Dead Ringer IPA kit - not enought dry hops?

sammysam · January 3, 2014, 5:09pm

For the Dead Ringer IPA (extract 5 gal.) the recipe states add 1 oz. of centennial in the secondary a few days before bottling. Dry hop it.

I had a few guys over and one of them was a new gentleman who was a homebrewer a couple years back. We were chatting it up all night but he was telling me that if it is any less than 4 Oz. that there is no point to dry hop it. He stressed that 4 oz. is across the board for ANY dry hop situation and that I shouldn’t even bother to do 1 Oz.

I asked “Pellets? or whole?”
“pellets” he replied.

So IDK I’m a little curious to say the least on what you all think.

:cheers:

dobe12 · January 3, 2014, 5:20pm

I do agree an ipa should have more than 1oz of dry hops, I do NOT agree that 4oz across the board is true. That’s like saying “all beers should have exactly 10lbs of basemalt and 1lb of crystal”. For Pale Ales I like to add between 1 & 2oz of dry hops. For IPAs I’ll go a little more, but it really depends on the hop. I’ll go heavier on Cascade than Citra for example because Citra packs a huge punch. I made a real big double IPA last year with all cascade where I used 8oz of whole leaf cascade hops to dry hop. It was awesome!!! But there’s no way I’d add 8oz of citra.

So yes, definitely add more than 1oz of dry hops for an IPA, but NO 4oz across the board does not make any sense.

EDIT: Pellets or whole. Whatever you got. Whole will soak up more beer, so make the batch larger. Maybe 1/2 gallon or so.

grizz_talker · January 3, 2014, 5:37pm

I recently brewed DR and used 2 oz. centennial in a hop bag for dry-hopping. Turned out really well. Those late additional add flavor and smell as well, so the overall hop presence is still pretty high.

I believe DR would be too far out of balance with 4 oz. dry hopped.

IMO of course.

gdtechvw · January 3, 2014, 8:54pm

I have done pale ales with just 1 oz and it adds good flavor and aroma, but for an ipa I would do 2 or more depending and the beer.

wahoo · January 3, 2014, 8:55pm

If you need at least 4 oz to “get anything” out of dry hops, you’re not doing it right.

brewingdan · January 3, 2014, 11:24pm

4oz is a lot. I usually use 1oz with 2oz definitely being my max for 5gal.

beerginer · January 4, 2014, 12:41am

I average 2-3oz for my IPA’s. I have gone as high as 5oz and that was nice, but it really depends on the hops you are using. I agree with dobe12 you don’t need that much Citra.

meerts · January 4, 2014, 6:19pm

I agree with what’s been said above. I usually dry hop 2 or more ounces.

A member brought their Dead Ringer to brew club last month and it was less hoppy than 2 hearted but it was one of their first beers so it could have been in the brewing rather than the recipe. I’ve heard great things about the recipe so my inclination is to trust it. If you happen to keg, I would follow their advice then keg hop with more centennial if it seems to still need it.

steeler_d · January 4, 2014, 6:29pm

FWIW, my personal experience has led me to err on the side of using a greater amount of dry hops, but for a lesser period of time. Especially for pellets. So I now try to dry hop with pellets for only 4 days.

2 oz for an APA and 4 oz for an IPA is about right for my taste.

This followed from a recent experience of leaving the pellets in for approx 10 days that (I think) was the culprit in producing an off-putting grassy flavor. It mellowed eventually with room temp storage but never really got to the point of having that bright fresh dry hop character