Dry Hop After Just 1 Week?

I made a 3.25 gallon batch of Pliny the Elder clone, all grain, last Saturday. Yeast = 1056. Fermented at abound 65. Gravity is now 1.010.

Normally, I let beer sit for 2 weeks or more before dry hopping. But, if the beer isn't fermented out, it sure is close.

Can I dry hop now? Dry hop schedule calls for a total of 12 days of dry hopping. Or, do I need to need to wait another week?

Thank you for your input.

It's better to wait until the yeast drops out and the beer is clear. Hop oils can bind to yeast and you'll lose some of your aroma. A big hoppy beer is one of the few times I prefer to dry hop in a clear secondary.

Thank you for the reply.

Congrats on your funding on Kickstarter too.

You can dry hop now. If it's done, it's done.

FYI some research is pointing to the idea that you don't need 12 days of dry hopping. With pellets, maximum extraction most likely happens in the first 24 hours. With leaf, probably 2-3 days.

http://www.metabrewing.com/2013/02/recirculating-dry-hops-extract-more.html

(Within that post there's a link to a 70+ page research paper from Oregon State U that goes into all this in *excruciating* detail...)

I normally wait until the beer is clear, with less yeast in suspension and then dryhop just before packaging.

The hops oils can cling to the yeast, and as it flocculates you can lose some aroma. I don't know how much difference that would make, but that's why I always wait until the beer is clear before dryhopping in primary.

I also brewed last Saturday, it wasn't a Pliny clone, just a dry hopped pale ale. In any case, my yeast ripped through it, it was the first time I did a repitch from a rinsed slurry. Holy crap! Started off what appeared to be sluggish and then blew through down to pretty much terminal gravity as of yesterday. Anyway, I also was planning on dry hopping this one. I did some digging around and it seems as though people are getting good results from several smaller additions of dry hops, not sure if this has been looked at with scrutiny. So I dry hopped mine today, six days after brewing, and I plan on dry hopping again in about a week, but in the keg. I used 1007 which normally sticks around for a while but this already started cleaning up so I made the decision to give it a shot.

I guess I rambled a bit too much. If you give me a week, I can let you know how mine turns out.

Yooper said:

I normally wait until the beer is clear, with less yeast in suspension and then dryhop just before packaging.

The hops oils can cling to the yeast, and as it flocculates you can lose some aroma. I don't know how much difference that would make, but that's why I always wait until the beer is clear before dryhopping in primary.

Click to expand...

How would you time the dry hop (1 oz of Galaxy) and a cold crash?

I have an IPA at week 2.5 in the fermenter, and it's looking quite clear, but I was going to take advantage of Wisconsin's weather and cold crash it in the garage for a few days, and bottle it next Friday or Saturday.

I assume I'll get more hop oils from the dry hop at room temps vs the near freezing temps of my garage. But if I dry hop at room temp, then cold crash, I'll be dropping out the hop oils that stuck to the yeast.

Or, skip the cold crash?

Thanks, Yooper.

Anybody?

Dry hop, then cold crash?

Cold crash, then dry hop?

Dry hop and cold crash at the same time?

Dry hop, skipping the cold crash altogether?

I'd say you will want to dry hop warmer than colder, you get better extraction that way. But otherwise, it's your preference. Try it a few different ways, see which you like the best, then let us know how it turns out!

I don't cold crash my fermenters, so I just don't have any advice on that.

Sorry!

Thank you all. I'll dry hop, and skip the cold crash.

MikeInMKE said:

How would you time the dry hop (1 oz of Galaxy) and a cold crash?

I have an IPA at week 2.5 in the fermenter, and it's looking quite clear, but I was going to take advantage of Wisconsin's weather and cold crash it in the garage for a few days, and bottle it next Friday or Saturday.

I assume I'll get more hop oils from the dry hop at room temps vs the near freezing temps of my garage. But if I dry hop at room temp, then cold crash, I'll be dropping out the hop oils that stuck to the yeast.

Or, skip the cold crash?

Thanks, Yooper.

Click to expand...

People approach this different ways, depending on what they are trying to achieve, the beer style, the yeast used, and the system setup. If you are trying to remove as much yeast as possible before dry-hopping, then you will want to cold crash to cause the yeast to flocculate. You can then add the hops while still cold, and either dry hop cold (for a longer period of time) or let it warm up to whatever your preferred dry-hopping temp is for whatever period of time that you want to dry hop for.

Some brewers like to add dry hops before cold crashing at the end of fermentation, or when it is about 95% complete, with the idea that the yeast will scavenge any O2 that gets introduced as a result of opening the fermentor and adding the hops. I'd encourage you to try both options and see which you prefer. There are good commercial examples of both, but I would say that more breweries remove as much yeast as possible before dry-hopping (although they have better systems in place to prevent O2 from entering the equation).

FWIW, I skipped the cold crash and dry hopped for a week. It turned out cloudy as expected, but delicious with a terrific nose. I liked the results so much I brewed it again the exact same way.