Hi, I've got 10 gal of a 6.5% pale ale that I made with Dingeman's pils and Motueka. It's about 32ibus and I pitched White Labs French ale yeast. I was thinking about dry hopping 5 gal of it. I'm hoping to get some advice about what to dry hop with. I've got a few varieties on hand, all pellet: Sorachi Ace Saaz (whole leaf and pellet) East Kent Golding Strisselspalt Simcoe Citra Many thanks in advance.
It would be helpful if we knew what style of beer you are shooting for. Is it your intention to brew a Blonde Ale? Do you like lemon flavors? Maybe dry hopping with 1 ounce of Sorachi Ace would produce a nice lemon accented Blonde Ale? Cheers!
I'm purely experimenting, blurring the lines between a blonde biere de garde and a pale ale. I've not used Motueka before, but I've read that it produces tropical fruit aromatics. I've not much experience with dry hopping, so just wanted some advice about which hops work well for dry hopping, and which of those might compliment Motueka.
“blurring the lines between a blonde biere de garde and a pale ale” Well that could mean almost anything. Since I personally do not know what you mean above I will just throw a bunch of ‘stuff’ on the wall and maybe something will stick? The following hops would be good for an American Pale Ale type beer: Simcoe & Citra. I have no way of knowing how your palate ‘works’ but for my palate Simcoe = pine and Citra = tropical fruit. IMHO, an American Pale Ale should have some aroma but it really should not be an in your face amount: Maybe a total of 1 ounce for dry hopping. The European hops will be more subtle from an aroma perspective. Saaz has flavors of herbal/spicy for my palate, East Kent Goldings has very subtle earthy flavors and I have never brewed with Strisselspalt so I have no comment there. I have already opined about Sorachi Ace. Please let us know what you decide and report back on how the beer turned out. Cheers!
What was your hop schedule? How does it smell and taste out of the fermentor? So you have no more Motueka? If not and you must dry hop then I'd consider a combination of simcoe, citra, and/or sorachi ace. Just go real light on sorachi (less than 1oz), it can over take a beer easy in my experience. Maybe something like 2oz Simcoe, 1oz Citra, and .5oz Sorachi (or just forget the Sorachi). This will bend the beer more american/tropical though.
I dryhopped a brett saison with chinook and citra after using conservative amounts of saaz and chinook in the boil. It turned out amazing. Next time I will be skkipping the chinook and using something a bit more delicate instead both during the boil and for dryhopping.
I dry hopped five gal. with 1oz whole leaf citra for one week (didn't bag it; just tossed it into a bucket and racket on top of it). Didn't dry hop the other half of the batch. The dry-hopped half is far more interesting. It throws sort of an orange marmalade aroma. I usually go for earthier hops, lower alpha acid hops, but despite all this I find the citra to be super interesting. I might try it in a saison or a wit. Thanks to everyone for the advice.
