Dry Hopping.

[BitterTed]

QUOTE (mysterio @ Sep 5 2006, 11:13 AM) Do you use pellets or whole? I wonder if the grassiness only comes from whole. Does anyone else get the grass flavour or is it just me?
I use whole hops. I do know that some folks pick up on certain flavors more than others, for instance, I know a fella that picks up on diacetyl very easily. Also, I have read that certain hops do impart some grassiness, Saaz being one of them.

QUOTE my all Amarillo IPA uses pellets and the dry hop seems to be lacking this property but the aroma is much stronger than my experiences of using whole hops.
This may be why I don't notice grassiness, I generally dry hop IPA's using hops like Amarillo, higher alpha type hops. Maybe that is the key!

[deadlydes]

so just to clear something up.
there is no need to sterilize whole hops prior to dry hopping?

[mysterio]

Nah, they are naturally antiseptic.

One of the reasons IPAs are so well hopped, to act as a preservative when they were shipped to India.

[deadlydes]

i know its a bit of 'how long is a peice of string' but what sort of rate are you dry hopping with? say for 25 litres.

hop type and whole or pellet? AA? grams?

[BitterTed]

QUOTE (deadlydes @ Sep 7 2006, 02:39 PM) i know its a bit of 'how long is a peice of string' but what sort of rate are you dry hopping with? say for 25 litres.

hop type and whole or pellet? AA? grams?
I take it that this question isn't for anyone in particular. I use whole hops, and depending on what beer it is, that will dictate how much hops I use. For instance, I make some beers from "Old British Beers And How To Make Them", the suggest .5 oz per gallon, so about 2.5 oz. Another brew I make I simply use about .5 oz total. Then there is a west coast IIPA (Imperial IPA) (west coast in the states that is), I use, oh man,lets see, 3 oz in secondary and then another 1.5-2 oz in keg. The ones in secondary are split into 2 additions with the second addition being four days prior to kegging. I have not found AA to make any difference at the dry hopping stage, and in keg, I bag the hops and attatch the bag with a paper clip to the end of the liquid tube so that the hop bag floats, yet stays submerged throughout the entire time I am drinking the keg. Hope that helps!!

[Vossy1]

BT, do you find the dry hopping infuses the hop evenly through the ale or is it noticibly stronger as the keg nears empty?

[BitterTed]

QUOTE (Vossy1 @ Sep 7 2006, 11:20 PM) BT, do you find the dry hopping infuses the hop evenly through the ale or is it noticibly stronger as the keg nears empty?
It seems fairly even for most of the keg, I suppose it does get a bit stronger toward the end, but nothing that is outrageous. Of course, I'm a hophead, so it is difficult for me to imagine a beer being undrinkable due to hops!!