At what rate is too much too much you think? Lately have been dry hopping my house IPA with 10 oz per 5 gallons, which comes out to nearly 4 lb/bbl, and have noticed a rather sharp, edgy bitterness. This same IPA has only a few small hop additions in the kettle prior to whirlpool that gives it theoretical IBU of 35. OG 1.076. BU:GU is 0.46. For my next batch I dialed the dry hop down to 8 oz (two separate 4 oz additions). Hoping to see a bit less edge and hop sharpness. Have you experienced something similar?
Too many variables to give absolute number. Hop variety has a huge impact. I find citra in particular to be susceptible to hop burn. Additionally, I find both dry hop amount and the boil hop schedule to have impact. I bet, although I've not tested, bet dry hopping timing, primary vs. secondary have influence. Variables aside, I generally don't exceed 7 oz per 5 gallons. There are diminishing returns and the risk of organic and hop burn flavors is too great.
I have experienced "hop burn" from over dryhopping. If you have ever tried to taste a hop pellet you will know exactly what I am speaking of. I honestly have done up to 1 lb of dryhopping, and feel that 6oz is the sweet spot before hop burn gets excessive, but you still get bomb hop aromas. Some pro brewers have changed their dry hop regiments to reduce hop burn. @rscot231 may have some tips that we could employ as homebrewers.
It has been discussed by Scott Janish that more dry hopping can result in ‘less’: “One hop researcher suggested to me that it’s possible when introducing a lot of dry hops to beer like that, you could potentially be removing beneficial hop compounds via absorption through the hop leafy material as the hops fall and settle out to the bottom of the vessel, suggesting there is a point where less may be more.” This is an intriguing thought. My previous thinking was that using something like 12+ ounces of hops for dry hopping Juicy/Hazy IPAs was simply a waste of money but this concept indicates that it may be counterproductive as well. http://scottjanish.com/researching-new-england-ipa-neipa-haze/ Cheers!
I've never dry hopped at that rate as it does seem excessive. I find 2.4#s/bbl to be optimal, but as @InVinoVeritas has noted, variety makes a huge difference. And I should also note, I do get some hop burn at that rate, depending on the variety and it's oil makeup, but I feel a little bit of it is good in a NEIPA to make up for some of the lower bitterness. I think @InVinoVeritas is also completely right on about Citra, and I generally use that as a support for other varieties like Amarillo and Mandarina Bavaria.
Not a lot of what we’ve changed would be super applicable to home brewers. A lot of it is related to how we used our dry hopping machine, which is far different from anything I had access to when I was home brewing. General advice would be to cold crash for as long as possible before packaging and to drop out as much of the hop matter as possible. In addition to some changes in how we use our dry hopping machine, our heavily hopped beers get one extra day crashed in the FV before being sent to the brite tank.
From the Scott Janish article: “…the IBU test results go up with dry hopping…” I discussed this same topic in the ongoing PtE thread: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/pliny-type-double-ipa.577632/#post-6063280 Cheers!
Think I found some helpful discussion in that Pliny thread @JackHorzempa mentioned. In relation to the harshness of hops: "Lower pH also serves to extract less astringent material from malt and (though somewhat less total bitterness) less harsh bitterness from hops, especially in highly hopped beers.... In contrast, alkalinity, extracts astringent, harsh, bitter, and colored substances from raw materials..." (Lewis & Young, 2001). From Brewing: Second Edition by Lewis & Young Next batch of NE-style IPA will see mash pH 5.2 and will be acidified in the kettle, pre-boil, with phosphoric acid to 5.0 pH. Ideally will result in a smoother, rounded bitterness.
Just be careful depending on what malt you use... SMM’s (the DMS precursor) half life goes up as boil PH goes down. Not by a lot but it’s about 12 minutes longer at 5.0 vs 5.5. Again depending on malt and you’re probably at see level it might not be an issue. I live at 7000 feet though so my boil temp is really low and the SMM half life goes way up. That coupled with a lower PH I have to boil for a really long time to completely get rid of it.
I believe Monkish released a beer with a 9lb/bbl Dry Hop addition... they probably have a centrifuge though... You can use a smaller amount of finings which will help to get rid of the burn but not crush the aromatics.
