Wet Hopped Beers

Dry Hopping is the process of taking hops into the secondary glass fermentor or keg for there aroma qualitys. There are various methods of Dry Hopping.

Dry hopping can be defined as adding hops to a cooled wort at sometime during the fermentation process. It can be thought of as "cold-hopping" or "raw-hopping", as these hops do not "cook" like the kettle hops. It adds a fresh hops aroma/flavor to the beer which cannot be matched with hop additions into hot wort.

It is not to be confused with finish/aroma hopping, which is done on the hot wort while still in the kettle. The use of a hop-back, where hot wort is passed through the hops, is another form of finish hopping; it is not dry hopping.

Dry hopping gives no alpha acids to the wort, but it may contribute some oxidized beta acids; its bittering contribution to the final product is very small. It is more likely to add a perceived bitterness with the addition of the intense aroma rather than an actual bitterness due to bitter acids.

Less bittering Aroma hops are best bets when dry hopping. Higher Alpha Hops tend to lend a bitter flavour on the after taste of your beer.

Be sure to use a good Noble Aroma hop and you should be fine.

EKGs, Fuggles, Northern Brewer, Saaz, Cascade, all Hallertauer variants, and many other hops have been used successfully. It should be noted that the aroma of the beer greatly influences the profile, and that the "correct" aroma hop should be used to match the style (i.e. English hops for English ales). American brewers have traditionally used hops from all over the globe so European hops, for example, can be used without fear of a brewing faux pas. Note also that traditionally, German beers are not dry-hopped, but that American versions of German styles are sometimes dry hopped.

As Always, BREW ON!!!!!