How do you minimize the possibility of oxidation when dry hopping?

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erockomania

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I don't keg right now and I have no access to CO2 to purge the carboys... how do you minimize the possibility of oxidation when dry hopping for, say, a IIPA?
 
I'm not very experienced with dry hopping myself, only done it 3 times, but the mike mcdole method is to dry hop at 2/3 of FG so that whatever O2 is introduced will be eaten by the still active fermentation. you have to boost the dry hop quantity to compensate for the loss to active fermentation though.
 
That's what I do as well, and I've never noticed any oxidation in my dry hopped beers. I've probably only dry hopped about 8 times.

I dryhop most of my beers, as about 4 out of 5 of my brewdays involve IPA, APA, or a hoppy amber!

On Thursday, I had 10 gallons ready to dryhop and I wanted one of the fermenters for my new brew. So I added the dryhops to one 5 gallon fermenter, but racked one of the 5 gallons to a new carboy onto 3 ounces of dryhops. Same recipe, but one was dryhopped in the primary while one was dryhopped in secondary. Either way works, and I've never noticed a difference!
 
1. Slowly pick up 1 pellet.
2. Very gently place the pellet onto the surface of the beer.
3. Release the pellet.
4. Repeat until you have no more pellets.

It only takes 15 minutes per ounce.






















OR



You could just RDWHAHB and just dump them in.
 
1. Slowly pick up 1 pellet.
2. Very gently place the pellet onto the surface of the beer.
3. Release the pellet.
4. Repeat until you have no more pellets.

It only takes 15 minutes per ounce.






















OR



You could just RDWHAHB and just dump them in.


lol
 
It sounds like most folks are still forgetting that co2 is heavier than o2. The o2 will not displace the co2. At the most just be absorbed by the co2 along the way. Just gently drop the bagged pellets/whole leaf hops in & close it up. Just walk away clean for a week.
 
It sounds like most folks are still forgetting that co2 is heavier than o2. The o2 will not displace the co2. At the most just be absorbed by the co2 along the way. Just gently drop the bagged pellets/whole leaf hops in & close it up. Just walk away clean for a week.

gasses diffuse. they don't stratify. there's long been this myth propagated, especially on this forum, about "protective blankets of CO2". the molecular weight of CO2 vs O2 has nothing to do with the distribution of gasses in a solution.

I don't mean to be a jerk and call you out specifically, so please understand. It's just that this is one of the most persistent bits of psuedoscientific myth that's spread in this community.
 
Well,I did get A's in the living sciences. May not remember the tech terms as well anymore,but your sarcasm will be excepted as props.;):rolleyes: Then why does co2 sink & o2 will rise? They do not diffuse immediately. Not a very technical explanation, But you're a little off. If what you say were true,the upper troposphere would have as much oxygen/nitrogen,etc that the stratosphere does. They have differing gravities,just as liquids & solids do.

obviously diffusion is not immediate. if you have a pure concentration of CO2 that's exposed air, the gasses will begin to diffuse and equalize partial pressures of gasses. the amount of time to reach an inflection point is determined by a partial differential equation, which I had a single semester of 12 years ago. So I cannot tell you what amount of time is practical to expect a nontrivial introduction of O2. what I do feel confident asserting, however, is that diffusion exists, and at sea level it is more significant in the distribution of gasses in a relatively small area than molecular weight, by several orders of magnitude.
 
Like many have already said, there are several ways to dry hop with no problems of oxidation. BUT if you are worried/paranoid/cautious, Lagunitas Brewing adds their dry hops when primary fermentation is approx. 85% complete. They're reasoning is that the remaining fermentation (active yeast) will "scrub" out the o2 introduced with the hops.

I do believe, however, that your packaging should determine when you dry hop. You want to dry hop as close to packaging/consuming as possible to retain that wonderful aroma.
 
I really don't know why you'd say I am engaging in some kind of pissing contest. I just know that the CO2 blanket myth is false, and this forum is supposed to be about suppressing homebrewing myths and promoting facts that can improve our beer.
 
I think the CO2 diffuses much quicker than many homebrewers think, but on the other hand, I don't think we have a better explanation of why we can let our beers sit for 2 months in primary without them getting oxidated.
 
I guess the high levels of CO2 in the beer prevent O2 from getting in, so we don't need a CO2 blanket???

But if we disturb the beer (rack into secondary, bottling bucket, etc.), then CO2 exits the beer and opens up space for O2 to get absorbed?
 
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