Dry Hopping Suggestions

[Matt12398]

I brewed a bitter a few weeks ago and on tasting it had very little hop flavour or aroma at all. My intention is to dry hop it to try and add something and was looking for suggestions and quantities of pellet hops to add. It's an English style fairly dark beer brewed with Wyeast 1098. Hopped with challenger and EKG.

As the flavour is pretty much non-existent I feel like I'm working with a blank canvas so can anyone please suggest a hop or hop combo that would go well with the style. I was thinking a couple ounces would be about right but welcome other suggestions.

[Dave S]

Cascade always makes for good dry hopping. I did an IPA recently and dry hopped with 100gm of cascade. The aroma was fantastic. I used Fuggles and EKG for bittering

[orlando]

Cascade is certainly a fabulous aroma hop but I think it lends itself to paler IPA styles. You said it's an English style fairly dark beer so I would plump for something like Styrian Goldings, which if you use enough can give a wonderful aroma that is more redolent of the style, but it's your beer; experiment.

[Matt12398]

I love cascade but was wondering how well it would fit something like this. I was thinking of styrian goldings myself as I really like them. At the same time though was thinking about trying something completely different and out of character for the style but also didn't want to end up with something too unusual to drink. You're right though, best way to find out is to experiment.

[dedken]

A bitter isn't really supposed to have any hop aroma or much flavour, that's not what the style is about. However if you want to add some just dry hop with an EKG and Challenger combo. - try 20g of each for two weeks. I don't see why you should use Cascade, it'll just detract from the beer you've made.

[Matt12398]

I think bitter may have been the wrong style description. I was aiming for a nice flavourful English Ale. It's not overly bitter like either.

[booldawg]

May be worth having a quick read of this Dave;

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=54782

I asked the question about getting hop aroma and got alot of good pointers.

[buckfast]

I just syphoned off my ale into a carboy with 20g of whole EKG (no hop bag). The odd bubble from the air lock smells great

[barney]

Summit is a great aroma hop, jumps out of the glass.

[critch]

A bitter isn't really supposed to have any hop aroma or much flavour, that's not what the style is about. However if you want to add some just dry hop with an EKG and Challenger combo. - try 20g of each for two weeks. I don't see why you should use Cascade, it'll just detract from the beer you've made.

i agree about the cascade, it wouldnt go in this beer, a good EKG should do the trick, dont agree with being slavish to style guidelines though, just brew what you want my best bitter is extensively late and dry hopped and sells very well thanks!

[Matt12398]

Thanks Critch. I went for EKG in the end. Was thinking about 50 g of pellets for a week to ten days. I would like a prominent hop aroma and would be happy to chuck in the whole 100 g if necessary to obtain that but as I've not dry hopped before I'm taking a punt. Wanted to avoid ending up on the grassy side of things if I over dry hopped but might experiment.

[orlando]

Can I suggest something that you might try. There is a view that dry hopping before fermentation is over carries off some of the aroma with the CO2. Try waiting until you reach FG then chill down to drop the yeast out then take the beer out of the cold then dry hop for a couple of days before kegging/bottling. This approach will certainly avoid the "grassy" issue you raise.

[Matt12398]

Thanks for the suggestion but I've already kegged it. It's probably nicely force carbed by now as well so I'm not sure if it's too late. Could I chill the beer down in my kegerator and add the hops or will the carbonation make it difficult for it to take on the hop aroma.

[orlando]

I would leave it now and try it next time.

[AdyG]

Can I suggest something that you might try. There is a view that dry hopping before fermentation is over carries off some of the aroma with the CO2. Try waiting until you reach FG then chill down to drop the yeast out then take the beer out of the cold then dry hop for a couple of days before kegging/bottling. This approach will certainly avoid the "grassy" issue you raise.

Phew! Sounds like I've done my dry hopping right then, this is exactly what I have done with my most recent brew. After fermentation I've left it in the FV with a handful of hops thrown in, at the moment it smells great. I will be transferring it to the keg tonight but won't be putting hops in there, I too am worried about the grassy taste, or hops clogging the tap.