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Author Topic: Dry-hopping  (Read 5407 times)

Offline Kirk

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Dry-hopping
« on: November 22, 2010, 10:24:03 pm »
I split my 11 gallons of 1.057 OG wort into three fermentations; Trappist Abbey Ale, ESB, and London Ale.  For the sake of the Abbey, I hopped fairly lightly in the boil, about 25 IBU's.  After the primary stage is done, I'm going to dry hop the ESB and London Ale to get them closer to style.  I have about 3 1/2 gallons in each Better Bottle.  I'm using 2 ounces of home grown Fuggles, unknown strength, maybe about 5%, in each.  Any estimates on the approximate IBU increase I would see with that?  Would you use more?  As I won't be racking to a secondary carboy, I want to use a hop bag and submerge the hops into the primary with a sanitized poker of some sort.  Then, I'll let them sit at room temp for at least another week before moving them into refrigeration.  Any risk with contamination there?  Could I let them sit longer at room temperature? Would you use a hop bag?  

Kirk Howell

beveragebob

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2010, 11:21:55 pm »
You won't get any bitterness from the dry hops. BU can only be extracted from the boil. 2 ounces is about right for dry hopping. I usually use that amount in 5 gallons but, you should be alright.

Offline Kirk

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2010, 12:11:32 pm »
What if I make a tea, with some sugar, boil it awhile, and add it in hops and all? 
Kirk Howell

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2010, 01:49:26 am »
What if I make a tea, with some sugar, boil it awhile, and add it in hops and all? 
That will add some bitterness.  Calculate how much based on the AA% and gravity of your boil, then calculate the BU addition based on adding that much to your fermenter.  For example, if you make a tea that is 50 BU and 2 qts, added to 5 gallons will give you 5.5 gallons with +4.5 BUs (roughly).

Work it backwards - figure out how many BU you want to add per gallon and what volume tea you want to make.  Then calculate the necessary BU for your tea.  Then calculate how many oz of hops you need to boil for how long to get the BUs that you want.

I hope that makes sense to you . . .
Tom Schmidlin

Offline Kirk

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2010, 10:04:11 pm »
Thanks Tom,
The guys in the brew shop talked me into dry-hopping instead of boiling.  "The appearance of bitterness" in place of the real thing.  So, that's what I did.  No hop bag or anything, just shoved them in there.  No worries about contamination they say, not when you already have alcohol in the solution.  What I will do however, is boil some more wort from DME and agave nectar, bitter it normally, and add it in.  All the whole hops I added are going to soak up a lot of beer, and I only had about 3 1/2 gallons to begin with.
Kirk Howell

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2010, 01:05:54 am »
That's cool, let us know how it turns out.  There's no hurry on adding the bitterness, so for your own information you can wait to add the hop tea until you taste the beer after several days with the dry hops.

And for what it's worth, I dry hop with pellets, they seem to settle out better and give up their flavor more easily.  Plus they're easier to clean out of my carboys. ;)
Tom Schmidlin

Offline Kirk

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2010, 09:51:15 pm »
I see what you mean about dry-hopping with flowers.  I'll save them for boils from now on.  I'll keep you posted on how things turn out.  Do you ever add hops to the mash?  I've heard about it, but what's the point? 
Kirk Howell

Offline denny

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2010, 07:55:01 am »
I see what you mean about dry-hopping with flowers.  I'll save them for boils from now on.  I'll keep you posted on how things turn out.  Do you ever add hops to the mash?  I've heard about it, but what's the point? 

What's the point, indeed!  I tried it a few times before concluding it was a waste of hops.
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Offline Kirk

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2010, 04:00:39 pm »
I just topped off the ESB and London Ale with 1.064 OG, 62 IBU wort.  I bittered it cleanly with Cluster, as each carboy has 2 ounces of home grown Fuggles floating on top.  If that much Fuggles isn't enough English character, I don't know what is.  I swirled the carboys by the grab handles to get all those whole Fuggles soaked, and put them away.  Satisfied, I can now wait.
Kirk Howell

Offline James Lorden

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2010, 07:34:49 am »
This post has made me think that keeping a bottle of hop extract on hand is a good idea for adding options when splitting batches.   You could even run off half the batch through the chiller then add some LME and hop extract before running off to the second fermenter!
James Lorden
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Offline bluesman

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2010, 08:54:23 am »
This post has made me think that keeping a bottle of hop extract on hand is a good idea for adding options when splitting batches.   You could even run off half the batch through the chiller then add some LME and hop extract before running off to the second fermenter!

Hey James...nice to see you on board posting!

I like to dry hop with fresh whole hops if possible but I also use pellets.  I also prefer to use a muslin bag because it makes it alot easier to retrieve them and it keeps most of them from being picked up and served into the beer.

I use the aroma of the hops as an indicator of the use. For example, I recently purchased some Amarillo whole hops that have an awesome aroma so I use them for dry hopping as well as late additions and they lend a very aromatic quality to the finished beer.
Ron Price

Offline skyler

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #11 on: November 28, 2010, 02:19:23 pm »
Adding bitterness after the boil just sounds like a bad idea. Boiling with sugar and adding the tea and hops also sounds pretty odd. Next time, I would just split batches that can use the same wort - like an abbey ale and a Scottish ale or a Kolsch and a Belgian Blonde Ale (adding some sugar solution to the carboy would get you there, IMO).

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2010, 11:50:13 pm »
I just heard of these today . . . I haven't tried them.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/hopshot.html
Tom Schmidlin

Offline bluesman

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2010, 05:05:13 am »
I just heard of these today . . . I haven't tried them.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/hopshot.html

First time I've seen this.  This might be helpful in the case one has inadvertantly ommitted a hop addition.

Emergency stash.  8)
Ron Price

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Dry-hopping
« Reply #14 on: November 29, 2010, 10:45:50 am »
I just heard of these today . . . I haven't tried them.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/hopshot.html

First time I've seen this.  This might be helpful in the case one has inadvertantly ommitted a hop addition.

Emergency stash.  8)
My thoughts exactly, but I haven't tried a beer using them AFAIK, so I don't know what it tastes like.  For $2 it's worth a shot though. :)
Tom Schmidlin