Fermentation after dry hopping

I just racked my IPA to a secondary fermenter and added hops and now if appears as though fermentation has stopped is this normal or has it just slowed way down? It was in the promary fermenter for 6 days.

You shouldn't have racked until fermentation was stopped anyway, doing so too early gives the chance of a stuck fermentation because you are taking the beer away from a lot of the yeast. Don't judge fermentation on number of days, yeast is a living organism and is subject to changes depending on a lot of enviromental factors. Check the gravity to know for sure.

Thanks BW, I think we are looking at a stuck fermentation. So the dry hopping is done afer fermentation is complete then?

PBHBeer said:

Thanks BW, I think we are looking at a stuck fermentation. So the dry hopping is done afer fermentation is complete then?

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That's the way I have always done it. Some people like to add it in right at the end of primary fermentation, but they typically don't transfer to a secondary. I actually only use a secondary when dry hopping or adding fruit to a beer, al other go from the primary to the keg when they're done.

Don't assume it's stuck until you have taken a gravity reading to confirm that, it may have just slowed way down, or it may have finished already.

If you dry hop during fermentation, the large amount of co2 that is being produced will drive those volatile aroma esters right out your airlock, instead of in the beer where you want it. So it sort of defeats the purpose of dry hopping for aroma anyway.

Without going into the whole sorted tale which you can look around a read for yourself, you really shouldn't rack to secondary until fermentation is complete anyway.

And nowadays as more and more brewers are opting for long primary/no secondary (again you can look around for the discussions) many folks are dry hopping in the primary, after fermentation is finished. My last two batches I dryhopped in primary on the 14th day for another two weeks. They came out great.

waiting for revvy...

when you say that it appeared that fermentation has stopped, what do you mean, exactly? i.e. if you're saying that based on airlock activity or other visual cues, those don't tell you all that much, especially near the end of fermentation.

damn, beat me to it!

Palefire said:

waiting for revvy...

when you say that it appeared that fermentation has stopped, what do you mean, exactly? i.e. if you're saying that based on airlock activity or other visual cues, those don't tell you all that much, especially near the end of fermentation.

Click to expand...

I'll let you guys handle the whole airlock stuff this time, feel free to link or quote me if you want.

I guess I should check the gravity then