Concerning dry hopping

[FedoraDave]

I posted this in the Mr. Beer forum at the time, but figured it would be good to have it in here, as well.

At the AHA Convention this past June, I attended a seminar by Stan Hieronymus, an expert on hops. It covered getting the most out of dry hopping, meaning extending the aroma as much as possible. It was pretty eye-opening.

The gist of it was that recent studies have discovered that the characteristics of hops that contribute to aroma are more volatile and short-lived than previously thought. And it comes down to the optimum amount of time to dry hop for the best and longest-lasting aroma is about 24 hours prior to bottling/kegging. I also got the impression that kegging would extend the aroma's life more than bottling, but I could be mistaken about that.

But it's an interesting development. I used to dry hop for a whole week before bottling, but I'm switching to make it as close to 24 hours as possible.

[teutonic terror]

I dry hopped my latest brew yesterday. Wish I had waited now!

Took a sample off this morning and was surprised at how much aroma it had gained in the last 24 hrs.

Thanks Dave, I'll keep this and try it on my upcoming brews!

[Beer-lord]

I use lots of hops in my beers and I've noticed that my kegged beers which are not drunk in about 4 weeks, become somewhat dank. The hop aroma changes as well as the flavor. Sometimes it's very good and sometimes it takes over and changes what was a well balanced beer.
Guess I have to drink more and faster.

[Kealia]

Thanks for posting Dave. Did they talk about hop-standing in comparision?

My understanding is that this method is supposed to make the aroma even less volatile but my one experiment on this didn't work out that way. The first bottle had great aroma but just 2 weeks later it was almost gone. So sad.

[mashani]

The most stability I've gotten so far is from hopstands vs. dry hops. At least it seems so. It doesn't have the intensity of a dry hop when fresh, but it doesn't change as much over time. So I've been doing hop stands with large amounts of hops lately.

But who knows, YMMV, I am bottling not kegging, it might matter somehow, I dunno... I could just be nuts.

[FedoraDave]

There wasn't any discussion on hop-standing that I recall. Most of the evidence presented was on the chemical changes and volatility of the aroma acids (aroma oils? I'm not sure). I do recall the gist of it being that a 24-hour dry hop was going to give you the most - and longest lasting - bang for your buck, aroma-wise.

I don't dry hop all of my beers, but when I do, I'm going to utilize this technique and see if it makes a difference. I often have beers last several months between 3-2-2 and actually drinking the last of it, and I've noticed a lack of aroma in the final bottles, especially when compared to my memory of the first few I had when they were young.

I did a quick Google search and didn't see anything directly related to it, but something may be available through AHA (which I haven't checked, actually. )