To dry hop or not to dry hop?

[yuval]

We, three friends are about to brew a belgian strong ale with apricots, some kind of tripel(but not quite), but hoppier, in the style of Chouffe houblon and Duvel tripel hop, the recipe is as follows:
For about 6 gallons:
8.5 kg pilsner malt
0.25 kg aromatic malt
0.25 kg belgian biscuit malt
1 kg dark jaggary sugar

Hops: not sure which but one addition @ 90 min. for 65 ibu's
Yeast: WLP500 Trappist ale
Mash: 90 min @ 150-151 BIAB

OG: about 1.090, maybe a little higher.

Add at the end of fermentation at the primery 4 kg(8.8 lbs) of frozen fresh apricots.

Then at the secondary i thought of adding 200gr of mosaic hops.

Would it be too much going on? with the yeast and apricots or would it work with them? i'm not sure...

 

[paulster2626]

I would not dry hop this beer. There's already lots happening. I wouldn't even do the apricot thing.

 

[Calichusetts]

I would not dry hop this beer. There's already lots happening. I wouldn't even do the apricot thing.

This!

 

[yuval]

I tried to buiild a recipe around apricots and wlp500 so a tripel/belgian golden came to mind, would it be best to reduce the bitterness as well to say 35-40 ibu's(it's a big beer 10-11%)?

 

[paulster2626]

If I were doing this, I would add fruit and whatnot to an already successful recipe. Get the big belgian golden dialed in first, then start messing around.

FWIW, my belgian golden strong is the best beer I've ever made, and the recipe was this (you'll have to excuse the metric numbers). VERY simple:

5kg pilsner malt
1.13kg table sugar
85g acid malt

mash low for 75 minutes

23 IBUs of saaz and glacier at 90min (in my case it was 1oz of each)

I used 75% RO water for the mash, and 100% RO water for the sparge. My tap water is from the great lakes. Boil 90 minutes

fermented with a blend of WL0540 & 0570.

If anything, the flavours that came out of this would not really go well with a sweet fruit like apricots. I'd be more inclined to add something on the tart side like raspberries. But there is enough complexity going on already that it really doesn't need anything to be honest. The ONLY thing I'd do differently is add a handful of carafoam for better head retention. The spicyness from the saaz, the bite from the alcohol, and the dryness of the whole thing realy make a great backdrop for the yeast flavours to shine through. But, if you like apricots, then go for it!

I've entered it in a competition so we'll see what score it gets.

 

[yuval]

Ok, so no dry hoping, what about one late addition say 60 gr at 1 min? go with fruity aromatic hops to go with the apricots or something more neutral like nobel hops or no late addition at all? i think if it won't be noticable in some way why add in the first place?

 

[paulster2626]

Well it's your beer, do whatever you think will get you to what you're trying to accomplish!

Add your apricots, wait a while, taste it, and see if you want to dry hop it.
I've never said "I wish I didn't dry hop this" before.