Dry hopping is a great way to enhance the hoppy aroma of your home brewed beer. Real hopheads will tell you that in addition to boil and late hop additions, adding dry hops is a preferred technique for preserving a burst of delicate hop aroma for IPAs and other hoppy beers.
Hops are normally added during the boil to extract alpha acids that provide the bitter flavor needed to offset sweet barley malt in beer. Brewers also use late hop additions in the last 5-10 minutes of the boil to enhance aroma, but even this technique loses some aromatic oils that evaporate rapidly in the boil.
Dry Hopping
Dry hopping involves adding hops to the fermenter or keg after fermentation. Dry hops add no bitterness to the beer, but the technique does add fragile aromatic oils that are normally lost in the boiling process. Dry hops are allowed to soak in the finished beer for anywhere from several days to several weeks. The result is a burst of hoppy aroma.
Commercial craft brewers use dry hopping to enhance their beer including Anchor Liberty, Samuel Adams Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada celebration. Many drinkers prefer the distinctly floral hop aroma that dry hopping adds. On the con side, some drinkers perceive a “grassy” or “oily” flavor from dry hopping. The technique is appropriate for brewing beer styles with high hop rates such as IPAs, Pale Ales, some Stouts and California Common (Steam) beer.
Dry Hop Selection
The first question that arises when dry hopping is which hops to use? Aromatic hops with low alpha rates (6% or less) are considered preferable because these hops have a higher percentage of fragile aromatic hop oils needed for dry hopping. All of the noble hops as well as most of the low alpha aromatic varieties are appropriate.
Examples include: Saaz, Tettnanger, Hallertauer, Goldings, Fuggles, Cascade and Williamette. You should select a hops that matches the origin and beer style – an English Goldings hops might be appropriate for an English Ale or India Pale Ale for instance.
The next question is what form of hops to use: pellets, plugs or whole hops? Plug or pellet hops are generally preferred, especially for those using a glass carboy with a narrow neck. Getting whole hops in and out of the fermenter can be difficult. Pellet hops can cause some foaming when adding because, much like diet coke and mentos, the pellets have a large surface area that promotes nucleation of the CO2 left from fermentation.
Some purists prefer plug hops as they fear that the extra processing and compression of pellet hops may have an effect on the delicate hop oils and aroma. Personally I have noticed no significant difference between plug and pellet hops when dry hopping.
The amount of hops to use is largely a matter of preference. Between 1 and 2 oz (28-55g) per 5 gallons (19 L) is considered a moderate amount. Less can certainly be used if you are shooting for a mild floral aromatic, and true hopheads use as much as 4 oz of hops for 5 gallons for a burst of aroma.
Dry Hopping Methods
When should one add hops to the beer, and for how long? Some brewers add dry hops during primary fermentation, but most agree this can result in loss of precious hop aromas due to the steady stream of CO2 bubbling out of the fermenter.
The appropriate time to add dry hops is after primary fermentation has completed. Adding dry hops to the secondary maximizes the exposure without risking volatile aromas. A third option is to add dry hops directly to the keg, but this can result in some “grassy” flavors from overexposure as the hops may remain in the keg for months.
Some brewers use a mesh bag to make it easier to contain the hops and make them easier to separate from the beer later. Others merely separate the beer from hops carefully when siphoning later. Pellets tend to sink after a while, while whole hops and plugs tend to float. Obviously a bag is required for kegging your hops to keep the hops from plugging the keg.
The duration of dry hopping also varies widely. An exposure of several days is the minimum needed to extract aromatic oils. Most brewers dry hop for around 3 days. Those that add hops to a keg may leave the hops in contact with the beer for months. Some fear overexposure will add a “grassy” flavor, but I’ve never had a significant problem with this. However, current thinking is that you should avoid extended dry hop periods.
In these hop starved times, dry hopping has become a bit of a luxury, but an extra ounce or two added to the secondary can add a great burst of flavor for IPAs and other hoppy styles. Thanks again for visiting the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Have a great brewing week.
There are few things in my experience I have seen that disagree with what is here. I think 1-2 oz is a large amount of dry hops, and for a style like a bitter or even a reasonable gravity pale ale, 1/2 oz will give you a moderate, but obvious dry hop character. If one is dry hopping in primary or in secondary but then conditioning in the keg, then 1 oz is probably preferable.
My prefered way is to dry hop in the serving keg. Interestingly, I also do NOT get grassy flavors when I have left the hops in too long. I do however get a very grassy note for the first few days, which fades leaving an awesome hop character.
Hops in the keg can pose several problems in terms of clogging the dip tube (“out” tube).
Solutions I have seem include:
– Leaf hops in a muslin bag.
– Pellet hops in a stainless steel “tea ball”
– Leaf or Pellet hops in a nylon bag (I have not used this method)
– Loose hops with a Sure Screen on the dip tube.
In my experience the last option is the best as it gives the best dry hop character with the least amount of sediment.
