How much hops is too much

This being said, some homebrewers dry-hop with high alpha acid varieties like Centennial and Chinook. Personal preferences vary, and you should experiment to see what you like. In general, if you like the results of using a particular hop variety in the last 5—10 minutes of the boil then you will probably like the results of dry hopping with the same variety. The choices are in the primary fermenter, in the secondary fermenter, or in the keg.

Dry hopping in the primary fermenter will work, and is favored by some brewers, but conventional wisdom teaches that the primary might not be optimal. The problem lies in the bubbling of the CO 2 and the agitation of the wort during primary fermentation. This bubbling and agitation takes some of the hop aroma out of the beer just like boiling would. This, of course, may defeat the purpose of dry hopping, although some of the hop essence will subsist. If you choose to dry-hop in the primary fermenter, you may want to add more hops than you would for dry hopping in the secondary or keg.

The secondary fermenter is generally considered the best place for dry hopping for a couple of reasons. First, the beer has already mostly fermented so, as mentioned above, the alcohol and low pH helps to ward off any bacteria on the un-sanitized hops.

There is, however, one potential difficulty with dry hopping in the secondary. Many brewers use glass carboys with narrow necks as their secondary fermenters. Getting the hops into, and then back out of, the slender opening can be an exercise in frustration.

This is especially true if you like to keep the hops in a bag, making it easy to separate them from the beer. My recommendation is to use a bucket with a large opening rather than a carboy, or to forget about putting the hops in a bag and just dump them in.

You can then separate the hops from the beer when racking to your bottling bucket or keg. The final option for dry hopping is in the keg. Here, it is advisable to use a muslin or cheesecloth bag to contain the hops.

Otherwise you run the risk of sucking hops into the system, clogging it up, or getting hops into your glass. One concern with dry hopping in the keg is the extended duration that the hops are in contact with the beer.

The next question is, what form of hops to use? The choices are the same as the hops that you add to the kettle: pellets, plugs, or loose.

The pros and cons are a bit different though. While transferring to keg, I stopped tipping the bucket to get every last ounce. I think some of those particles can cause the hop burn or grassiness that sometimes happens. NorCalKid and Hill like this. Galaxy will overpower all those hops in a big way. Was recently talking to Connor from Callermaker and he said if they were using say Galaxy and Simcoe they would have to use 4 times as much Simcoe in relation to Galaxy to get any sort of balance.

Same with most of the Aussie hops. I find a bigger whirlpool and a smaller dry hop to be a better mix, but that's just my opinion. My normal neipa at home is 16oz whirlpool and 4oz dry hop added within the first hours of fermentation.

Gsulliv2 and ECCS like this. I think you start getting diminishing returns with too much dry hops. I get good results with around 9. If you got hops to burn go for it. Crazy to hear multiple comments about using 16oz hops in an ipa. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. How much hops is "too much" hops? Thread starter trginter Start date Apr 5, Help Support Homebrew Talk:. I know the question might seem kind of ridiculous, but I'm doing research for an IPA, using only Citra hops with the hops of a huge citra aroma and flavor.

Is anything over an ounce of hops, for a 5 gallon batch, too much at around minutes? When do you get to the point where you really just can't smell and taste it anymore?

And are my times at 20 and 15 enough to get a great flavor out of it? Or should I load up at just 15? As far as grain goes, I was thinking pretty simple. Yooper Ale's What Cures You! Staff member. Three ounces of dryhops seems a bit over the top, but I like 1 ounce additions at 20, 15, 10, 5, and 0 for all of my IPAs for the most part. With three additions besides the bittering , you're not even close to "over the top"! I've used up to 5 ounces of whole hops in the boil for a 5-gallon batch.

With that much stuff in the kettle, I have to strain rather than whirlpool and siphon. Another option is to add a good-size charge at flameout and allow a hot stand for a few minutes, like infusing tea.

I've used There is no such thing as too much hops. Here's a quote from designing great beers about the difference between hopping late in the boil and dry hopping. Late-hopped additions have been characterized as more floral, fragrant, and less grassy than dry-hopped additions. The difference being the size of the opening, whether you want the hops to float or drop, whether you want to use a bag and the cleanup. Many of us still use glass carboys to ferment our beer in.

So, I think you can see the problem right away…the size of the opening. Here are the characteristics of each type when used in a typical glass or PET carboy:. There has always been some debate on whether you should dry hop in primary.

Some find that there is not much of a loss of flavor and aroma, as there is a change in flavor and aroma. So what remains is the question of whether the flavors and aromas you get from dry hopping during primary fermentation are the flavors and aromas you were looking for. This is something you will have to decide for yourself and some experimentation is definitely in order.

For those who feel that too much aroma is lost during primary, adding dry hops during secondary is definitely the way to go. Most homebrewers do dry hop during secondary fermentation. Before dry hopping in the secondary, rack off the trub in the primary to remove as much yeast mass as possible.