Length of time to dry hop

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Poppy360

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I currently have a Ruination clone in primary. (recipe below) It's been there for 6 days and visible signs of fermentation have ceased. I'm going to check FG today. OG was 1.073. I plan on racking to secondary soon and am going to dry hop as well. The recipe calls for 3-5 days of dry hopping but from what I've read dry hopping normally lasts for 7-14 days. Should I put the hops in a bag and remove them after 5 days or just dump them in and let them dry hop for all of the time in secondary (14 days)?

Stone Brewing – Ruination IPA
(5 gallon, extract with grains)

OG=1.075

FG=1.018

IBU’S = 115-120

SRM= 6


Ingredients



6.6 Lbs Munton's (light) malt extract syrup

2.0 Lbs. Munton's (light) dry malt extract

1.0 Lb. Briess 2-row malt

1.0 Lb. Briess 20L Crystal Malt

36.0 AAU Magnum hops (bittering hop)

(2.4 Oz. of 15.1% Alpha acid)

15.7 AAU Centennial hops (aroma/finishing hop)

(1.6 Oz. of 9.9% alpha acid)

21.0 AAU Centennial hops (dry hop)

(2.1 Oz. of 9.9% alpha acid)


Safale US-05 Yeast

O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming.



Step by step



Steep the 2 crushed grains in 3 gallons of water at 149º for 30 minutes. Filter grains from wort, add Magnum hops, malt syrup, and bring to a boil. Boil 60 min. Add the first addition of Centennial hops at the end of the boil, and let steep for 5 minutes.

Now add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.0 gallons. Cool the wort to 75º, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º, and hold at this temperature until the yeast has finished fermentation. Then add last addition of Centennial hops for dry hopping. Dry hop for 3 to 5 days, then bottle your beer, carbonate and enjoy!
 
I usually dry hop for the last week of secondary. I know some people who do 14 days. If you're following a clone recipe I would be inclined to follow it, but that is just me. You certainly won't hurt the beer with a longer dry hopping so I would feel free to do whatever you think would be best. :)
 
If you are putting the hops in for only a portion of the time in secondary, why not make it the LAST days rather than the first ones? That way you don't have to mess with a soggy bag of stuff.
 
I figured if I put them in during the first days of secondary then there would be enough time for them to settle out.

But, that is a good idea...:mug:
 
Just remember that if you bag whole hops, they will float and you may not get the results you are looking for. I did that the first time (on an IPA) and while it is nice, it doesn't have the hop kick I was hoping for. My second time, I weighed down the bag with some (sanitized) marbles. The bag sort of suspended just below the surface and the results are superb. By the way, in both cases I kept them in the secondary for the full 2 weeks.
 
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