I was looking over some recipes on Mad Fermentationist (OldSock) website and noticed he was playing around with adding some dry hops when yeast is pitched, mainly for NEIPA’s. Curious if any body else has done this, and do you think it brought anything to the table.
I did over a year ago in 3 batches. 2 were neipa the other regular ipa. In neipas I did not remember anything substanshal see that kinda beer has so may hops, but in the ipa I used 1 oz centenial while pitching the yeast and the same for a 5 day DH. Definatly could taste more hop presence over other batches of the same beer brewed without the pitching hops.
I add hops at pitching quite often. I do it for convenience, I don't like to open my fermenter to add hops (O2 thing). I find that you get good hop flavors from it but the aroma is not as intense.
IMO, adding your dry hops when you pitch is like adding them at the end of cooling on the hot side. Active fermentation is going blow off a lot of aromatics. There's a reason that dry hops are classically added once vigorous active fermentation has slowed dramatically.
FWIW, I am not a fan of dry hopping when pitching because of the amount of volatile compounds scrubbed out of the beer during fermentation. I usually dry hop on the last day of active fermentation (day 3 normally) and then cap the fermenter. No dissolved oxygen is detected with an Anton Paar DO meter when done that way.
Agreed. I think it is a nice replacement for whirlpool hops if you want to minimize bitterness contribution. I've stopped it for beers where I don't mind the bitterness from a traditional whirlpool addition.
