BobBrews wrote:nicko,

Good luck in neglecting the keg for a week. My experience is that dry hopping is wonderful but it does get better with time. The problem is, that it's never around long enough to know precisely how long?

Ok thanks Bob, I'll dry hop the new keg getting filled this Friday and can compare it to the hop tea keg, will let you know how it goes.

Okay results are in..

Dry hopping definitely provided more aroma (excellent aroma), but seemed to start fading as that keg emptied (I definitely need to experiment more with DH though).

The hop tea did add a harsh bitterness for a couple of days, and I know what people mean now by grassy flavours, but after a week or less, the aroma is nice (not as aromatic as the DH though), the flavour is really good and both the harshness and grassy flavours have gone.

This beer is also quite clear now, although that's not anything I intentionally aimed for, just whirlfloc and time in the keg was adequate, no gelatine used.

So the winner is...neither, it's a tie! If I was going for nothing but aromatics, definitely the DH and next brew I'll DH after the first couple of days fermentation (what a lot of brewers seem to suggest). If I was going for some aromatics and flavour, with a subtle amount of extra smooth bitterness, I'd go the hop tea and wouldn't touch a drop for about 7 days.

Next will be hop vodka.