cold crashing and dry hopping

[masaba]

How do you handle the schedule with cold crashing and dry hopping? My plan was for my beer to spend 3 weeks in primary. I will add the dry hops about 6 days before bottling, chill to 35 4 days before bottling, one day before bottling bring it back to room temp, then bottle. Does this sound right? Should I ever take out the dry hops?

 

[Cockfighter]

Dry hopping for six days is a good time period. You don't need to take out the hops because it'll drop out with the cold crash. Many people just toss the hops right in without a bag.

If you want a clearer beer, gelatin is a great aid. Just mix a teaspoon with a little bit of hot (not boiling) water and stir it into the top of the primary (or in secondary if you're that way inclined).

Overnight should be fine for a cold crash. But I've also had good results with three or four days at room temperature with gelatin. In this case you could do something like dry hop at seven days to bottling, and stir in the gelatin with three days to go.

You don't need to bring the beer back to room temperature to bottle. But make sure you use the warmest temperature the beer was at to calculate your priming sugar amount.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

The warmer the beer is when you dry hop, the more easily the oils will be extracted. 2 days at ferm temp before chilling may not get you what you're looking for. I've played around with different amounts of time, and have been happy with doing a 7 day dry hop, but start chilling after 4 days. I dryhop in a carboy with loose pellets, so I don't remove the hops.

I know you didn't ask about this, but I'd suggest not bringing it back up to room temp before bottling. Part of the point of chilling, besides dropping the yeast, is to coagulate chill haze proteins so that they will drop. Warming the beer back up will undo some of this.

 

[masaba]

Okay, sounds good. I will start my dry hop 6 or 7 days before I bottle and give 3 days to cold crash. It's good to know that I don't need to bring it back to room temp before bottling either.

 

[Psylocide]

You don't need to bring the beer back to room temperature to bottle. But make sure you use the warmest temperature the beer was at to calculate your priming sugar amount.

Not to go O/T - but, can anyone substantiate this?

For bottling, the amount of priming sugar to add if the beer is 35°, is half of what is recommended for beer at ~68°.

When we go to prime, do you use the temp the beer was at before crashing for calculation or the temp it is when you go to rack into bottling bucket. I figure if it's going back to room temp in the bottles, then the higher sugar content is needed (in agreement with cockfighter).

 

[Cockfighter]

Not to go O/T - but, can anyone substantiate this?

For bottling, the amount of priming sugar to add if the beer is 35°, is half of what is recommended for beer at ~68°.

When we go to prime, do you use the temp the beer was at before crashing for calculation or the temp it is when you go to rack into bottling bucket. I figure if it's going back to room temp in the bottles, then the higher sugar content is needed.

It should be the highest temperature the beer was at, at any point in the process.
The reason being that more CO2 leaves the beer the higher the temperature. Therefore it doesn't matter how cold the beer is after its warmest stint, as the Co2 is already gone.

 

[Psylocide]

It should be the highest temperature the beer was at, at any point in the process.
The reason being that more CO2 leaves the beer the higher the temperature. Therefore it doesn't matter how cold the beer is after its warmest stint, as the Co2 is already gone.

Well, sounds good enough to me. I'll stick with the room temp calc.