Our brewing partner in "science", Marshall "Brulosophy" Schott released results of a biotransformation experiment here. In it he brewed a NE IPA recipe that was double dry hopped. Two batches brewed with the first fermenting out for a few days before the second was brewed. The second batch received the first dose of dry hops while the beer was at high krausen. The first batch received it's dry hops after the beer was done fermenting.
Most of us geeky adherents to the world of homebrewing love our numbers. What's your efficiency rating, what's your gravity, your pH, your blah, blah, blah, blah..... There's a comfort, cold as it may be, in having a number we can look at. Numbers provide a reasonably solid, nonsubjective measure of the world - a target, a pin in the map.
Some studies have shown that First Wort Hopping (FWH) actually produces about 10 percent more measureable IBUs than a 60-minute addition, but it tastes less bitter. Is this true? Should we all be First Wort Hopping our beers. Wait a tick - what's First Wort Hopping? Simple - it's a process of adding a hop addition into the boil kettle immediately as you begin running off from the mash tun. The hops stay in and you boil them for the full time of the boil.
If you're gunning for big hop aroma to your beer without the grassiness of dry hopping, traditional practice calls for a large dose of hops after the boil has concluded. These "whirlpool" hops, so called because properly the wort is cycled to create a whirlpool, are thought to give a big dose of aromatic hop oils that aren't volatilized by the high heat and action of a boil.
Does steeping at a reduced whirlpool temperature (~120F) provide more robust hop character from the same hop charge compared to more traditional brewing practices of adding whirlpool hops just post boil