148-150 for 30minutes and then 160 for 30minutes and then 168-170 for mashout. Not sure that mashout is really needed but I do it anyways lol. Because my ramp time is a bit slow (anvil foundry can't recirculate too fast) it takes about 15minutes to get to stable 160. Essentially Im doing about a 90minute mash with ramp times and mashout time built in. I still may shorten my Beta-amylase phase a bit simply because conversion is occurring pretty fast. I do measure my conversion % too along the way. Ive seen this graph ALL over the internet and there are multiple sources to it so not sure where the original came from as I still don't understand the time component in the title BUT I still refer to it when determining mash step temps. At 148-150F, Beta enzymes are about 75-85% active, with Alpha in the ~10% range. then at 160F, beta is ~10% while alpha enzyme is ~90% (and dextrinsare highest). SO thats my rationale for the temps Im using.

AN added anecdotal note: on my single hop NEIPA I brewed a while back (75% 2 row, 10% malted oats, 10% white wheat, 5% carafoam): for reasons unknown to me I missed my dough in temp and it rested at 153 instead of my planned 149. I just rolled with it and did a step at 160 after the first step. It had more body than I was ever expecting and thats when I looked back at my notes and noticed my missed dough in temp. My AA was still solid for a 6.5% beer and it landed at 1.015. SO there's that too lol.
View attachment 777446
Thanks for posting that graph, its really interesting. Maybe I'm just doing the wrong temps and for maybe too long. Probably need to shorten B amylase rest time and maybe increase the temp a degree or two and increase the A amylase temp and go a bit longer. Also scrap the 156 degree rest as it's probably not doing much.

My ideal finishing gravity is 1.018-20 I think, my current beer that is 1.012 is just way too low, just has no body. I try your schedule on my next brew to see how it goes. I find Beersmith no good at estimating step mashes so you just need real world trials with the same strain.
 
I'd give you a tl;dr version but that would require me to draw conclusions from all this and I haven't figured that out. So, I'll leave you with this instead:

It is always good to learn from others successes and failures.

BTW, I am not sure where you are in relationship to Falls Church VA. Dominion Wine & Beer has been rotating in some kegs of Monkish this week. I was at Monkish in 2019, and I was more excited to try out some of their Belgian offerings. The Monkish "Realer That Real" I had yesterday was not too impressive (at 10% it had a noticeable alcohol hotness). I thought the Equilibrium MC2 was quite nice. Looks like they have 3 Monkish beers on tap right now. Though personally, I am pretty happy with many of the area brewed NEIPA beers.
 
It is always good to learn from others successes and failures.

BTW, I am not sure where you are in relationship to Falls Church VA. Dominion Wine & Beer has been rotating in some kegs of Monkish this week. I was at Monkish in 2019, and I was more excited to try out some of their Belgian offerings. The Monkish "Realer That Real" I had yesterday was not too impressive (at 10% it had a noticeable alcohol hotness). I thought the Equilibrium MC2 was quite nice. Looks like they have 3 Monkish beers on tap right now. Though personally, I am pretty happy with many of the area brewed NEIPA beers.
you have got to be kidding me....my parents live in McLean, Total is basically my mom's second home (though she typically goes to the McLean one not Falls Church). They are visiting this weekend...they literally just pulled up...no monkish for me :(
 
It is always good to learn from others successes and failures.

BTW, I am not sure where you are in relationship to Falls Church VA. Dominion Wine & Beer has been rotating in some kegs of Monkish this week. I was at Monkish in 2019, and I was more excited to try out some of their Belgian offerings. The Monkish "Realer That Real" I had yesterday was not too impressive (at 10% it had a noticeable alcohol hotness). I thought the Equilibrium MC2 was quite nice. Looks like they have 3 Monkish beers on tap right now. Though personally, I am pretty happy with many of the area brewed NEIPA beers.
Which local NEIPAs have you liked? I find aslin to be sort of hit or miss, but I haven’t had a lot of their stuff. Astrolab in Silver Spring and Other Half DC are really the only local NEIPAs I go for. I do hit Sapwood a few times a year, too.
 
Which local NEIPAs have you liked? I find aslin to be sort of hit or miss, but I haven’t had a lot of their stuff. Astrolab in Silver Spring and Other Half DC are really the only local NEIPAs I go for. I do hit Sapwood a few times a year, too.
I am probably not as picky as some. I enjoy most beers by Aslin, and Solace. I am not too far from Ocelot and really like their mix of IPAs. Dynasty in Ashburn makes solid versions. I really used to like Crooked Run, but not so much these days. As far as the region goes, Commonwealth is usually solid as are various breweries from Richmond. Adroit Theory is one of those love/hate type breweries. I have only been to Astrolab and Other Half once each, and I agree they were making very nice versions. It seems like most quality breweries will have one or two decent Hazies on tap (House 6, Settle Down Easy, and Caboose come to mind).

