When to dry hop a quick fermentation

I just brewed the Stone IPA clone. It was supposed to start at 1.063 and my OG was 1.048. So obviously, not the perfect brew.

It is supposed to be dry hopped towards the end of fermentation but this beer seems done after two days. No more airlock activity. So as of today, it's been 4 days.

Should I wait a few more days to rack to the secondary and add the dry hops or do it now??

I usually wait a week or two, until the beer is fairly clear and completely finished. Then I add the dry hops, or rack onto them if using a secondary.

Actually, that's not quite right. I guess I add the hops about a week before kegging/bottling. I don't like to dry hop more than a week at a time.

Sometimes, though, if it's just not enough dryhopping, I add some more after a week or even add them to the serving keg.

I usually keg my beers when they are 3-4 weeks old, so that's how I figure out when to dry hop.

YooperBrew said:

I usually wait a week or so, until the beer is fairly clear and completely finished. Then I add the dry hops, or rack onto them if using a secondary.

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So do you usually just toss them in the primary or rack them to secondary. I thought I read in the Palmer book that is a good time to use a secondary- when dry hopping.

mangine77 said:

So do you usually just toss them in the primary or rack them to secondary. I thought I read in the Palmer book that is a good time to use a secondary- when dry hopping.

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I like to leave the beer in primary for at least 10 days, then rack to secondary, wait 3 days and add the dry hops, 7 more days then bottle, this seems to get me the most out of the dry hopping, just my experience. Is this the (best method) maybe not but it works for me, good luck whichever route you take.

I agree with Yooper. I've been dryhopping alot of my beers lately and alot of the effect of the dryhopping diminishes quickly. Because of that, when I dryhop now, I leave the beer in primary for an extended time (2-3 weeks) and secondary for a short time (1 week) with the hops before I keg. I agree that leaving them on the hops for more than a week (so does Stone in that article) can be a bad thing but its also a bad thing to take it off the hops and the beer is still green.

So, for my future dryhopping beers, I'm going with
3 weeks primary
1 week secondary on hops
2 weeks in keg to carb

But more importantly, did you perhaps mean OG instead of FG?

Yes sir. I meant OG. Thanks.