The secret to explosive hop aroma

Originally posted by joeneugs
What do you do to get the potent aroma blast in your hoppy beers?

Well, the hops are about 6 months old, but I store them vacuumed sealed in the freezer. They smelled pretty potent and fresh when I put them in.

Grain bill:
74.5% American 2-row
7.5% Sucrose (table sugar)
4.5% Carapils
4.5% Crystal 20
4.5% Munich
2.25% Honey Malt
2.25% White Wheat

Mashed at 149 F
Batch sparged

Hop schedule:
.75 ounces of Apollo for 60 minutes 32 IBU’s
.75 ounces of Citra for 15 minutes
.75 ounces of Citra for 10 minutes
1 ounce of Citra for 5 minutes
1.5 ounces of Citra whirlpooled for 20 minutes

SG: 1.070
FG: 1.010

Large starter of WLP001

Dry-hopped with 2.5 ounces of Citra and 2.5 ounces of Amarillo split up evenly over three additions three days apart for a total of 9 days. The first addition was put in a weighted hop bag, but the other two were just thrown in and swirled a couple times a day.

Kegged and lagered 5 days then force carbed and served... now that I look at the recipe again, I guess I could have added more whirl pool hops. How much are you guys using? Do you do whirlpool additions at different temperatures to get more bitterness out of some and retain more of the oils in others?

Also here was my calculated water profile after adding measured amounts of minerals:

Ca 70ppm
Mg 21ppm
Na 43ppm
Cl 88ppm
SO4 137ppm

This is a fascinating thread with a lot of great contributions, Joe. Thanks for starting it.

I’ve heard brewers talk about how they don’t like to smell hop aromas when brewing because sensing those precious aromas means they’ve escaped the beer.

Are there homebrew-scale methods for minimizing the escape of volatile aromas?

I added 2 oz. of Citra pellets to a 1/2-gallon growler and "dry-hopped" that sumbitch for two days. It was happy as a muthaducka. Had to dilute with like 4-to-1 "unhopped" fresh beer from the tap to balance it out a bit. Was delicious. Would do it again in a heartbeat (when I could drink 2 1/2 gallons of beer in one sitting).

True story.

Originally posted by joet
there homebrew-scale methods for minimizing the escape of volatile aromas?

In my experience homebrewers tend to over value what the pros are doing and over complicate things. The pros are doing things based on their systems and often their limitations, they also have their bottom line to deal with and is often what guides their decision making, this doesn’t always translate to the homebrew scale. There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides.

Your recipe looks heavy on crystal malts and too light on late additions. Have you glanced at the pliney clone recipe that Vinnie added to the site? Having said that, I would think you would be getting a bigger aroma with 5oz dry hops so my guess is you didn’t extract all the oils. Maybe people with more experience dry hopping in carboys could help you but this is why I prefer dry hopping in the keg because I can recirculate the oils easier in a keg and thus multiple stage dry hopping aren’t necessary and haven’t helped me in my experience.

Yeah, I usually don’t use any crystal malt in IPA’s, just a little carapils. This recipe is based on the Kern River Citra recipe Kyle Smith gave out on the brewing network. In fact the malt bill is identical to that beer.

Good point about the pro brewer vs. homebrewer thing.

Originally posted by joeneugs
Honestly in this case, I think I needed to go heavier on the whirlpool hops.

Originally posted by joeneugs
Maybe even another ounce or two in the dry hop for such a big beer.

Originally posted by joeneugs
The problem is, I ferment in carboys. The couple times I tried this method, I ended up blowing the caps right off the top of the carboys due to built up pressure. It would be easier if I had a conical like pro brewers use. I’ve heard Kyle Smith of Kern River and Matt Brylindson of Firestone Walker say the same kind of things, but they also mention that they have to burp the fermentor before each dry hop addition, so it seems like the aroma is escaping anyway…