Wahoo,
Thanks – I really appreciate your feedback. I did not cover keg hopping as well as I should have. Keg hopping does generally take less hops (perhaps 1/2 as much) due to the longer exposure time. I agree that I’ve not had a problem with grassy flavors either, and I appreciate your tips on keg hopping. — Brad
Awesome info. I am absolutely going to try this. Thanks
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As far as dry hop sanitation goes, is it considered safe to drop in hop pellets with no sanitation steps as hop pellets cannot be assumed to be sanitary? What if you put the hops in the microwave for 10 seconds prior? Or what if you put just a fraction of an ounce of near boiling water on the hops immediately before adding to secondary? I’ve had perfectly good beers go sour in the secondary with dry hops. My sanitation techniques are constant for each carboy, so I narrowed it down to the hop addition. Good article, too, by the way.
In general dry hopping is considered safe as hops are naturally antibiotic (in fact, hop oils in beer help to preserve it). I’ve never heard of anyone getting an infection just from dry hopping. However if you want to take additional precautions, I see no problem with that either. However I would not recommend boiling the hops since that will boil off many of the delicate aromatic oils you are trying to capture with this technique.
Thanks for the advice. I have an IPA going right now. I’ll probably go with adding my loose leaf hops in a secondary and use a screen on the dip tube. I love your Beersmith software program Brad – it has made my brewing experience so much better! At least 3 of my brew buddies rely on it also. Cheers – Gil
O ye purists – whyfor art thee feared?
I, a beginner, bunged a handful of Sauvin Nelson loose leaf into my serving keg and happily enjoyed the odorous result in complete ignorance of bacterial contamination risks (and filtration problems).
If I was going to produced a thousand pints mostly for the consumption of others, I suppose it would be necessary to ‘think safety’. But small batches for domestic consumption, who cares what happens? You can always accelerate your drinking to destroy the evidence.
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This is a late question on a very old post, but…
When dry hopping a beer, does it impact SG? My question is related to my first batch, I have religiously measuring sg, and it appeared to have stopped within range of my expected fg, and apparent attenuation is within range of the yeast, but I’m just wondering if my dry hop additions would have altered the sg that I was measuring, and skewed the ABV calculation.
Hi,
No – dry hopping should have no effect on your SG or ABV. Adding dry hop oils does not alter the yeast fermentation or the SG of the finished beer. Likely something else happened with your beer.
Brad
I dryhop with high alpha hops like citra, simcoe and amarillo with no problems. I actually prefer them to the low alpha varieties. Almost every A+ craft IPA on the market is dry hopped with either citra or simcoe.
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Hello Brad:
I am writting from Mexico, I am a homebrewer and i read all the tips that you post in your site, is very interesting the things that you say about homebrewing. I was reading about dry hopping, is very interesting, I will try in my next experiment!!!
Cheers!!!
Omar
I used two ounces of pellet cascade for 14 days in my secondary of a big red ale, I hopped with a 4 hop schedule. Tasted what was left in the bottling bucket AWESOME. Great aroma, tasty, can’t wait for it to condition. Next time will use a hop bag. Had to use cheese cloth and a strainer to remove the hops.
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When I have dry hopped my Belgium Black IPA in the past I have used 4oz of Citra and man it gives it awesome aromas that are lost in the last 5-10 minutes of the boil. I am transfering a version of my BBIPA today after 5 days in the primary and will be dry hopping this one with Zythos or Flaconer’s Flight (can’t find citra). After 14 days or so I’ll transfer to a tertiary just to clarify the beer for 2-3 days then keg. I’m also brewing the same beer today with a few changes! Happy brewing!
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You can also dry hop in the keg in order to rescue beer that is too “bready”. I recently made an oat-rye frankenbeer that became excellent after I dry-hopped whole leaf Cascade and Willamette (in a nylon bag with the strings tucked to prevent clogging the suck tube) for about a week. I sampled until it was right, then I sanitized my hand and pulled the bag out of the keg. If you open a keg, you should re-bleed out the air when done. This turned a marginal beer into an excellent beer.
When dry hopping after primary fermentation is it necessary to maintain the orginal fermentation temperature unitl you are done dty hopping?
No – the dry hopping effect is not highly temperature dependent.
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I am beginning to think that late hop addition to the wort is just a waste of hops as dry hoping adds much more flavor.
Am I right?
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Not necessarily – you can get some flavors in a late hop addition that won’t come through as well in a dry hop – it depends on the beer.
Greg – I used to think the same until read Gordon Strong’s book. Although I have not given up dry-hopping (not by a long shot) I do think the character of the added flavor and aroma are different. I add hops during a flame-out whirlpool and dry-hop my APA and am experimenting now with dry-hopping for 5 days in primary, racking to secondary and then dry-hopping again for 5-days. Previously all my dry-hops have been added in secondary and for better than a week.
Thanks for all your articles Brad and for keeping your forums/discussions alive. I am recent BeerSmith user and love it…eventhough I do not really understand it completely.
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