Juicy in Herndon gets a bit of hype these days. They are in the original Aslin location making stuff that might be closer to Aslin before they expanded so much:
https://www.juicybrewing.com/
 
I used to rouse with CO2 but it was more work than it was worth. At least in my hands. The aroma and flavor extraction from recirculating is unreal. But as with any technique, there are pros and cons. The astringency is a real hamper. Does no one else recirculate dry hops?
It seems like either method would be equivalent in terms of flavor extraction or aroma. If my hops drop too quickly I hit it with co2 from the bottom. Any time I try methods like this oxygen scares the hell out of me, regardless of how much I purge everything. I haven’t really noticed a difference between batches where hops don’t drop vs hops drop quickly + purge. I know back when Other Half was still making good beer they said they stopped recirculating hops because of astringency.
 
First time joining this thread, but have already learned a lot, so my thanks to all the contributors. I gave up the NEIPA quest after having weak hop presence and oxidation issues. I gave it a renewed effort with first time true CO2 purge and closed transfer. Resulting beer is below and it is by far my best NEIPA. I used flaked oats and wheat, mashed at 152, LA III yeast, Citra and Galaxy hops.
Criticisms:
—needs a bit more body (will try the step mashing).
—hop aroma and flavor is decent despite the foam explosion when adding hops to the fermenter. (will try recirculating and mashing/crushing the hop pellets).
—still holding its color and haze despite transfer issues. I’ll cold crash the next one.
—Head is actually better than the picture (Was a bit undercarbed).
15F996B4-479F-4D7C-B9B3-44A71B4DFFB6.jpeg
 
I used to rouse with CO2 but it was more work than it was worth. At least in my hands. The aroma and flavor extraction from recirculating is unreal. But as with any technique, there are pros and cons. The astringency is a real hamper. Does no one else recirculate dry hops
I've recirculated hops with good results but have noticed that it takes longer for the "hop harshness" to subside. Recently, I've been injecting CO2 through the dump port to rouse the dry hops. I attach the 2" butterfly valve directly to the conical bottom and attach the "capped" elbow to that. Post fermentation, I soft crash to 58 degrees, remove the elbow which now contains settled yeast. I then sanitize and attach a 2" gas post fitting to the valve and purge with CO2 before tightening the TC clamp. Prior to adding the dry hops, I slowly drain the remaining yeast from the cone using a gas post and silicone tubing, add the hops and rouse once per day for 3 days, then crash. My thinking is that when the hops settle in between rousing, there's more hop to beer surface area as the hops are in the cone and not in the elbow. I pressure ferment @ 10-12psi and dry hop at 58 degrees. I'm sure that hop recirculation does a more effective job but I didn't think the difference was significant and hop rousing is simply an easier process. Not giving up on recirculation but believe hop rousing is nearly as effective.

1660395882149.jpeg

1660396292675.jpeg
 
Here’s my latest Double NEIPA AT 8.1%. Just 2row, oat malt, and 3% honey malt. Heavily dryhoped with Simcoe and Mosaic LUPOMAX at a 2:1 ratio View attachment 777572
Looks great! Here is my latest right after transfer.. 2-row flaked oats and malted oats. 7.6% probably should wait to get a proper pic but I am excited to be close to something I like.
 

Attachments

  • 68209535944__6E2BA47A-AC9E-4D96-9CE5-4118727354BA.JPG
    68209535944__6E2BA47A-AC9E-4D96-9CE5-4118727354BA.JPG
    1.5 MB · Views: 0
Here’s my latest Double NEIPA AT 8.1%. Just 2row, oat malt, and 3% honey malt. Heavily dryhoped with Simcoe and Mosaic LUPOMAX at a 2:1 ratio View attachment 777572
Simcoe LUPOMAX + Mosaic LUPOMAX or Simcoe Pellet + Mosaic LUPOMAX? I haven’t been brewing as much as I’d like lately but am really curious about LUPO vs Pellet. Building my next beer off your comments from Omega:
Cascade Mash
LUPO Late boil
Phantasm WP
Bells T90 DH

Pretty expensive beer. Lol. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
 
Question on your post fermentation dry hopping: I assume there are no issues with oxygen introduction at this stage? I added dry hops after about three days of active fermentation knowing any added oxygen would be consumed in the ongoing/continued fermentation. I plan to try CO2 injection on my next batch after adding dry hops to the fermenter. Are you adding dry hops at multiple points? Any advice on techniques?

(my apologies if this has been discussed earlier in the thread—I’ll be sure to read through it).
 
