In a quest to increase hop presence, brewers have tried a great many things—hops in the mash, before the boil, every minute during the boil, whirlpool hot, whirlpool cool, hops in the primary, hops in the secondary. I suspect we’re just around the corner from offering a tiny hop bouquet to mount on the rim of your glass.
But, hear me out: What if we’ve been pursuing more when we should have been pursuing smart?
An example of being smart: Since I started brewing, there have always been arguments over how to dry hop—how long, how much, how many, and how warm. Despite great variances in amounts and temperatures, the question of “how long” never seemed to veer far from some multiple of weeks—until recently.