I just opened a bottle of my very first batch, a Brewer's Best IPA. Poured a great head on the beer, color looks good, not much aroma though and the flavor is good but I know it could be better. I've heard people talking about continuous dry-hopping...what can I do to improve the IPA and give it more of that citrusy smell/flavor that you find in some IPA?
Ways to improve an IPA
- Thread starter jruffatto
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android
Well-Known Member
more late hops and heavy dry hopping. overload your hops with additions 20-0 minutes. centennial, simcoe, chinook, cascade, columbus, etc. will all give you good american IPA characteristics.
iron_city_ap
Well-Known Member
My 2nd batch ever was the BB IPA kit. IIRC it uses cascade and columbus hops, right? Just not very much of them. In the future, I would add an extra ounce or two and do what android suggested. Keep the ingriedint list and in the future, try to piece together your own and use the BB list as a starting out point.
yodalegomaster
Well-Known Member
Dry hoping is only an aroma addition. 1 once for 9 days in the secondary works great for aroma.
I guess my next question would be, what is dry hopping?
chefchris
Well-Known Member
the addition of hops towards the end or after fermentation to add hop aroma to the beer.
OK, so you add hops at the end, but what about the sterilization process? Since it's alcohol at that point, does it not really matter if you add some hops to it?
chefchris
Well-Known Member
I can't even count how many beers I've dry hopped. Not once have I sanitized them. Not once had I had an infection from dry hopping.
When I said 'towards the end', I meant towards the end of fermentation or after. Just clearing that up.
When I said 'towards the end', I meant towards the end of fermentation or after. Just clearing that up.
scinerd3000
Well-Known Member
hops are naturally antimicrobial. IPA gets there name from the tradeships going to india which shipped the beer in hot weather over long periods. Hops were added as a preservative so that they would stay good on the long journeys and not for flavor.
What recipe did you brew with that your looking for help on?
Teufelhunden
Well-Known Member
All you need to do is look up the all amarillo recipe in the recipe section and make it....Outstanding recipe!
I did the IPA from the Brewer's Best kit...my first ever. I just think it could use a little more so next time I'll be dry hopping. Thanks for the info all...coincidentally, I've got a Kolsch in a secondary right now, it's about a week from brewing. any dry hop tips for that? I assume I can use pellet hops?
scinerd3000
Well-Known Member
Kolsch dont normally get dru hopped...you can use both whole hops or pellets for dry hopping although whole hops soak up more liquid.
