Such thing as dry hopping overkill?

No such thing. Try it out of the keg and decide how much more after kegging

 

Sounds like you'd have brewed DDH Fort Point

If you don't have anything else planned for the 4, sure, toss it in as the keg hop.

Since you're kegging, you might find this post from JC himself about techniques for dry hopping helpful: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/is-4-oz-of-dry-hopping-too-much.210334/#post-2773906

 

My rule of thumb based on the pros is to use 0.75 oz/gallon for IPA, no more no less. For a pale ale, I would go even lower, 0.5 oz/gal or even less. Also, with very strong hops like Citra, a little goes a long way, so any more than that is indeed a waste IMHO. With Citra, you can probably get away with half as much as normal and still have it turn out plenty hoppy. To all those who insist there's no such thing as too much hops, you'll never know until you try less and see if you still find the results tasty. Maybe you can save a few bucks. I think you can. If money and volume losses mean nothing to you, then why not use 10 oz, go right ahead.

 

The CBC Bodhi clone recipe I've found uses just as many dry hops. There may be a theoretical limit to how many dry hops you should use, but 5 oz has at least been done before so you should be fine.

 

I just dry hopped with 9oz in 5-gallon... A bit heavy handed, sure, but I will admit the end result is unlike any other I have done (in the best way). Aroma and flavor are just incredible.

 

Personal choice. For me, yes I have reached hop over load, but it really is up to the consumer. That hopping rate with those hops would be a bit much for me.

 

If you double-dryhop, the amounts don't seem quite as excessive, but having said that, there is definitely a point of diminishing returns, lupulin addiction, and volume restraints on whole cone hops in a corny

 

The most I've used was 6 oz dry hop in 2.5 gal IPA. The excessive amount of dry hops certainly didn't have any negative impact on the beer, it tasted and smelled good, but I'm not sure if it would have been any worse with 3 oz instead.

On the other hand, I'm brewed a Pliny clone yesterday and it only calls for 3.75 oz dry hops which seems so low to me. I'm tempted to add more but I'll probably stick to the recipe and adjust next time if I think its worth it.

 

Several folks have posted about the concept of the law of diminishing return. Feel free to add as many ounces of dry hops to your beer as you want (and your wallet will support).

Cheers!

 

Last fall I homebrewed my version of a Pliny the Elder where I dry hopped with 4 ounces of hop pellets. I think that beer turned out great.

Cheers!

 

I have total faith in the recipe since its from Vinnie himself (although it may be slightly outdated), I think I'm just brainwashed by these fancy NE IPA's with 6 oz flameout/whirlpool and 6 oz dry hop.

 

I suppose "brainwashed" is one way to describe this situation.

Using 4 ounces of dry hops to homebrew a version of Pliny the Elder will 'work' just fine.

Cheers!

 

I think you get diminishing returns. Home brew club just had an IPA contest and one guy put 11ozs of dry hops in for a 5 gallon at batch. The difference between my at 5 ozs and his were very minimal.

 

BINGO!!

Cheers!

 

What did the rest of your recipes and processes look like in comparison? IOW, was it a fair comparison of the dry hop amounts?

 

5# of dry hops per 5 gallons is definitely overkill. So yes, there is such a thing as dry hopping overkill unless you have a deviated septum and chronic nasal congestion.

 

We used different processes a recipes. My recipe was molded after the NE style and his was "west coast". I have zero crystal and wheat malt, while the other recipe had at least 5% crystal and no wheat. I dry hopped 3 ozs at about 5 days in the primary with some low levels of active fermentation and then again in the keg at 2 ozs. From my understanding is the guy who dry hopped 11ozs did so in a secondary. I don't know if it was done in two installments or 1. Also, my beer was fresher but the other guy didn't mention if he noticed any fall off yet. We didn't discuss a lot on our processes but had casual conversation after the competition. We usually discuss each beer in detail but since the competition took most of the time we didn't go into detail about each beer.

Not sure if those differencies are enough to enhance the hop enough aromatics to offset an IPA with as much dry hops as my whole beer did.

I do believe that the process and recipe does make a big difference.

 

Is there such thing as dry hopping overkill?
Short answer: No
Long answer: Nooooooooo!

Seriously, though, it's a subjective thing. Tastes vary. I have a brew friend who believes that the only legitimate use for hops in beer is bittering. (Not to stray too far off topic, but I feel the same way about raspberries.) Experiment. You'll eventually find your own personal threshold of overkill. As was already alluded to, above, diminishing returns is a real thing, so let your wallet be your guide.

 

Overkill:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ran...bm=isch&q=randall+drink&imgrc=ybyh_qk3OnD6BM: