I’ve heard of a few techniques for getting the most out of hops, one that I’ve been using is the double dry hop, which involves adding more than a single dry hop dose over the span of a few days. Convinced as I was that it contributed to better hop aroma, I finally put this one through the flimsy rigors of an xBmt. Results are in!
Nice work. I quit dry hopping a long time ago. Just didn’t care enough to do the extra work. Like you, I don’t brew much hoppy beer anymore either. There’s so much available on the market and I’m not always in the mood to drink IPA. The kind of beer I like to drink, I can hop up enough in the boil to not have to dry hop. I have a hoppy pale lager on tap right now that suits me just fine - it’s all about balance!
Thanks! Yeah, for the most part, I get the hop character I like from the boil as well 
Thanks for running the experiment and for posting a link to it here. I sometimes forget all the blogs and various sites I intend to follow, so a reminder on the forum sure comes in handy!
Great info Marshall, good read
Nice work, Marshall. This pretty much goes along with my experience, too. I’ve dry hopped a multitude of ways and haven’t found a difference between the two. I’ve always felt like the total amount of oil that comes from dry hopping is the total, regardless of how many additions it took to get there.
Most important part of dry hopping is getting as much of the yeast out of solution as possible. The yeast will grab the hop resins as they fall out of solution. This may be where some of the ideas that 2 dry hoppings give better aroma since the yeast has cleared up more by the second.
Yeah, I agree. I’m really sold on dry hopping clear beer. The aroma seems to last longer this way to me. I know everybody likes their way best.
Good read, Marshall.
Follow up question for the group: I am likely going to forgo dryhopping in the future in favor of a whirlpool addition. I believe I get similar aromas from whirlpooling and dryhopping, but I get clearer beer from the whirlpool method.
Anyone else on a whirlpool kick? Or does the xBmt team want to tackle that one?
I whirlpool almost every beer with flavor additions, but I still dry hop some beers on occasion. I have been dry-hopping less and less, though. I haven’t quite given it up on IPA’s, but I may have to try it soon. I do think the character is different between the two, but the only time it really matters to me is a massively hopped beer where I want to layer both whirlpool and dry hops together.
I’m whirlpooling pretty much everything nowadays. For American styles, I’m pretty happy with whirlpool hops only for American amber, brown, and stout. But for APA and AIPA I do dry hop but at a lesser amount than before. I agree that there is a different aroma character between steeped and dry hops.
Thanks, Amanda! I actually did a whirlpool/hopstand vs dry hop comparison a few years back. Anecdotally, and without use of a triangle test, the dry hopped batch was noticeably more aromatic. The hopstand batch was his t with the same amount of hops once chilled to ~175F. That said, many people preferred the hop character on the hopstand batch. I definitely plan to redo this one as a formal xBmt.
Love the write-up and info on the site! Nice Job! I too would be interested in seeing an updated version of the whirlpool vs dry hop xBmt come to light.
For sure! Are you thinking something similar to what I did before (175F hopstand with no dry hop vs dry hop with no hopstand) or something different?
I’ll be brewing an xBmt beer I plan to bring with me to NHC next week, I’ll probably get back to this one soon after the conference. Cheers!
Marshall,
One thing I’d like to see if you revisit this topic is to see how well the hop character holds up over time between the two. In other words, run a sensory panel early on, then repeat it after maybe 2 months and 6 months (or something along those lines). I don’t doubt that a dry-hopped beer will likely have more hop aromatics early on, but my experience leads me to believe that “hot side” additions hold up better over time. It would be interesting to see that one tested out.
Great idea. FWIW, I ended up dumping the leftover IPA from the dry hop xBmt after 9 weeks in the keg because the hop character dropped off so drastically.
For IPA and APA, this is why I don’t think the whirlpool and dry hopping need to be mutually exclusive. I’m convinced the steep hop character lasts longer and is sufficient for most beers, but there is a slightly different hop character from dry hopping (to me) that I think works well alongside whirlpooling for these two styles. Lots of ways to get there, though.
FWIW i did a SMASH with 100% pils and 100% falconers flight.
whirlpool 2 oz for 10 min and after the fermentation was complete there was basically zero hop aroma…
racked to secondary and dry hopped w/ 2 oz and hop aroma was back to a level i was happy with.
with other beers and hops our WP addition has contributed plenty of flavor and aroma… not sure why the SMASH was lacking in aroma.
I wonder if maybe your perception of the hop aroma was at least partially a function of no carbonation? I personally find hops to shine only after the beer is fully carbonated.
Do you always rack to secondary to dry hop? I’m planning on repeating my secondary xBmt soon am looking for reasons people choose to do this, I’d really appreciate your input!
First secondary xBmt: exBEERiment | Impact Racking To A Secondary Fermenter Has On An American Pale Ale | Brülosophy
People perform secondary fermentation for reasons beyond perceived taste. I notice that I do not need any fining agents beyond a bit of Irish moss at the end of the boil to get a crystal clear beer when I rack to secondary - no cold crash or gelatin. Others have noted that it’s easier/better to bottom-crop yeast out of the primary relatively earlier on. The argument there is that if you bottom crop off of a primary that’s been sitting for appreciable amounts of time you are specifically selecting the least flocculent yeast each crop. From your previous experiments, clearly the results suggest that it doesn’t matter much from a taste perspective but I continue to do it because of the reasons above and the oxidation during transfer boogey-man is a non starter as far as published research is concerned.
Looking forward to the secondary/dry hop exbeeriment!