Pre-kegging hopping - In cold crash?

As always, thanks for your input.

I'm attempting to get hops flavor and aroma outside of the bittering developed by my initial wort boil sequence.

I have tried dry hopping at room temp, and boiled some beer with added hops pre-bottling, and I am wondering about boiling some beer pre cold-crash and letting some hops spend five minutes in the boil before the batch goes into cold crash.

Will cold crash pull some of that hops back out again? Does anybody else do this?

I am also going to experiment with hopping inside the keg, but my beer schedule is pretty tight so I'll be drinking as soon as it's kegged - I don' t anticipate much opportunity for those hops to make an impact until the keg is getting low.

All input appreciated, I'm learning my way here and just now stepped into being able to brew a batch, cold crash it, keg it and be drinking in one week.

Much thanks -
Norman

Why are you boiling your beer did I misread something?. I don´t understand or are you talking about reusing your hops of the boil during fermentation?? I don´t quite get waht you meant

Sorry, rushed post before going to a meeting, I'll try again.

In order to add some more hops character to a beer about to go into cold crash, I'm going to pull a gallon off and heat it with some hops in it.

I'll then add it back to the batch and cold crash the lot prior to kegging.

I will not boil fermented beer if I were you. it´s a good idea if you don´t want to water down your beer (instead of making a hop tea) but remember the alcohol volatilize faster than water if you boil there is not going to be any alcohol there it will all evaporate. I wont even boder with a hop tea. I´ll just dry hop the bejesus out of it and if you want some bitterness plus the hop aroma that you get from dryhops there is some hop essencial oils that are use for bittering. My call is always let the beer be what it is, if you don´t like there is always the chance to brew more and tweak the recipe.

i'm confused, what are you trying to accomplish by heating the beer?

normzone said:

I am also going to experiment with hopping inside the keg, but my beer schedule is pretty tight so I'll be drinking as soon as it's kegged - I don' t anticipate much opportunity for those hops to make an impact until the keg is getting low.

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this is fairly common practice & you'd be surprised how quickly the hops will make an impact.

Yeah, don't boil your beer. Try dry hopping in the keg with whole hops instead of pellet. I carbonate with a diffusion stone and by the time beer is carbed you can really taste the dry hops. Also, you can use a hop rocket when you transfer your beer to the keg and that will help get that aroma and flavor you're looking for quicker.

how long do you dry hop at room temps?

how long do your kegs usually last?

I have only just now ceased to dry hop at room temperature - the last California heat wave is what I'm blaming my loss of two batches on (petroleum off flavor). All fermentation is now done in my little refrigerator in the sixties. I brew and pitch on Sunday and Friday I'll be cold crashing.

I'm new to kegging so it's difficult to tell how long they last. I'm using five gallon sanke kegs. Between the head brewmistress and myself I think we'll probably get a week out of one of those during normal "school nights", but we'll be on staycation next week and I anticipate the keg running out rapidly.

I'm force carbing with the shake method and commencing to drink, so the dwell time for dry hops is limited.

If I add hops before my twelve hour cold crash (any longer and my freezer makes a five gallon beer cube) will there be any flavor developed from it? It seems as though low temps would inhibit that.

Thanks all, every response greatly appreciated.

Thirsty -
Norman

in general you need about5-7 days at room temps to dry hop or 2+ weeks at keg/cooler temps

i know you're in a rush to drink but for very hop forward beers you'd do yourself a great service by either dry hopping in the primary for a week after fermentation is done and then cold crash and keg or add the dry hops to the keg in a hop sack etc and let it sit for a couple weeks

i've never experienced the fuel off flavor from the too high of temps after fermentation is winding down/done and i've dry hopped at close to 80° before but I know Esco probably got way hotter than that recently

you won't gain much of anything by boiling off your beer aside from removing the alcohol and idk what to the flavor profile and adding hops that way

another thing you can try is to do a huge hop stand addition - i tried this recently for the 1st time and noticed a much greater aroma before dry hopping than before - cool the wort to 160° and add 3-4oz of hops and then cover and let it sit for 30min then cool to pitching temps and proceed as you normally would

Thanks - I look forward to getting the pipeline filled enough that my kegs can have some dwell time but we're just not there yet - the loss of those two batches put paid to that.

So it sounds like I'll be living on the hairy edge for a while - I wonder how the math works out (not my strongest suit) regarding heating beer and it offgassing alcohol. With a 6 - 7% ale and a gallon simmered I should be able to get some hop oil drawn off of bagged leaf, but if the volume decreased by 7 ounces that would mean I lost the alcohol - but then again some went into the hops. Oh well...

Obliviousbrew said:

"let the beer be what it is"

After further review on the field of play I have decided to take his advice. I tasted a sample last night and it was not as boring as I feared it might be, and since the name of the game is speed at this time I put it to cold crash this morning and I'll keg it tonight (the freezer in my kegerator / refrigerator is fiercely efficient).

Thank you all for your input.
Norman

normzone said:

Obliviousbrew said:

"let the beer be what it is"

After further review on the field of play I have decided to take his advice. I tasted a sample last night and it was not as boring as I feared it might be, and since the name of the game is speed at this time I put it to cold crash this morning and I'll keg it tonight (the freezer in my kegerator / refrigerator is fiercely efficient).

Thank you all for your input.
Norman

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I am sure it will turn great let us know

couldn't hurt to add an oz or 2 to dry hop in the keg - you may still get some added benefit of the dry hop even if it's not full potential