dry hopping > 4 days = grass?

[patwestlake]

My usual brew schedule is the simple - 2 weeks FV, 2 weeks warm, 2 weeks as cool as I can find then drink (these last 2 weeks are negotiable!). I generally bottle. This has yielded some great results to date especially having gone AG, and I'm now trying to cut out mistakes/variations so I can better judge the effects of recipe change rather than my brewing methods - next on the list is dry hopping. I dry hop after 4-5 days (typically "top dressing" rather than sinking in a bag) and use a mix of pellets and leaf. I then leave for the balance of 9-10 days before I bottle.

Reading up suggests that >4 days dry hop is likely to give me grassy notes - does that mean I should hoick them out (or transfer to a bottling bucket) after 4 days or am I chasing myth? I ferment at typically 19C in a brew fridge, so can try most profiles - I notice Brewdog DH @ 14C....

My average beer would be 20-40 IBU, so not particularly bitter and I'm guessing that %AA and hop type are very relevant. I'm genuinely not sure if I have an issue but as I said, I'm as much after getting variations under control as I'm starting to get repeat orders and don't want to disappoint!

Any tips welcome!
Pat

[Jocky]

If you can't taste it, then it's fine. I've seen and drunk plenty of IPAs with 10 days of dry hopping that aren't grassy.

[PeeBee]

I think what the advice refers to is that after 4 days dry hopping the hops have given up the majority of what good they can offer. So leave them in longer and the only possible outcome is they add the bad they can offer.

And how long before the "bad" is noticeable? Some people will convince themselves they taste grassy flavours after 4 days, others might only notice it after a month, others not at all. The quantity of dry hops is obviously making a difference.

I haven't properly sorted out dry hopping in the secondary yet but the current brew will be dry hopped. 10-15g pellets straight into the cask (tiny amount). It might be a month before the cask is finished. I'm not worried. Should I be?

[MTW]

All depends on temperature too. I tend to do a couple of days at 18 or so, drop to 12 for a couple more, then crash. I don't worry about much else being extracted while it's sat at 1C to clear. Maybe Brewdog's 14 does a similar thing. Before having the fridge I have dry hopped with up to 50g pellets in 23l at room temp for a week without issue, but i know that's not a huge amount in some styles.

[patwestlake]

Cheers all for the replies - largely what I expected in that it will always come down to "if you can't taste it, it probably isn't there". My latest brew has 150g dry hop, so I'm limiting it to 5 days then bottle - the potential to go wrong us bigger so I'm not risking it!
Pat

[Rookie]

The variety of hop and the size of the dry hop are factors in grassy taste.

[Kev888]

I don't think the grassiness is a myth, but I do wonder if the concern is either exaggerated or (as mentioned already) more common with particular varieties and large quantities. At one time I typically dry hopped for quite a long time, perhaps 7-10 days at 18c (often longer in the keg, though that would have been ~13c). The amounts were up to 100g in 25L - cascade, centennial, goldings, fuggles, citra were common ones; I never experienced the grassy flavours from this, so it certainly isn't a given with those types and quantities.

But these days I'm of the opinion that three days is enough for the dry hops to impart what they are going to, so they aren't added more than 3-4 days before racking (or before crash cooling if that is to be done first).