Sooo, I forgot to add the last addition of hops, .5 oz hersbrucker, at flameout. Of course I didnt realize it until the wort was cooled to pitching temps. I added them anyways, let it sit for 1/2 hour, then pitched.
What can I expect? Will the results be a whole lot different? Or should I RDWHAHB ??
I maybe wrong and if anyone else has experience please correct me.
Well any late additions in the brew is probably for flavor/aroma and not for bitterness, so if your brew required hops at flameout the odds are it is for flavor/aroma. So there is very little time for your flameout additions hops to isomerize to add bitterness, so by putting them in after the wort cools is not going to make a HUGE difference. I’d imagine it just be like dry hopping, except you did it at beginning of primary.
Well I haven’t done this or really read anything about it but I have heard people say not to leave hops in the fermenter too long otherwise they start to give off kind of a grassy/earthy taste from overexposure so I would rack this beer to a secondary if you were not planning on it. Next time I would just hang on to them and add them after fermentation, there’s probably a reason why dry hopping is done that way so I would stick to it although I bet you’ll be fine.
Infection is the concern - and the reason dry hopping is not not done at pitch time but later. When you dry hop you are adding the hops to beer not wort. Beer’s pH and alchohol alow one to be far more liberal in what you add to the fementor at that stage. Not so with Wort. It is the perfect pH and has all the nutrients (and a distinct lack of alchohol) for any bug to get going. If the hops had any contaminantion on them you may have innoculated your wort with something unwanted. Using packaged processed pellets likely reduces this risk but will still be there. Just have to wait and see.
Good Luck
Barry
Dry hop with them. Easy peasy!
EDIT: Having said that, I’d dry hop with no less than 1oz.
