Dry Hopping - Will it help?

[eskimobob]

On the last couple of brews I have done, I have steeped some hops after the boil and found it to give a lovely hoppy aroma and flood of flavour in the mouth after swallowing

Now, I have not steeped hops like this before and I am a little disappointed to find that after some time in the keg, the aroma and flavour have first mellowed and then after around a month, mostly disappeared

In order to make sure it is not caused by something I am doing when transferring to keg, I have left the latest brew in the fermenter and through sampling it regularly I have noticed the same effect as the brew in the keg.

Does this experience seem normal to what you have experienced?

Assuming I am not doing something daft, I assume the only way to prolong this aroma and flavour is to dry hop in the keg?? If so, I had better get myself a pingpong ball and a muslin bag.

Any thought appreciated.

[niall]

Hi eb,

I dry hopped in secondary recently and the hop aroma and flavour were very prominent in the keg. Mind you the brew was in secondary for weeks on end and only lasted a couple of weeks in the keg... i'll dry hop in the keg next time.

[eskimobob]

I dry hopped in secondary recently and the hop aroma and flavour were very prominent in the keg. Mind you the brew was in secondary for weeks on end and only lasted a couple of weeks in the keg... i'll dry hop in the keg next time.

That's what I'm after. When the kegged beer was very young, it had lots of hop aroma and flavour however it has definitely dissipated now

I have not yet racked my golden ale to the keg (although there is probably only about 10 litres left to be honest after all my scientific sampling tests ) so when I rack it I can add some dry hops to see if the aroma and flavour comes back.

So what quantity of dry hops would you recommend in a 19 litre cornie and where would I buy small piece of muslin cloth to make up a bag?
Looks like I will try this one night this week...

[niall]

I'm probably not the best placed to answer this as I've yet to dry hop in the keg. I had about 40g of Cascade in secondary last time around. I have taken out 20g of Styrian Goldings from the freezer - purely because that was the size I had packed that seemed closest to an ounce. I'm not sure whether that will give enough aroma for my tastes though. As it happens my current brew is a golden ale too (Bitter & Twisted clone). I've read that if you steep the hop bag in preboiled warm water - anything up to 70c - it will help the oils to release better. You can get the hop bags from most HB shops.

[tribs]

I routinely dry hop in the keg. It does improve the aroma considerably. Even if you leave the dry hops in the keg, which I always do, the aroma does reduce over time. You can keep adding more hops though

Niall is correct the muslin bags are available at all or most HB shops including the brew shop in Stockport.

Unless we are talking an IPA I would think that 15-20g of hops would be a good starting point increasing to 30g if you are after a really powerful aroma. The quality of the hops make a big difference. If they smell really strong they are likely to give good aroma. I tend to find the gold foil bricks are of lesser quality than the Brupaks and H&G pellets, but still work well.

I find that adding dry hops to a slightly disappointing brew can turn it into a beer thats very good.

[slurp the apprentice]

I dont dry hop anymore as i used to find the hops fouled the tap on the barrel and caused dripping of the precious brew.I throw the hops that i would have used for dry hopping in the boiler for the last 5 minutes [ i am sure i read this in a camra brewing book] i do always follow the stated quantities in any recipe i use but wonder if my brew efficiency is 80% arnt i increasing the hop s by 20% by default ? All my brews seem to maintain their hop flavour hope this helps ...........slurp

[mysterio]

The only advice I can give is to try it out for yourself. I've never had good results with dry hopping personally. When I use whole hops it gives a grassy flavour to the beer initially, and when I use pellet hops the particles seep through the muslin and make the beer cloudy. I much prefer steeping after the boil, but you're right, the aroma does deteriorate.

[eskimobob]

Ok, thanks guys. I have some foil packed hops at the moment so I will probably use them and go for between 20g and 30g.

Presumably I can use the foot end of a pair of tights rather than a specific hop bag (this would save me a trip into Stockport or the cost of postage).

So is this ping-pong ball necessary? - Presumably that is to keep the bag away from the dip tube to prevent it getting sucked up but is that very likely if I just put some hops in the cut off toes of the tights and drop them in the cornie?

[tribs]

I'm gonna try the ping pong method next time. I find that the bag drops to the bottom and sits around the dip tube and the yeast tend to clump around it so you suck up yeast that would normally be stuck to the bottom. Its really not that cloudy but if you want it to be perfectly bright I reckon it'd be the way to go.

P.S. Remember to boil those tights

[RabMaxwell]

Hello all i dry hop in the keg i find those little bags that come free with washing machine tablets are handy. I get the wife to save the spare unused ones . Cheers

[oxford brewer]

Hello all i dry hop in the keg i find those little bags that come free with washing machine tablets are handy. I get the wife to save the spare unused ones . Cheers

I have also used one of these bags to dry hop and i placed a few marbles in the bag with the hops to get them to sink just below the surface and then removed the bag after 5 days...worked very well and left a heavy hoppy aroma that you smelt as soon as pouring a pint began (i used 40g of Brambling Cross in the bag )