Flameout versus dry-hop

[joe_r_harvie]

I just tapped two kegs. One - a bitter that was dry hopped, two - the same bitter done with flameout hops. I must say I like the dry-hopped better - the aroma is stronger and fresher and not too grassy whereas the flameout batch has good aroma but not quite as fresh or as noticeable. The dry-hopped aroma batch helped mask an imperfection in the grain bill that is more noticeable in the flameout batch too. The final results are similar but I plan to dry hop future batches. The one downfall to dry hopping is having to rack the beer after I've given the dry hops a few days in the secondary so my final product isn't full of hop particles but that is not a big deal. For those interested I added the dry hops to the secondary fermenter five days prior to kegging. I added the flameout hops immediately after boil and whirlpooled for 15 minutes. The recipes/conditions other than that were identical.

[mthibodeau]

just out of curiosity, were the addition sizes the same? Also for the flameout, did you leave them sit for a while? or immediately start cooling?

[joe_r_harvie]

The addition sizes were the same. Yes I let the flameout hops sit 15 minutes before cooling. I whirlpooled periodically during the 15 minutes.

[MitchK]

For what it's worth, it seems like you can get away with just dry hopping in primary if you cold crash and fine with gelatin after the few days warm with the hops. The hop particulate should just settle down into the cake with everything else.

Hell, I did that for the black box ipa without the gelatin and it still turned out ok (not as visually brilliant as I would've hoped, but certainly not full of gunk)