Hey all, I’m a new brewer. I’ve been doing the Cinci pale ale as it is easy to learn on. I was underwhelmed by the hops in my first batch. Someone on here said to double my hops next brew for more hop flavor. Tried it. I spaced out bittering and aromatic and all that good jazz. But when I drank it last night I noticed no real change in the hop flavor of the beer.
I always thought you are supposed to do your best to not let too much hops get into the fermenter from your cooled boil. Am I wrong about this? I am wondering if I should let more hops get into the fermenter and if this negatively affected the hop presence in my beer. As I said, I’m new and I know there is some advanced things I could do that might help, but at the basic level, wouldn’t you think doubling the hops would at least have some effect on the presence of hop taste in the brew? If so, then what am I doing wrong?
If I could find a 'beginners IPA" recipe I’d just assume try that.
Any thoughts or suggestions for this newbie would be much appreciated.
it is definitely a challenge to get a good commercial level hop flavor in your homebrews.
how many hops and what time did you add them?
for the best results in hop flavor i would do a FWH addition, 20min addition, 10min, 5min, 1min, and whirlpool, and dry hop. use pellets to avoid a lot of hop absorption
you CAN let hops get into the fermenter. but i doubt that’s why you’re lacking hop flavor
you’re probably doing extract beers? the host, northernbrewer, has superb extract kits. ive heard good things about dead ringer. others might have better suggestions for i don’t buy the kits anymore
Not to worry. You have less of a chance of infection from dry hopping. You already have an alcoholic environment (reminds me of my childhood, LOL) which will inhibit bacterial growth. Also, hops are a natural antibiotic. Just make sure you sanitize anything that will contact the beer (except the hops of course). If you dry hop in a bag weighted with marbles, or with a string or use a funnel to pour them in. Give it all a soak in some sanitizer and you can be worry free
Big late additions and dryhopping is what I’ve been doing to get big hop flavor in my IPA’s and pale ales. Don’t be scared to add several ounces of hops in the last 10min or so and I like to dryhop with at least an ounce or 2 depending on what I’m making. I also prefer whole hops when dryhopping. They’ll absorb some of the beer, so plan for that and make your batch 5.25 gallons, but there’s less chance of getting hop material into the final product.
