Should I dry hop?

Got the Megaladon imperial red for Christmas. I missed the addition of 2 oz of centennial at the very start of the boil. There were plenty of hop additions around the 45 min mark but I’m wondering if I shouldn’t throw the 2 oz in the secondary before I bottle. Any thoughts?

I’m no expert by any means but here’s my 2 cents. I took a look at the recipe and description and think you’ve nothing to lose by dry hopping. If it were me, I’d do it for sure. I don’t see the 45 minute additions but the 20 and 10 minute additions give you about 60 IBUs in BeerSmith as opposed to the 100+ by design. The BU:GU ratio has gone from 1.116 (DIPA range) to .62 (more amber ale range) which will likely be a bit different from what you had in mind. It’s probably going to be much more malty without the bitterness to cut it but dry hopping won’t hurt it. I’ll be interested to hear how this comes out for you. Cheers!

The first hop addition are your bittering hops. The long boil is for alpha acid isomerization. Simply put the longer the boil, the more bittering you get. Dry hopping will not add bittering. It is more for hop nose, that wonderfu smell and some flavor. There is no reason not to dry hop your beer so why not? It may not turn out as bitter as it is intended to be but it probably will still turn out to be great beer.

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From the looks of the recipe it is going to be boozy. Without the bitterness it will taste boozy. You may like it you may not depending if you like boozy beer. Use the hops for dry hopping it won’t make much of a difference. If you keg and you really don’t like it you can brew it again and blend. If you bottle it you can blend it in the glass.

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Don’t try to tweak every last point out of the yeast either if it quits early don’t try to revive it you can also cold crash it really cold.

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This is a good idea.

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Well I’ll definitely throw the leftover hops in the secondary then. This one has only been in primary for a week so it will be a while before I can report back. Thanks for the input everybody.

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Just an update here. I dry hopped with the 2 oz of bittering hops I missed after 3 weeks in secondary. Just cracked one open, carbed up nicely (used cbc-1 before bottling) this one is very malty, I’m definitely missing the bitterness. However, its quite smooth and easy drinking so overall I’m very happy with it. Being a new brewer this was an excellent learning experience about hop utilization and I appreciate the input. Thanks and cheers fellas.

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Thanks for the follow up!

So, whats up next Bear man? Sneezles61

Can you smell the dry-hop?

Barely, its a very strong ale so probably needed twice as many hops to come through well.

Since the imperial red I’ve done the fresh squeezed clone which turned out great. Also the pliney clone which is sitting in secondary. I’ve had a blast with recipe kits but I’m ready to try my own recipes now. Giving that a spin this coming weekend with a red ipa and a milk stout.

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