Dry Hopping Process

I've been disappointed with lack of hop aroma on the last couple of beers I've dry hopped and was wondering if it was due to the conditions I've been dry hopping in.

The last couple of beers I've brewed have followed the process below:

I ferment the beers in a freezer with a thermostat that keeps the temperature of the wort at around 65 F (the probe is tapped to the carboy). Once fermentation stops (same F.G reading for 3 days) I add my dry hop addition to the primary. I tend to let it sit at 65 F for a week then drop the temperature down to 35 F for another week to cold condition the beer before kegging.

Both beers have had very little hop aroma both at the point a keg them and when I pour them after force carbonating.

The last beer (3 1/2 gallons of IPA) was dry hopped with 1.65 oz of Centennial (whole hops and in good condition) which I figured would be more than enough to give the beer a good hoppy aroma.

1. Would adding the dry hops to the primary cause a problem? I do make sure fermentation has stopped.
2. Does cold crashing the beer cause the hop aroma to fade?

In both cases I've fixed the problem by adding an additional 1/2 ounce of hops to the keg which after about a week results in a good aroma/flavor.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I don't cold crash, but if I did I would cold crash first, to drop out the yeast or whatever you're cold crashing for, bring it to room temperature, then add the dryhops for 5-7 days and then package.

Dryhops seem to hold the aroma best if done right before packaging. Dryhopping takes longer at cold temperatures than warm temperatures, so I either dryhop in the keg at 40 degrees for the entire time, or dryhop at 68 degrees for about 5 days.

Thanks Yooper. I've been cold crashing to drop the yeast out and get a clearer beer but am not sure if it is always necessary. I'll give it a miss on the next batch and only drop the temperature 24 hours before kegging and carbonating.

I also forgot to mention on the last batch that the hops were tightly packed in a small hop back would this have reduced the amount of aroma I got out of them. Is it better to loosely pack the hops?

lucasweb said:

Thanks Yooper. I've been cold crashing to drop the yeast out and get a clearer beer but am not sure if it is always necessary. I'll give it a miss on the next batch and only drop the temperature 24 hours before kegging and carbonating.

I also forgot to mention on the last batch that the hops were tightly packed in a small hop back would this have reduced the amount of aroma I got out of them. Is it better to loosely pack the hops?

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Definitely have the hops "loose" if you're using a bag or container. I don't bag mine but you want all of the hops goodness available for the beer to permeate through and absorb.

Have you ever experienced a problem dry hopping with pellet hops and not using a hop back, under all the same conditions as stated above?