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Dry Hopping

K

kwhite

I have tried Dry Hopping the last two times for added aroma.  The first time I used 1oz of Kent Goldings for two weeks in the carboy.  The second time I used 1oz of Cascades for two weeks in the carboy.  I'm not getting the amount of aroma I want (little to none).  Am I doing something wrong?
 
My first question would be at what point are you adding the hops? I have found that when you add the hops when the beer is 65-70% attenuated, the remaining active fermentation will rouse the hops a bit and aid in the breakdown of the pellets. When adding pellet hops for dry hopping a beer that is fully fermented, I have actually seen whole hop pellets in the trub after racking the beer off. Useless. Whole leaf hops are better for dry hopping. My second question is how big are the batches that you are dry hopping? For a pale ale I usually use .25 ounces per gallon with pellets. Usually works out pretty good for me.

Darin
 
I had poor results from dry-hopping as well, and tried instead large, very late boil additions, from 5 minutes to flameout with much better aroma impact. 
 
dhaenerbrewer said:
.........the remaining active fermentation will rouse the hops a bit and aid in the breakdown of the pellets. When adding pellet hops for dry hopping a beer that is fully fermented, I have actually seen whole hop pellets in the trub after racking the beer off. Useless.

Does the departing CO2 take hops aroma with it?  I've not dry-hopped enough to know that for fact.  Usually, I see the recommendation to put pellets into the secondary and transfer onto them, and the moving beer helps to break them up.  Or bag and weight down plugs or whole hops. 

Back to the FWH ideas, has anyone ever pre-soaked their dry-hops with hot water or wort to simulate FWH effects at the higher temps?  I wonder if dry-hopping at 68F in secondary limits what we get out of the dry-hops?  Or do the french press thing on dry hops?
 
I had the same problem when I added whole hops to the secondary.  Besides soaking up a bunch of my brew, I wasn't getting the nasal punch I desired.  Come to find out, a Portland area brewer recommended adding pellets to the primary on day #4.  Supposedly PH and other water chemistry variables (don't now those) are best for extracting aroma at that point.  I've tried it several times now with 1 and 2 ounce additions of either cascade or Amarillo pellets with pleasing results.  In addition, as the fermentation winds down and the yeast floculate, they take most of the pellet particulate down with them and encase them in a blanket.  Transfer to the secondary ends up nice and clean with almost no particulates.  As for aroma addition, which is subjective, I would say that dry hopping in the primary on day 4 works good and that Amarillo is my fav so far.

cheers
 
Yes, the CO2 will take some of the aroma, but it is neglible. You get a net positive effect in my opinion from the extra extraction imparted during fermentation.

Darin
 
Wow, this was my first posting.  A lot of great feedback.  I add 1oz of aroma hops when I rack to my 5 gallon carboy.  The brew In carboy now I added the hops first which did seem to separate the pellets better.  Day four in the primary does sound like a good idea, I noticed I had some pellet particles in my last brew.

Thanks
 
Welcome to the forum Kwhite! Good topic!

I usually add to the secondary, Partially because I have always been told to do so... Go figure, guess I need to try a new technique next time. Never stop learning, because the net-effect is better beer! And that's a good thing!

Cheers
Preston
 
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