A duh moment at the CBC

Since it was dancing night for the ladies, I trekked over to the CBC for cask night and to see if there were still any leftovers from the Brewer's Dinner this past saturday. Indeed there were. I started off with an Imperial Stout, which was delicious. My second and last beer was the cask of the week adn this is when I had my "duh" moment.

It was a Pale Ale, dry-hopped with amarillo hops. Golden, with a slightly orange tinge, it had a great head and the aroma was mind-blowing. Flowers and pine leapt out of the glass at you. Then the taste... super smooth, very creamy with a slightly oily finish. What surprised me was that it was only mildly bitter. I was expecting that something dry-hopped would have a major bite to it. Then the duh hit me over the head. I've been reading abotu brewing and one of the things about adding hops I read was that they recommend adding them in batches at different times in the boil, because it takes a while to build up the bitterness, but hops also disappear quickly. There was my mistaken expectation. Dry-hopping should really only add to the aroma of the beer, it doesn't really get processed enough to add much bitterness. So a dry-hopped beer should definitely be strong in the aroma department, but not necessarily in the bitterness, that still depends more on the style in which it was mashed and boiled. Live and learn.

Cheers!
Andy