Beer Forum

I just brewed a wet hop pale ale with Wyeast 1272 about 1.5 weeks ago and now that primary ferment is finished, I tasted and smelled the beer and there is virtually no aroma and minimal hop flavor. Mostly just alcohol and malt. I think I used ~2.5# mostly towards the end of the boil (blend of cascade and chinook) with a small amount of pellets to insure bittering at 60 mins. It smelled great going into the carboy.

Question: has anyone dry hopped with wet hops and had good luck? I have some hops on the vine that are just about ready to pick and I was thinking of throwing them in the fermentor or should I just use whole leaf or pellets to get some aroma back. I'd like to keep the wet hop theme going but maybe you all can help.

Yes. If you think the hops smell great, by all means go for it!

Think about it- You dry hop with dried out hops and they soak up water from the beer and become wet.
You dry hop with 'wet' hops and they soak up less water out of the beer but they still become wet.

The bigger factor is how close to optimum picking point the wet hops are and how aromatic they are.
Home grown hops can be very fresh and at optimal aromatics, or not. When not, they give off a grassy aroma and flavor.

HTH-

I guess my worry was more specifically about sanitation and any critters that might tag along that would probably be ousted during the drying process. I know the alcohol and preservative properties of the hops also help but it just seems more risky with wet hops.

The critters will drown.

spiderwrangler wrote:The critters will drown.

At least they will drown happy

If they smell good then go crazy. Bugs be damned.

Hops are naturally antiseptic.

I love to dry/wet hop with my homegrown cascades. Never been dissapointed with the aroma or flavor contribution. I keg hop loose with them and love it.