Thoughts and questions on dry hopping and patience

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tennesseean_87

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I just brewed my second batch with my brewbuddy last night! It seemed to go a bit more smoothly than the first batch, which turned out well. We brewed Midwest's Big Ben Pale Ale with a few tweaks--we boiled 75 minutes after the first hop addition, added an ounce of Glacier at 15minutes, and them dry-hopped half the batch for a week with half an ounce of Glacier after bottling the other half. After 2 weeks or so in bottles, we tried the two beers side by side. The one that without dry-hopping was considered better by everyone. The dry-hopped version had an unpleasant bite. This state continued for the next few weeks, until the last two that I've had. The bite was gone and a pleasant hop aroma and lingering finish on the palate took its place.

Lesson: Give you beer time, it will get a lot better. Thanks for repeating this over and over, online brewing mentors.

Question: I know 3 weeks is recommended for carbing and conditioning. Do you usually leave a dry-hopped brew longer than this for best results? If so, how long until a brew peaks?

Thanks for all the help and wonderful info on here!
 
The aroma from dry-hopping is the most fragile thing about your beer. Enjoy it fresh!
 
But the beers that were dry-hopped weren't enjoyable when they were fresh. Maybe that was something else in the process, but they seem better now.
 
The flavors & aromas on some of my pale ales didn't peak till about 5 weeks,imo anyway. But the dry hop aroma is def better as fresh as possible. It depends on your senses in the end.
 
Question: I know 3 weeks is recommended for carbing and conditioning. Do you usually leave a dry-hopped brew longer than this for best results? If so, how long until a brew peaks?

This is a process you have no control over. You can't just arbitrarily decide when a beer is carbed or conditioned. It's a natural process that takes as long as it needs to which is somewhere often 3-8 weeks depending on the beer, it's gravity, the temps it's stored at, proteins in the grainbill- a ton of different variables that determine how long it's going to take. If a beer is beautifully carbed and tastes great at 3 weeks, awesome, but a lot of times it simply takes more time that that. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong, it's just that the yeast are the bosses and they have a different timeframe than we often do.

It's an oversimplification that confuses new brewers to say "X type of beer should be consumed young or fresh." Like "Hoppy beers are best consumed fresh."

That doesn't mean "Hoppy beers are meant to be consumed flat and green tasting." It means that once they are carbed and conditioned (however long that takes) they don't cellar well.

It doesn't mean they don't need to mature- just that once matured, once at the point of good flavor enjoy them....don't expect it to be that hoppy if you stuck it in the basement for a year. It might be a great pale ale then, but it won't have the punch it once did.

But there's nothing like what you're looking for, a "handy dandy guideline as to how long you have with a particular beer.

Because really every beer is different, every temp is different, every yeast is different, different proteins affect yeast differently....there's just way too many different variables involved in the process to be able to give you what you're hoping for.

It's all a generalization just based on what we've observed...but precise and measurable in this regard, can't really be done...

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend tends to be the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer.

Using the 3 weeks at 70 as the "mean" an average grav beer at a temp below 70 may take a little longer than one above. Consequently, an average beer beer significantly above 70 may take less time to carb up. (I say may, because there is still a process that the beer has to go through to produce enough gas to carbonate the beer, and that takes time to generate no matter what temp it is at.)

68 is relative close to 70, so 3 weeks is still the rule of thumb.....but if the same beer was at 65 degrees, though not a lot of temp range to us, may indeed be enough to add a week to the carb/conditioning cycle.

In some beers, but maybe not for others....

It's pretty imprecise, every beer/yeast combo is different (we're dealing with living micro-organisms afterall and there always is a wild card factor) but the 3 weeks at 70 tends to be a nice "rule of thumb" to go by for beers in the 1.050 range or below.

(Some folks says add another week for every 10 grav points til you get into higher grav beers (Barleywines/Belgians,) then think in terms of months instead.

What folks seem to forget is that when you stick the beer in the bottles, you are sticking them into separate little fermenters.

Each one is it's own little microcosm, a tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...for some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...

Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...

With living micro-organisms there is always a wildcard factor in play. Two complete fermentations (and bottle conditioning is just another fermentation) can behave differently due to even the slightest change in enviorment, especially temps.

I don't touch my first beer til it's been 3 weeks in the bottle, then I chill one or 2 for a day or so, and try then.....if they're not carbed or conditioned, I wait another week or two and try again.

I think new brewers stress this too much, because they want to drink their beer. We all do. But when you brew more, you have more beer lying around at different stages from just pitched the yeast to bulk aging in a secondary to bottle conditioning to drinking. Same with kegs.

If you have a pipeline, you may not even get around to a batch until it's ready....So it has plenty of time to condition.

Back to your specific question about DH beers- It all depends on how it tastes to you. Or even depending on the hops you use. Some hops you may perceive as needing more time. Others will taste perfect to you immediately....It's really a personal thing though. Your tastebuds will determine it. I might have loved your dry hopped beer much younger than your do if I'm in the mood for roughness with hops. Like some folks like raw, rough in your face Ipas, while other's like them smoother and maltier.
 
Thanks, Revvy. I guess the generalizations are more general than I thought.

I'm working on the pipeline thing. The patience things is going alright, a brewing friend couldn't believed I waited more than a week to try the first one.
 
Thanks, Revvy. I guess the generalizations are more general than I thought.

I'm working on the pipeline thing. The patience things is going alright, a brewing friend couldn't believed I waited more than a week to try the first one.
 
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