100% dry-hopped beers

Dry hopping can be a cool touch to add to a well made beer.

 

I believe there are beers with zero hops during the boil but use whirlpool hops to get the hop flavor and slight bitterness. Think of session IPAs. Breweries get about 20% hop utilization from whirlpool hops so they are able to extract all the oils for flavor and bitterness but only a minimal amout of the bitterness.

 

Is ta henket by dogfishead an example of a beer made without hops?

 

I'm not sure if that one in particular is but I'm pretty sure they have used recipes from 9,000 plus years ago that didn't call for hops so it very well could be.

 

Scotch ale typically has little to no hops.

 

There was a Basic Brewing podcast where they did flavor comparisons between hop schedules. One of their experiments was of a technique they call hopbursting; this is when you add a ton of hops toward the very end of the boil, and very few hops at the beginning. They had great results with it. If I remember right, they extended the experiment to include a dry-hopping control. You might want to surf around for this. I think it was a few years ago.

 

I've home brewed a lacto wheat beer with no hops in the boil but a huge Simcoe and Nelson dry hop. It turned out great. Very dry (not sweet at all thanks to the lactobacillus), with a tropical hoppy aroma and a tart flavor. Similar to pineapple and grapefruit juice.

I've brewed a similar beer professionally, but it did have about 5 IBUs (below sensory threshold) due to a small 90 minute hop addition, mainly used for the antimicrobial effect of hops and to help prevent boil over (hop oils can dissipate the foam).

 

I think what you are asking about is medieval era ale. I've had it before - it was dull and not very good, though it wasnt dry hopped. I've also sampled plenty of my yeast starters that are just fermented in a malt solution and are not something you really want a whole glass of.

Sometimes people added other flavors like bitter herbs and spices to balance out the sweetness. Hops became popular and became the standard when brewing.

Basically this shit was a drink for peasants because it was cheap and simple to make. I guess you could figure out a decent recipe but it seems like a waste of time to me.

 

http://www.bear-flavored.com/2015/02/nelson-sauvin-dry-hopped-no-boil-sour.html

this dude makes it sound delicious

 

Don't feed the April fools troll.

 

Won't preserve anything if only the oils are absorbed and not the acids, which is what would happen with only dry hopping.

 

I thought no one was going to say it. Beer was made for a much longer time without hops than it has with.

 

It is very possible (and easy) to make a very high ABV beer that is very dry (i.e. very little residual sweetness). A low mash temp (145-148F) and adjuncts like dextrose or rice, along with high-attenuating yeast. Brett and/or lacto will do it, too.

You can make a 10% beer that is dry as a bone, tart, and uses no hops.

 

My main point is you would still need something to balance the sweetness regardless of the ABV. Brett and lacto or even a certain type of yeast giving off certain flavor characteristics would be the balancing agent in said brew because it offers a flavor contrary to sweet flavors.

 

My point is that there need not be *any* sweet flavors. You can have a bone dry beer at any ABV. There is no need to balance the sweetness when there is no sweetness. A high ABV beer doesn't necessarily have more residual sugars than a low ABV beer.

I was correcting this comment:

It wouldn't need to be very low in ABV. It could be high in ABV and have no residual sweetness that would require balancing.

 

pretty much exactly what i said

 

New Belgium's Le Terroir would be one of the best that I can think of. I'm sure they use a bit of aged hops when they originally make the beer but they then age it for 2 years and then dry hop the hell out of it with Amarillo and Cascade 8 days before bottling. Simply amazing!

 

Well, then, to get right to answering your OP, I don't see the point in exclusively dry-hopping a beer, because without the bitter aspecting, the beer might smell like an awesome IPA, but it would be cloying. I think that embracing the bitterness is part of enjoying hops, and if you take that away it almost defeats the purpose.

 

So, what are we talkin' here? Dry-hopped Olde English 800?