Dry hopping question....any input appreciated.

So, this is probably a redundant and highly varied question, but how long is "too long" to leave in dry hops before racking to keg?
I've got a really tasty IPA that has been in primary for 2 weeks, and i've got 1oz of Citra, Magnum and Crystal that I plan to use, and plan to leave it in primary for another week to 10 days.
Am I dry hopping too early? I really don't want to screw up this already tasty beer by leaving my dry hop addition in too long (starting it early).

Thanks in advance....

You'll be fine, you can go up to about 14 days once you dry hop. I've read that anything over that may impart some grassy / vegetative flavors. My hoppy IPA's usually sit with the dry hops in for 10 - 14 days before I bottled.

I dryhop about a week before packaging, no matter how long the beers been in the fermenter. That maintains the best flavor and doesn't risk pulling out any grassy or vegetal flavors.

It seems like the folks that get the grassy taste from longer than a week are those that buy bulk hops and dont reseal properly leading to oxidized hops. Still my first dry hop here I am going 7 days then bottle.

Thanks for the input.
With all that being said, this IPA has an OG of 1.074 and finished at 1.009. The WLP001 went absolutely ballistic (obviously) and finished about 6 points below where I had intended.
What would you expect out of this beer, based on that? I'm guessing it's going to be super dry, and hope the alcohol content doesn't overpower. ????

naderchaser said:

Thanks for the input.
With all that being said, this IPA has an OG of 1.074 and finished at 1.009. The WLP001 went absolutely ballistic (obviously) and finished about 6 points below where I had intended.
What would you expect out of this beer, based on that? I'm guessing it's going to be super dry, and hope the alcohol content doesn't overpower. ????

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I am far from an expert but that sounds like Imperial land to me. You can prolly hop the crap out of that.

Should be around 8.5%. Wow, 88% attenuation! What temp did you ferment at?

Ya, the recipe was borderline IIPA to start with, and now that it attenuated so well, it's definitely and Imperial.
I fermented at 66-68....and it accidentally got up to 70 for a few hours. Other than that, it stayed between 66-68. Two vials of WLP001, mainly because it turned into a big beer, and I didn't do a starter. Lag time of ~18 hours, but when it went....it was fermenting solid for 1 week straight.
Go White Labs!!!

Beezy said:

It seems like the folks that get the grassy taste from longer than a week are those that buy bulk hops and dont reseal properly leading to oxidized hops.

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Hmmm...You should gather your data and prove your assumption. I await the results.

iaefebs said:

Hmmm...You should gather your data and prove your assumption. I await the results.

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I am not trying to prove anything. I am just making an observation off of a thread from somewhere else where several brewers admitted that they didn't take proper care in storing there hops and subsequently had problems with dry hopping longer than a week where as others had no problems dry hopping much longer. I decided to take the advice on just a week anyway because I don't know any better at this point.

Can you get that grass flavor from hops if you accidentally sucked up some hop residue from your boil kettle? I kinda sucked up quite a bit of hops into my fermenter when draining my keggle.

TravisT said:

Can you get that grass flavor from hops if you accidentally sucked up some hop residue from your boil kettle? I kinda sucked up quite a bit of hops into my fermenter when draining my keggle.

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Nah that's not a cause, lots of people just move the entire volume, hope sludge and all, to the fermenter with no ill effects.

I tied an oz of hops to the dipstick in my keg. Been in there for about a month with no ill effects. With that said, I've still heard 1-2 weeks is ideal.

bovineblitz said:

Nah that's not a cause, lots of people just move the entire volume, hope sludge and all, to the fermenter with no ill effects.

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that's good. got a little worried for a sec-thanks

heckels said:

I tied an oz of hops to the dipstick in my keg. Been in there for about a month with no ill effects. With that said, I've still heard 1-2 weeks is ideal.

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You can go significantly longer in a keg when chilled with no ill effects. If doing it in a fermenter, I've heard the same 7-10 days is ideal, with 14 days being about the max.

Sam Adams dry hops Boston Lager for three weeks....

DeRoux's Broux said:

Sam Adams dry hops Boston Lager for three weeks....

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And you still cant taste it heheh

Brief update/input needed:
The IPA turned out fantastic. Very nice hop profile and good character overall. I am looking to do this recipe again sometime this weekend and the only thing I want to change in this is the mouthfeel.
I double pitched 2 vials of WLP001, and it attenuated more than I had expected and dried out the beer a little further than anticipated. This time i'm only going to pitch 1 vial to abate that problem.
Aside from that, I would really like to add some "silk" to the mouthfeel and make it a bit chewier. The grain bill was:
13.4lbs 2 row
11oz crystal 60
14oz corn sugar
mashed 153 for 60 mins.
OG 1.082
FG 1.009

Should I add some flaked oat/wheat or carapils to this grain bill to add some mouthfeel? If so, how much? I want to keep the character (big IPA) without changing the flavor too much.
Any input appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!!

OG

I've not had any real problems leaving them in over 10 days. I think the longest I left dry hops in has been up-wards of a month.

But, for consistent dry hop results, I like to leave them no longer than 10 days.

cyclonite said:

You can go significantly longer in a keg when chilled with no ill effects. If doing it in a fermenter, I've heard the same 7-10 days is ideal, with 14 days being about the max.

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This.

naderchaser said:

Brief update/input needed:
The IPA turned out fantastic. Very nice hop profile and good character overall. I am looking to do this recipe again sometime this weekend and the only thing I want to change in this is the mouthfeel.
I double pitched 2 vials of WLP001, and it attenuated more than I had expected and dried out the beer a little further than anticipated. This time i'm only going to pitch 1 vial to abate that problem.
Aside from that, I would really like to add some "silk" to the mouthfeel and make it a bit chewier. The grain bill was:
13.4lbs 2 row
11oz crystal 60
14oz corn sugar
mashed 153 for 60 mins.
OG 1.082
FG 1.009

Should I add some flaked oat/wheat or carapils to this grain bill to add some mouthfeel? If so, how much? I want to keep the character (big IPA) without changing the flavor too much.
Any input appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!!

OG

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You could try upping your mash temperature, to say 158.

You seem like an experienced brewer, so maybe you already know this but I'll throw it out there anyway... If your mash was on the low side of 153 to start with and cooled down further during the mash (and especially if you happened to mash a bit longer than 60 minutes, waiting for your sparge water to heat up or whatever), you would see more complete conversion of the starches into simple sugars, resulting in more alcohol and a 'thinner' body and mouthfeel. I doubt the yeast is the problem- stick with the two vials (or create a healthy starter pitch from one), and bump the mash temp up to an average (not starting) temp of 154-ish. That should leave slightly more 'unfermentables', resulting in lower alcohol and more 'character'. Carapils might also be a good call, as you said- I dunno, maybe 8 oz? Good luck!

If you want to keep it big I'd probably drop the sugar, add to the 2 row, and add to the Crystal and or maybe Carapils. If not just dropping the sugar should keep it with more body and less dry. My current IIPA is sitting on its second week of a huge dry hop and went from 1.096 to 1.018. Sounds like you're on the mark.

I'm looking for any input as to the posed question above about increasing the mouthfeel of this recipe (see above). Any input appreciated. Thanks!

Beezy said:

And you still cant taste it heheh

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That's probably because dry hopping is for aroma not flavor.....:cross:

Brkstoutfeind said:

That's probably because dry hopping is for aroma not flavor.....:cross:

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I was being facetious. Sorry serious business here only