IPA Opinions

dry hop one week. bottle. drink in two weeks. i usually drink one after a week to see how the carbonation is coming along. sometimes ready to go after a week.

 

Concur with Spicoli. It may be cloudy so drink from an opaque mug.

 

hit it with 2 oz or more for the dry hop. Some people do multiple stage dry hops. Give the bottles at least two weeks after bottling. I dont have patience and always open bottles after two weeks and every time I wish I would have waited 3-4 since the beers always seems to be better around that time.

 

I concur with this, although it is worth noting that the flavor can change and mine have often been much better after 3 weeks in the bottle. But I also will sample one after only 1 week. It's interesting to note the "green" flavors that go away after a bit more time.

 

I also agree; start with one week. Dry-hop with more than you planned, and use different varieties. I'm sure single hop beers work fine sometimes, but I did not care for the single hop aroma of Nelson Sauvin, despite liking other Nelson beers.

 

some weird compounds can be produced during fermentation. the yeast tends to clean this stuff up. it is not unheard of to get sulfur or other "off" smells. if you have a thief, i would sanitize it and draw a sample to see what it tastes like. as long as you were diligent in the sanitation process, you should be okay.

 

Don't worry too much about slightly weird smells at this point - unless it's the garbage / outhouse funk of infected beers.
I did exactly that. Brewed an IPA, let ferment for 2 weeks. Dryhopped with 2oz Cascade for a week, then bottled. I opened one tonight after a 3 week carb time, and I'm very very happy with it.
we're 6 weeks out from brew day at this point, and good to go.
It may do some nice things over the next month or so, but we'll see if it lasts that long.

 

Dry hop 3 to 7 days
Carb two weeks
Cold condition at least three weeks

You can drink it @2wks but -- and there's always a but -- it'll be much more better if you can wait a bit longer.

 

If you want in your face hops go no less than 5 oz of ddry hops. I usually do half addition wait a week then the other half for a week and bottle condition for 2 weeks. Do be scared of dry hops the wake things up. My current dipa got 2 1/2 weeks dry hops with 2 oz then 2 oz then 1 oz in a 3 gallon batch

 

I'd like to think I'm experienced, and I've done many hoppy beers.

There's a couple things you have to take into account, on what is "too much" and how you can, or can't over do it.

Using some potent hops, see: Citra, Galaxy, Nelson, etc. You CAN overpower whatever else you have in there, if you over do those hops for example. There's plenty of other kinds of hops out there that can do that, but as an example, you could layer in a ton of flavor, and 4-5 different kinds and over do Citra, and I find that it hides some of the more delicate flavors and leaves it somewhat less complex.

As for a run of the mill IPA hopping schedule, take a look at our crowd sourced APA IPA recipe here on the forums. It's not your traditional hopping schedule you see in books, more of a "hop burst" method. More late, less early, using your 60 min addition to get the IBU's you desire from that point. Instead of working 60/90 min in, you work from hopstand/whirlpool/flameout back.

In my recipes for IPA's, I generally use for a 5 g batch, around 4.5-5 oz to 10 ounces. I've started using hop extract to bitter, so I can get my 60-80-100 IBU's upfront and then I never add hops until close to 5 min or less in the boil, and do huge hop stands. This gives me the bitterness I want, to an exact amount without too much trub and wort loss, and then allows me to slam the kettle late to get additional bitterness, aroma and flavor.

There however, IMO, is a point where you can use too much. You'll end up muddling the beer up so bad, with so many varieties and different times, that it simply will just taste like hops. You might can pick out citrus, or pine, but beyond that.. it's a muddled mess.

I tend to think that once you exceed 4-5 varieties you really need to be aware of more than, just wanting more pine in the nose so adding it late, and less citrus so don't do a bunch in the dry hops. I've many a times muddled up an IPA that turned into a brown-ish, hazy concoction that simply tasted like hop juice with no real clear taste other than maybe some grassy notes from tons of hops in boil and dry hop. I have an IPA on tap that I was using to clear out some hops in the freezer. Had 11 ounces in JUST the boil. Used 4 ounces of dry hopping and it was a hoppy mess. Good beer, but not what I wanted.

If you keg, and you purge your kegs, your siphon and your fermenter when you transfer you can keep o2 out as best as possible, and will be able to get MORE aroma and flavor from your hoppy beers, and won't have to add so many hops.. I do a warm dry hop in a keg with whole leaf hops 98% of the time. My regular IPAs will have 1.5-3 ounces of dry hops depending on what I feel I need at the end of fermentation and tasting.

 

You can certainly get a damn fine beer with less than 5 ounces in dry hop. Unless you added almost no hops to the boil.

 

Not saying you can't get a good beer without that much. I make many beers with no dry hops. But IMO if he want that in your face smack you hops alot is better. I actually use FWH and only late additions and lots of them. But I am a hop head

 

Is there a commercial beer (for comparison) you would describe as having "in your face smack you hops?" Just curious about your definition, because I think a lot of people would say that it can be done with significantly less dry hops than 5 ounces. I think some might classify the APA IPA (for example) as in your face, and that has 3.25 ounces total dry hops IIRC. There's more than one way to get hop flavor/aroma.

 

Heady has it. You could say pliny though I am not a fan. Abrasive. All of which load down the dry hops. It's a matter of preference. Each persons style and method differs. Many people steer away from so many due to cost. I say go big. But like I said it's my opinion

 

I'm a huge hop head. I've got close to 19 pounds of them in my freezer, in various forms of pellet, whole cone, and even hop extract to bitter.

My point was, just simply saying "You need X amount to get a huge hop presence", it's always "the" way.

I do the same with my beers. Bitter it high as hell. 1.25 BU:OG normally, and then smack it late and whirlpool hopstand. I control my fermentations correctly, purge my kegs, my siphon and hoses, fill the keg, dry hop in the keg, purged with c02 and sealed up. I lose as little aroma as possible to begin with.

2.5 ounces would be a sufficient amount for a "normal" dry hop.

 

Okay. But those are all DIPAs. The OP is brewing an IPA.

 

All great beers, and all have great aroma and flavor to them. Yes, they are all heavy on the dry hop, and late hop if you will. Clone recipes show 4-6 ounces of dry hops in them. With that, those are all bigger beers, Double IPA's.. They've have that much in them in most cases.

My point is, the pro's don't have to use that much, because they have more efficient systems and processes. Us, as homebrewer don't all have the capability, or process to get that extra from the hops, so we are forced to just go by the rule of thumb of "add more". In the case of adding more dry hops, there is, IMO, a point of diminished return because we add so much. That was my point to the thread.

Breakdown their actual usage per barrel, and you'd be aghast at how little it would be if it were broken down to our scale.