Cold Crashing, Racking, and Dry Hopping order?

[SatanPrinceOfDarkness]

I've read that I should cold crash BEFORE dry-hopping, but when do I rack?

Cold crashing before racking makes sense to me because then I'd remove more stuff. Then I'd dry-hop after.

However, for my current beer, I needed to rack to free my primary. Is it even worth it to cold crash for a few days before I dry hop, or will that stuff just float back up after cold crashing?

 

[CA_Mouse]

It all depends on if you are planning on re-using your yeast. If not, then dry hop before cold crashing. If you absolutely have to transfer to a secondary vessel, then you want to cold crash before transferring onto your hops and then cold crashing again before bottling or kegging.

 

[pcollins]

In my process, and in an ideal world, I would transfer onto the hops, let sit for a week or less, cold crash, gel, keg/carb, serve.

Reasons for the above:

I reuse my yeast so I don't want the hop debris in the yeast cake. I transfer off the yeast and then reuse from there.

In my experience my beer clears faster after transfer. Someone can explain why, I'm sure.

Hop aroma extraction is better at warmer than fridge temps so there is no point in my cold crashing before dry hopping.

I don't have a ton of fridge space/time so my beer is in for cold crashing and gelling in a short period of time.

I think that's all I've thought about.

 

[pcollins]

Oh, and if you ask 10 of us this type of question get ready for 15 different answers. LOL

(as evidenced by the above)

 

[brew_ny]

dry hop then cold crash then keg

is what works for me

S_M

 

[passedpawn]

Dry Hop (3-5 days, sometimes multiple additions)
Gelatin & Cold Crash (2 days)
Keg

 

[brew_ny]

SatanPrinceOfDarkness just a heads up Lucas is The Prince of Darkness

just saying

 

[Puddlethumper]

Dry Hop (3-5 days, sometimes multiple additions)
Gelatin & Cold Crash (2 days)
Keg

See above. Memorize. Repeat.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Cold crashing before dry hopping seems pointless to me. The dry hop material is probably not going to settle out too well without a cold crash..that's not to say that it won't settle without cold crashing. Nothing should float back up after cold crashing, especially if you cold crash right up to bottling and bottle cold. I don't transfer to secondary, so my process is to dry hop for about 5 days, then cold crash for about 2 days, then bottle.

 

[SatanPrinceOfDarkness]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Based on your advice, I decided to dry hop first.

I also wanted to explain a bit more why I had this question. I had read in a few places that cold crashing removes hop aroma. One explanation was that hop resin and oils stick to the particulate floating around in suspension and then drop with those during cold crash.

I also don't think the leftover hop material would be much of an issue for clarity since it can just be filtered when transferring to the bottling bucket. It's not as fine as the protein and yeast particulate left over.

I think I will do an experiment on a future batch where I try it both ways. I have a couple gallon jugs I can use as fermenters that will be very handy.

Still, I am reassured that most people seem to dry hop first and went with it since I had already transferred to secondary anyway.