A technique we’ve all come to appreciate for imparting oodles of hop aroma is dry hopping, with opinions regarding how to do it being quite vast. We were curious-- is there a point to where the quantity of dry hops added no longer makes a difference? For this xBmt, we compared a split batch of the same beer dry hopped with drastically different amounts. Results are in!
That was pretty cut and dried, nice job. Moar hops!
Nice job. Definitely lines up with my experience.
Great experiment – sounds tasty!
More interesting to me would be the difference between 180 grams and like 270 grams and 360 grams (in 11 gallons). That’s the frontier that needs to be explored. We knew 60 grams would be relatively wimpy. But where is that point of diminishing returns, exactly? I’ll go by ounces here because that’s what I know: commercial brewers usually/always seem to peak at 0.6 to 0.75 oz per gallon. What if we used a full ounce per gallon, what does that do? Can you really cram more flavor in at that point, or is it just a big waste of beer lost in the hop trub? Next time (I’m sure there will be a next time, yes?!).
curious if you agitated during dryhopping at all or just dump in and let them eventually sink - i didn’t see that listed in your write up. great experiment as always!
I’ve seen quite a few recipes from breweries who use 1 oz+/gal dry in their IPAs ( Ballast Point, La Cumbre to name a couple). I do as well. I’m sure there’s a threshold there somewhere, but I feel it’s above that point.
Nice write up. So it was a noticeable difference, but the batch with less dry hops was preferred? Were there any common comments from the tasters as to why that was? Too much vegetal taste, too bitter, better balance flavor wise, etc?
Awesome write up, thanks again for doing these - agree with dmtaylor, if you ever do a round 2 I’d love to see you really load it up, like 2oz/gallon.
Agree with this 100%. The results so far match my experience rather closely. If you do end up running a followup xBmt to test the high end of the dry-hop range, it will be interesting if you hit a point where the tasters start noticing grassiness or harsh vegetal bitterness.
You also mentioned how quickly the hop character dropped off over time. That also matches my experience for beers relying on a heavy dry-hop addition. I find that hoppy beers that rely more on a large, long hop-stand hold up a lot better over time.
Seems like since it’s subjective it would be pretty hard to quantify a point of diminishing returns. It would depend on the ability of each individual tester.
In my experience the aromatic punch of hops varies enormously between varieties, different batches, and age and storage of the package, so trying to calculate the right amount for optimum dry hopping or the threshold at which returns diminish significantly is likely to be difficult or perhaps impossible.
I’d be interested to know how the two beers would have compared if you’d used equal quantities of hops in both, but one biased towards dry hopping and the other biased towards flameout hop steep. I’ve got fantastic flavour from flameout steeps from Citra and Mosaic with no dry hopping, but I do think it’s different kind of flavour than dry hopping gives - perhaps different aromatic oils are extracted at different temperatures.
I agree, and luckily steeping and dry hopping aren’t mutually exclusive. I love both. I do both on most American styles especially, since I think each gives different character.
Look at the oil %, and you will see that Citra is high, Mosaic is fairly high.
We absolutely have this one planned 
Is there a proper balance (ratio) of dry hops to original gravity of the beer? In other words, it seems to me an APA should be dry hopped less than an IPA.
I think that is true but don’t brew enough of either style to say so definitively.
I know the proper balance of dry hops to gravity would be subjective. But are there common ranges?
PS. I am about to brew an APA with OG of 1050 and planning 0.33oz dry hop (Galaxy) per gallon. Does this seem too high, too low?
Definitely takes trial and error to find what you like, but I dry hop APAs @ 2.5-3 oz/ 5 gallons, with IPAs more like 5-6 oz/5 gallons. Just personal preference.
I brewed two identical beers with only swapping out Galaxy for Azacca only because my LBS didn’t have any Galaxy at that time. HUGE difference in hop aroma, I couldn’t believe that the total hop quantities were the same. Galaxy is one hop I will continue to use
Galaxy is incredible.
Great job!
Do you have plans to exBeeriment with length of time dry hopping?
I rarely (this may be my first post, I’m more of a lurker) post but this was really interesting. Just in time too as I plan on brewing a nice big IIPA for the fall/winter. I have never dry hopped with more than 2.5oz per 5 gallons. this, of all the things I have read on hops, kinda opened my eyes to the fact that I need to man up and get some damn hops in these beers I brew. Thanks!