Dry Hopped Too Soon?

[rdavidw]

Looking for some advice on a brew I may have hopped too soon. I made this Pliny the Elder https://www.morebeer.com/products/russian-rivers-pliny-elder-grain-beer-brewing-kit-5-gallons.html on 3/12/19, a total of 38 days ago. Its a 14.5 grain bill with a pound of corn sugar. My OG came in right at my target of 1.068 and I was expecting a FG of about 1.02 for a 7.9% beer. I added yeast booster after the air lock slowed down about two weeks in. The gravity readings 20, 22 and 24 days in were 1.025, 1.023 and 1.023 and I racked and dry hopped on day 24, 4/15/19. My plan was to dry hop it for 12 days and then keg it and store it cold. The problem is the airlock started bubbling about a bubble per second after three or four days in the secondary carboy. Its now been 14 days in the secondary and the airlock is still going strong. It is also still hazy and has not cleared. The airlock smells fine and I don't see anything funky in the carboy.

Should I rack it off of the hops into a carboy (A thirdary)? Just leave on the hops longer or keg it and bring it down to 37F to stop whatever is fermenting?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[IslandLizard]

Have you taken a gravity reading recently? Using a hydrometer, yes? Have you tasted it?
Chances are it's still fermenting/attenuating. The persistent cloudiness is a sign of that too.

You've been here for a long time, I'm surprised you still do secondaries. They're really not needed, and can (will) cause more problems, while solving none. That beer should have been done after 21 days, 1.023 at that time is certainly too high. Isn't 1.014 the target FG for that beer?

What yeast did you pitch? How much? Ferm temps?

Since you're kegging and have CO2 available, I hope you've been keeping air (oxygen) out of your fermenters once fermentation has started. That's even more important with hoppy beers.

I would definitely leave it, not rack it, preventing risk of (more) oxidation.

 

[postalbunny]

Not as big of a deal to be sitting on hops as some think... a lot of folks here actually dry-hop into their kegs and leave the beer on hops for months while serving.

What you experienced may have been 'hop creep'... some people believe that dumping dry hops in can cause a secondary fermentation because of some enzymes the hops contain helping break down some starch/sugars for the yeast to consume. Reports of diacetyl after dry-hopping that required a longer rest, etc.

My advice is to just wait until the gravity is stable over a few days and then go like normal. Don't worry about how long you are on the hops. I wouldn't cold crash to stop fermentation, because if it really is fermentation it'll happen again later if you bottle or take a growler somewhere that gets warm.

It may also just be co2 breaking out of solution, so gravity readings are important. Wait until activity is dying down, then take a reading... 2-3 days read again and if it's the same package it up.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Did you oxygenate the wort?

 

[rdavidw]

Have you taken a gravity reading recently? Using a hydrometer, yes? Have you tasted it?
Chances are it's still fermenting/attenuating. The persistent cloudiness is a sign of that too.

You've been here for a long time, I'm surprised you still do secondaries. They're really not needed, and can (will) cause more problems, while solving none. That beer should have been done after 21 days, 1.023 at that time is certainly too high. Isn't 1.014 the target FG for that beer?

What yeast did you pitch? How much? Ferm temps?

Since you're kegging and have CO2 available, I hope you've been keeping air (oxygen) out of your fermenters once fermentation has started. That's even more important with hoppy beers.

I would definitely leave it, not rack it, preventing risk of (more) oxidation.

Thanks for the help Island Lizard. Only two of my fermenters are on a glyco coil temp control. I typically don't do secondaries unless I want to free one of those up or I am doing something like a barley wine that is going to age for months.

I used White Labs California 001 in a 2L starter. The starter was in a bath over a stir plate on the gylco temp control. Pitched and held at 70F. After the starter was done I crashed it and pored off most of the wort/beer. When I was making the beer I cooled it to about 68F and then pumped it to the fermenter and used a oxygen wand before pitching. Set the fermenter temp to 70F and kept it there.

I am going to leave it alone for a while

 

[rdavidw]

Did you oxygenate the wort?

Yes

 

[IslandLizard]

Thanks for the help Island Lizard. Only two of my fermenters are on a glyco coil temp control. I typically don't do secondaries unless I want to free one of those up or I am doing something like a barley wine that is going to age for months.

I used White Labs California 001 in a 2L starter. The starter was in a bath over a stir plate on the gylco temp control. Pitched and held at 70F. After the starter was done I crashed it and pored off most of the wort/beer. When I was making the beer I cooled it to about 68F and then pumped it to the fermenter and used a oxygen wand before pitching. Set the fermenter temp to 70F and kept it there.

I am going to leave it alone for a while

70F for starters is fine. They can benefit from a bit warmer temps, 74-76F, to get them to grow faster, so don't hold them back because of that. It doesn't look like you underpitched as long as the starter yielded its potential. Oxygenation is good.

Strange how long it takes to ferment out. You sure the glycol isn't chilling the fermenter too much? Ramping the temps up a few degrees toward the end helps to complete the attenuation while it enters the conditioning phase.

As long as you keep that oxygen/air out of there, let her do her thing.
Keep us posted.

 

[kevin58]

You might find some useful info in this podcast.

 

[MarkMarine]

I always get some hop creep brewing this beer, don’t worry about it, just let the gravity stabilize and then package. No cause for concern for this batch, but I’ve had better results (more aroma, less grassy) from doing 2 dry hops, of 3-4 days each, and blowing CO2 through the bottom of the cone twice a day to get the hops moving again.

Good luck, I’m sure it will turn out great.

 

[rdavidw]

I always get some hop creep brewing this beer, don’t worry about it, just let the gravity stabilize and then package. No cause for concern for this batch, but I’ve had better results (more aroma, less grassy) from doing 2 dry hops, of 3-4 days each, and blowing CO2 through the bottom of the cone twice a day to get the hops moving again.

Good luck, I’m sure it will turn out great.

Airlock is slowing down and it's starting to clear. Gravity down to 1.012. Taste is overly hoppy and grassy. Should be better once cold and carbonated.

I have a vacuum filter I use for my wine. I typically use a 5 micron filter and it's mostly to degas the wine before bottling. I don't see any reason to filter my beer but this may be an exception since its been sitting on the hops for a full month so far. Do you think filtering would help?

 

[MarkMarine]

I would just pull it off the hops, chill and carb. I wouldn't vacuum filter or anything, the great thing about hop flavor is that if you don't love it, wait a couple weeks and it will have faded, especially with this beer. BUT I like to let a couple friends try it first, sometimes I'm too critical of my own beers to realize how nice they are.