to dry hop, or not to dry hop

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blackwaterbrewer

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ipa is on day 7 in primary. og 1.048, now at 1.010

taste is very nicely balanced, leaning toward the bitter.

i was planning on a dry hop of 1/2oz cascade to the second carboy. will that add too much bitter or just some flavor/aroma? i don't make ipa's very often and don't want to wreck this nice sweet/bitter balance i have right now.

any thoughts??
 
Go for it, dry hops won't add bitterness. You have to boil hops to extract the bitter components. The dry hops will add aroma/flavor and will be awesome. I just dry hopped my last IPA with 1 oz of amarillo, it taste's awesome.

Dry hop for 1 week is enough.

The beer may taste bitter now because it's only been in the primary for a week. That bitterness should subside a bit with time. You should leave the beer in the primary for another week, then add dry hops to secondary for a week or two. Then bottle/keg.
 
sounds like a plan, guac! not a big ipa fan, but have been craving it lately. this one is gonna be awesome! do you do a long keg condition or is a week enough?
 
For the one I just finished, I did 3 weeks primary, 1 week secondary (dry hop), then 1 week keg condition room temp. Then in the fridge and tasted great a couple days after (although not completely carbed yet).

I've gotten to where I don't chill anything prior to 5 weeks. I've had a lot of problems with green tasting beer in the past (or so i think), so patience is the key for me.

Once in the fridge, a week to carb and clear is usually pretty good. two weeks and you're golden.
 
The dry hop will not ruin the flavor of an IPA. I keg my 10 gallon batches and have done experiments of dry hopping one keg and not the other. By far, the flavor of the beer with the dry hop addition is much better.
I find that the beer with the dry hop will give the beer a hoppy sweetness and flavor and aroma. However, this is somewhat dependent on what variety of hops that you use.
BTW, in my book, 1/2 ounce is a little on the light side for a hoppy beer. For my Ipa's, I start at one ounce per 5 gallons.
Do it!
 
For the one I just finished, I did 3 weeks primary, 1 week secondary (dry hop), then 1 week keg condition room temp. Then in the fridge and tasted great a couple days after (although not completely carbed yet).

I've gotten to where I don't chill anything prior to 5 weeks. I've had a lot of problems with green tasting beer in the past (or so i think), so patience is the key for me.

Once in the fridge, a week to carb and clear is usually pretty good. two weeks and you're golden.

....and guacamole IS good! it's probably my favorite food, actually! :rockin:
 
Just dryhopped our IIPA with 1.5oz of Cascade and 1.5oz of Centennial - can't wait to smell that badboy!
 
i've got a question for everyone.

IPA has been in the primary bucket for a week. OG was 1.056, gravity has been stable 1.014 for 2 days now so I was going to move it to a 6G carboy secondary.

I also would like to dry hop with 1oz of amarillo. However if i plan to leave it in the secondary for 2 weeks should i add the hops right when i rack and remove them after 7 days OR wait for 1 week and dry hop for the final week in the secondary before bottling.

thanks
 
Dry hop for 2 weeks is fine, the less you touch the beer, the better. I wouldn't go through the process of trying to "remove" the hops out of the secondary, just wait and rack the beer out of the secondary as normal.

If you want to wait 1 week in secondary, then drop the hops in, that would probably be the best bet if you're dead set on only dry hopping for 1 week.
 
i just wait until fermentation has slowed, then dry hop with pellets right in the primary- reduces oxidation risk from extra racking, and this beer isnt going to sit on the yeast long enough to worry about off-flavors- they take months to develop

+1 Amarillo- i did an amarillo/maris otter SMaSH with 8 ounces total of amarillo and 15 pounds of maris otter- its probably the best IPA ive ever had
 
i just wait until fermentation has slowed, then dry hop with pellets right in the primary- reduces oxidation risk from extra racking, and this beer isnt going to sit on the yeast long enough to worry about off-flavors- they take months to develop

+1 Amarillo- i did an amarillo/maris otter SMaSH with 8 ounces total of amarillo and 15 pounds of maris otter- its probably the best IPA ive ever had

How much of that 8 oz was dry hops? I'm going to do this smash this year.
 
Yes! IMHO APA and IPA should ALWAYS be dry hopped. They should also have hops added to the runnings if you're doing AG. They should also be wet hopped when possible. Add hops In the boil, the 1* and 2* fermenter, and possibly a fresh hop in the bottle itself. In fact they should be hopped at every conceivable chance. A fresh hop should be added to the glass when they are served, but only after they have been dispensed through a "hopinator." That's MHO at least.
 
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