Dry hopping a lager

I just brewed a Indian Pale Lager, somewhat inspired by Widmer's Hopside Down. It is a 10 gallon batch that had approximately 7oz of hops in the boil and another 3oz of dry hops.

I am wondering when I should introduce the dry hops. My current thought process is to let the fermentation run for 10 days or so at 50F. Then raise to 65F for a diacetyl rest for a couple of days, then add the dry hops and allow it to sit for a week or so, remove the hops and keg to lager.

I realize some the hop aroma will be lost during the lagering, but I do not particularly want to lager in the kegs.

Also, this is my first lager, and I had a hell of a time with cell counts. I originally made a 6 liter starter from an expired vial of WLP838. Deciding that was enough, I bought a pack of S23. Then on a whim, I added an expiring vial of WLP830.

The beer came out as a 1.050 and ~55 IBUs.

Anyone have any pointers?

Honestly dude, I wouldn't recommend dry hopping unless you do it right before you package/keg. I would be scared about letting the beer sit on hops for 5 weeks or whatever your lagering period is. You may get some serious grass/veggie flavors, I'd hate to see your lager ruined by that.

Nice lager yeast blend by the way.

Right. Dry hop right before bottling/kegging.

hubbs said:

...remove the hops and keg to lager.

... I do not particularly want to lager in the kegs.

Also, this is my first lager...

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I like your fermentation profile (I do the same after pitching around 45). After fermentation has wrapped up around 60-65, I rack to secondary and lager for 6 weeks in the mid-30s. Lagering in the keg should be fine, too.

I would add the dry hops in the last week or two of lagering. As I understand, extraction of oils takes longer at low temperature, but I would remove the hops at final packaging to avoid the vegetal flavors.

Some people dry hop directly to the serving keg, though sometimes with those metal tea filters for removal.

Thanks for the replies.

To clarify, I had thought about adding the dry hops after the D-rest and then removing before kegging/lagering so as to avoid the potential vegetal flavors. I may try this anyway, and then check the hop aroma after lagering and add some more hops as necessary.

I have used the tea balls in a keg before, but I was not particularly impressed. Maybe I could try the fishing line idea.

Thanks for the replies.

Hubbs - how did you end up dry hopping your lager? What are your thoughts on how it turned out?

I brew a noble pils clone that requires a dry hop. I do my dry hopping in the secondary, during the first week.

I did end up brewing this, and i dry hopped after the D-rest, and then largered after.

As suggested, the dry hopping basically did very little as the beer largered for a couple months.

I ended up with a lot of esters and phenols due to pitching too warm. At the time, I really did not have my chilling technique down - I was using a 50ft immersion chiller, which was touching the probe for the thermometer in the keggle and was giving an artificially low reading.

The beer is fairly tasty, kinda like a clear hefe, but very little perceivable hop aroma. Next time i think i will try dry hopping after the lager phase.

Hubbs,
Can you share your recipe?