Dry hopping lager during secondary fermentation

I'm brewing a highly hopped up lager (I would call it an APL, but I only used 7 pounds light LME, so the ABV will probably be under 5%) with WYEAST 2007 Pilsen Lager yeast at 48-50 degrees in the primary. I plan to dry hop in the secondary, but I'm seeing a lot of people say you should only dry hop 2 weeks before bottling, however that is for an ale rather than a lager. I plan to dry hop immediately in the secondary, dropping the temperature down to 32 degrees over a week, then lagering for 4-6 weeks. That would have the hops in the secondary for 5-7 weeks. Does anyone see a problem with this, or this is a good idea for dry hopping a lager?

ianmatth said:

I'm brewing a highly hopped up lager (I would call it an APL, but I only used 7 pounds light LME, so the ABV will probably be under 5%) with WYEAST 2007 Pilsen Lager yeast at 48-50 degrees in the primary. I plan to dry hop in the secondary, but I'm seeing a lot of people say you should only dry hop 2 weeks before bottling, however that is for an ale rather than a lager. I plan to dry hop immediately in the secondary, dropping the temperature down to 32 degrees over a week, then lagering for 4-6 weeks. That would have the hops in the secondary for 5-7 weeks. Does anyone see a problem with this, or this is a good idea for dry hopping a lager?

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I've never dry hopped a lager but if you want to do it I will recommend to do it in the last two weeks. If you dryhooped now and leave the hops in you'll get grassier hop profile a little to harsh for a lager. If you dry hop now and remove the hop bag the hop aromas will fade a little. Just my two cents

How did this turn out?

I had a lagered IPA the other day (cant remember the brewery) and it was outstanding.

This is how it is currently turning out: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/restarting-lager-ale-347749/

you can dry hop much longer at lower temps than you can at room/ale temps

it takes longer to extract the aroma from the hops at lagering temps - you probably won't experience off flavors at 5-7 weeks but you may go beyond the point of the most potent aroma

do you keg or bottle?

if you bottle you may want to dry hop 3-4 weeks before you bottle, if you keg, try adding dry hops to the secondary 3-4 weeks before you keg and then consider adding some more dry hops

i'm experimenting with an IPL right now

kegged just under 2 weeks ago after 2 weeks in primary - it's currently got 3oz of hops and i plan to transfer to a new keg in a week or 2 on top of another 3-4oz of hops and let that sit for another 1-2 weeks before I start drinking it

I think I'll try dry hopping for 4 weeks since I plan to dry hop with US Goldings and it doesn't seem like that potent of a hop. Maybe I'll add some fruitier hops for the last 2 or 3 weeks.

I finally started dry-hopping with an ounce of US Goldings. I plan to bottle in about 4 weeks, but will probably add a little bit of Citra, Simcoe, Centennial, and Cascade to the dry hop mix in another week or two.

I did this with a noble pilsner...dry hopped almost two ounces of all the nobles...a little heavy on the saaz. I lagered for two months....brought it up, dry hopped for a week at room temp then dropped it back down over a week and left it there for a week. No grass taste and it came out well. Even 4 months later I could pick up the hop profile easily.

I used pellets and did take a slight hit in clarity. I would put them in the fridge for a few weeks and it helped.

That actually makes a lot of sense. I already lagered the beer, so it shouldn't hurt to bring it back to 65 for a while. I went ahead and added 1/2 oz Cascade, 1/4 oz Citra, 1/8 oz Simcoe, and 1/8 oz Centennial, so now I have a total of 2 oz leaf hops in 3 gallons of beer. I'll let it sit out for a week, maybe slowly lower temp down to 58, put in fridge at 54 and drop down to 34 over a week, then let it sit for a week at 34 before bottling. That means I should have a finished APL with some nice fruity hop flavor in 4 weeks.

I ended up letting my beer sit at 34 for two weeks. I just bottled it tonight.

I tried out a beer tonight and it was pretty well carbonated already. Overall I think it was pretty good, but I'm used to IPAs with a higher alcohol content and more hops in the boil so it seemed kind of light and plain. It has hop flavor from the dry hops, but definitely not the same thing as if I had used a lot of fruity late addition hops. I'm going to perfect my IPA recipe and try the same thing as a lager one day to see how much of difference I can tell between an ale and a lager.