Northeast Pales/IPA/DIPA

Typically double or triple dry hops refers to dry hopping in stages. It's been speculated that multiple smaller dry hops is better than one large dry hop.

 

Don't you mean 4 Bells?

I agree, there is a big difference between cognitive dissonance and something looking like shit.

My feeling is that the reason these beers are so fresh in flavor and so murky is that they are pushed through faster than we are used to. No big deal. These guys are professionals and know the exact shift that something will be ready for packaging, and maybe want to save a bit on utilities (cold-crashing and/or racking takes money at that volume). None of the breweries that folks are trying to emulate are of the scale where that type of stuff isn't a concern.

 

Not a fan of hazy beers and in IMO,water chemistry plays a big part in hop utilization and is a big focus of mine when making IPAs, along with the yeast, mash PH and low mash temp that creates a dryer/leaner beer which allows the hops to shine. The big challenge is brewing a beer that has just the right amount of body that gives that lingering juicy hop taste, but dry enough that the malt doesn't mute the hops. When you hit that sweet spot, it's magic.

 

Cold crashing does not hurt hop aroma. That's just silliness. Pliny the Younger is usually crystal clear. If you think it doesn't have enough hop aroma then I don't know what to tell you.

 

Also, I honestly don't know of any breweries that don't cold-condtion their beer before packaging unless they are bottle-conditioning or making cask ale. I don't know specifics for a brewer like Trillium, but I would bet that they get their beer cold before packaging.

 

I believe it refers to two rounds of dry hops. Jc stated on another thread regular congress st only uses 1 stage

 

In larger systems it is more efficient to dry hop in multiple stages because of surface area. As you grow in vessel size the surface area where the hops are in contact does not increase proportionally with batch size. This means that you end up with hops piled on top of each other with less contact with the beer. If you dry hop in multiple stages you can wait for some of the hop material to drop then add more.

 

It's brewed in Florida anyway...

 

The clear, non-mango juice version.

 

Depends on the temperature, my understanding is that if you go too cold (near freezing) oils will drop. Lots of hop compounds attach to yeast, so by dropping 100% of the yeast, you're losing some hop character with them.

 

I agree 100%. My experience is that if I condition at a very low temperature, I achieve greater flocculation (as it should be). The hoppy beers that I've brewed that were conditioned at a very low temperature had less hop aroma and flavor. Beer oxidizes slower at colder temperatures, so my explanation for loss of aroma and flavor is that even though the beer is oxidizing slower, the lack of yeast/hop in suspension creates a beer with less hop character.

 

Some hazy beers are good, even great, but heady has hop flakes in it. Must be why they say drink it out of the can, or so it was a couple years back. Also way to sweet, but that's off topic.

 

I would also throw in that the use of english strains by these breweries improves (to my palate) the character of the beer as a whole. I've had both east and west coast IPA's very fresh, I think that both achieve great hop character, but that the expressiveness of the yeast in the east coast IPA's causes people to believe that they are hoppier or juicier than their west coast counterparts.

 

The other option is to do what Russian River does, clarify prior to dry hopping, then dry hop warmer. That way you don't have yeast/cold dragging hop character out of suspension. It creates a different "rawer" (to my palate) hop aroma than dry hopping with yeast contact.

 

^ Definitely wish I had this option. I've thought of doing it this way, but it would be more transferring than what it's worth with my equipment. I've always thought that this is what HF does to some degree.

 

I often get more of that "nose-in-the-hop-bag" aroma from their hoppy beers than I do from the more yeast-driven thing from many of the other "new" New England IPAs.

 

Agreed. Beers like "Citra" and "Galaxy" literally smell like opening a bag of those hops and rubbing your face in it. My guess is that they suppress the ester production from an english yeast by fermenting it on the colder side. With that said, I perceive some fruity esters primarily in the finish of their hoppy beers. Maybe it is just the quality of their hopping, but I think it is the balance of hop and yeast that defines those beers.

 

I'd be curious to hear how Great Lakes gets so much juicy hop aroma and flavor into Chillwave/Alchemy Hour DIPA with an English yeast (WLP013) and zero haze. That beer is a bit of an anomaly vs. the pro-haze camp.

 

An interesting idea/concept that an English Ale strain can 'enhance' the expression of hop aroma/flavor.

@telejunkie

Cheers!