Simcoe LUPOMAX + Mosaic LUPOMAX or Simcoe Pellet + Mosaic LUPOMAX? I haven’t been brewing as much as I’d like lately but am really curious about LUPO vs Pellet. Building my next beer off your comments from Omega:
Cascade Mash
LUPO Late boil
Phantasm WP
Bells T90 DH

Pretty expensive beer. Lol. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Simcoe t90. Let me know what you think of the phantasm
 
I've recirculated hops with good results but have noticed that it takes longer for the "hop harshness" to subside. Recently, I've been injecting CO2 through the dump port to rouse the dry hops. I attach the 2" butterfly valve directly to the conical bottom and attach the "capped" elbow to that. Post fermentation, I soft crash to 58 degrees, remove the elbow which now contains settled yeast. I then sanitize and attach a 2" gas post fitting to the valve and purge with CO2 before tightening the TC clamp. Prior to adding the dry hops, I slowly drain the remaining yeast from the cone using a gas post and silicone tubing, add the hops and rouse once per day for 3 days, then crash. My thinking is that when the hops settle in between rousing, there's more hop to beer surface area as the hops are in the cone and not in the elbow. I pressure ferment @ 10-12psi and dry hop at 58 degrees. I'm sure that hop recirculation does a more effective job but I didn't think the difference was significant and hop rousing is simply an easier process. Not giving up on recirculation but believe hop rousing is nearly as effective.

View attachment 777569
View attachment 777570
Above questions were primarily for k-daddy, but any responses are welcome.
 
Above questions were primarily for k-daddy, but any responses are welcome.
There is so much info in this thread regarding peoples various practices for low o2 dryhoping. Click the search icon, click the drop down for search this thread only and use the keyword “dryhop, dryhopping”

That way you can check out the different ways people do it and find the one that would work best for your equipment
 
Simcoe t90. Let me know what you think of the phantasm
I've been in LOVE with Simcoe lately. It's so complex. Early on I get strawberries and vanilla, then it fades to soft citrus.

I paired it with Strata this past batch, currently fermenting with Coastal Haze.
 
There is so much info in this thread regarding peoples various practices for low o2 dryhoping. Click the search icon, click the drop down for search this thread only and use the keyword “dryhop, dryhopping”

That way you can check out the different ways people do it and find the one that would work best for your equipment
Thanks—will do!
 
Simcoe LUPOMAX + Mosaic LUPOMAX or Simcoe Pellet + Mosaic LUPOMAX? I haven’t been brewing as much as I’d like lately but am really curious about LUPO vs Pellet. Building my next beer off your comments from Omega:
Cascade Mash
LUPO Late boil
Phantasm WP
Bells T90 DH

Pretty expensive beer. Lol. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a simco lipomax. Perplexing tbh since they’ve gone lipomax with the other old school hops and some of the newer hops. Wish they would, I haven’t seen it
 
You folks that are enjoying your Simcoe, where are you buying from?
I have some solid cryo that I got from yakima Chief and the t90 is from YVH. My last 2 lbs from from them have been awesome. Very orange/orange pith forward with a beautiful “hoppy” flavor/aroma I can only describe as that
 
Gonna try A24 for the first time. What temp do you all suggest?
I do a little temp drive with it;
-Pitch at 68-70
-let it freerise to 72-74
-then I push it to 75/76 on day 2 or three and hold it there for 3 days.
-then I will let it free fall to 70 and will hold it there until I’m ready to softcrash

This was something that happened by accident one time in the summer when my temp control went out but it gave me the best ester profile from it so now I do it lol. I get nectarine/stone fruit with citrus leaning towards orange. It’s firm but still allows hops to shine
 
I do a little temp drive with it;
-Pitch at 68-70
-let it freerise to 72-74
-then I push it to 75/76 on day 2 or three and hold it there for 3 days.
-then I will let it free fall to 70 and will hold it there until I’m ready to softcrash

This was something that happened by accident one time in the summer when my temp control went out but it gave me the best ester profile from it so now I do it lol. I get nectarine/stone fruit with citrus leaning towards orange. It’s firm but still allows hops to shine


Perfect, thanks.

I do a similar progression with other yeasts but with 6- 8 degrees cooler. Seems most pros do it warm like you. I’ll give it a try.
 
For the folks overbuilding starters, what starting cell count do you use for Omega yeasts / Cosmic as a starting point? On their site they say 150m - 500m range depending on strain. Getting first brew day in like 8 months next week and I am giddy.
 
For the folks overbuilding starters, what starting cell count do you use for Omega yeasts / Cosmic as a starting point? On their site they say 150m - 500m range depending on strain. Getting first brew day in like 8 months next week and I am giddy.
Use the date on the package to determine an approximate starting cell count. http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php
Use that calculator to see how much dme to use to overbuild and harvest.
 
Anyone used S-33 for this style yet? I was talking to a reputable brewer near me, and he mentioned knowing some people who used S-33 for their hazys. I researched a bit online, and I do see that people have made, in their opinions, great neipas with it. It's technically a Belgian yeast, but I may have to give it a whirl.
 
It's technically a Belgian yeast, but I may have to give it a whirl.
I think it is technically an English ESB style yeast that Fermentis labels oddly to say that it can be used for Belgian styles. I have only used it S-33 once in an American Pale Ale. I thought it turned out nice. The S-33 batch was a touch fuller and sweeter than the US-05 batch and had notes of what I would describe as dried apricot. I am not quite sure how the attenuation of S-33 compares with a yeast like London III/Verdant. I have been wanting to use S-33 in a "Session NEIPA" (Hazy Pale Ale?) where I think the low attenuation would work well.
 
Back
Top