Dry Hopping Question

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bendit

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Hey guys,

I am preparing to do my second homebrew batch this weekend and will be doing a single stage fermentation instead of a two stage (which I did the first time around).

I'll be making the Lady Liberty Ale from Palmer's book. The recipe gives you two fermentation schedules, one with primary only (10 days) and one with primary and secondary (1 week + 2 weeks). It only mentions dry hopping as an option for the two-stage option, but I know from reading some other posts here that plenty of people do it.

If I decide to dry hop 7 days into primary fermentation, do I still only bottle after a total of 10 days, or do I need to extend that primary fermentation to allow for the dry hops to either fall to the bottom or release all their flavor?

Thanks in advance.

Ben
 
You are going to get many varied responses to this. My beginner's guestimate would be to leave in the primary for at least 10 days - make sure fermentation is 100% complete with hydrometer readings 3 consecutive days. Once that happens, dryhop, and leave it there for a week.

Alternatively, you can leave it in the primary for a month, and then dryhop for a week. (The extra month will let the yeast clean up after itself, and clear your beer up a little.)

Also, I know many people here don't secondary, UNLESS they are dry hopping or adding fruit, spices, etc. (this is what I do)
 
Hops at flame out will not give you the same effect as dry hopping.

Even the effects of DH in the primary will not be the same because the offgassing of the CO2 will carry off some of the aroma/flavor of the hops.

IMO it's best to DH in the secondary after the majority of the offgassing has past and you know your brew tastes good.
 
Dry hopping in primary is fine. Many, many people do it (although I don't):

[ame]http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=%22dry+hop+in+primary%22[/ame]

The bigger question is if you really want to bottle after only 10 days. Personally, I'd wait at least two weeks.

Then count backwards from the bottle date, to give yourself five to seven days of dry hop time.
 
I agree above I would re-think and dry hop in a secondary. If not you may want to extend you time frames unless you plan on have the brew for some event
 
I've decided to do a two-stage fermantation again. It turns out I can fit it in my schedule (I thought I would be away when I would need to rack it) and I might as well stick to what I've already done once instead of mixing things up just when I get the hang of things.
 
It sounds like you've already made up your mind, but I've dry hopped a number of batches in the primary after waiting 3-4 weeks and had great results. I guess that's just the lazy way to do it since no racking to secondary is required.
 
Is it a good idea to dry hop after 2 weeks of fermenting and then bottle a week later?
 
As per my brewschedule below, I just finished a heavy-hop IPA that calls for DH. Judging by current knowledge, I'm waiting until at least a week from now to add the final hops (Centennial 8.5) when airlock bubbling slows/stops.
 
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