Dry Hopping + adding sugar? 120gal/450litre

[hetyu]

I've got the possibility to brew one of my beers in a local small craft brewery. Upon discussing the steps with one of the workers I've got the advice to add a small amount of table sugar with the dry hops to have a better extract of the oils. The point they claim is that the additional sugar will make the wort flow again which helps with extracting the oils. I've been told this is how they are doing and without the sugar addition I'll not get the aroma I'm looking for with the dry-hops.
Honestly saying this 'technique' is against my usual routine (and everything else I've read so far) so let me ask for your opinions.
Have you ever heard about a method like this? Is this due to the size of the fermentor and the amount of beer?

 

[slym2none]

Sugar will cause fermentation to start again, true. But I've always heard to dry-hop after fermentation is complete as the yeast, when it drops out, will take some of the hops' contributions with it, as well as CO² "scrubbing" some of the compounds out.

Now, whether a small amount of fermentation does this, IDK. Maybe the flow can extract more oils than the fermentation will carry out.

Maybe they are on to something...

 

[NHatcbrewer]

Dry hopping when active fermentation slows does several things. It minimizes oxidation that occurs during dry hopping as the yeast metabolize the O2. The hops will move throughout the beer decreasing the contact time necessary to extract aroma compounds and the yeast are able to metabolize some hop compounds to form new aromas.

 

[hetyu]

Ok, so I believe they are basically let the wort completely ferment out and than add a small dose of sugar to better extract the hop aroma.
So, it isn't the best to wait till the beer reaches a stable FG & settling out well before dry hopping?
confused

 

[NHatcbrewer]

I can't speak to their exact process but I suspect they will be close to FG introduce additional fermentables (sugar) to spur a second small fermentation when dry hopped. Dry hopping introduces a fair amount of O2 into the beer. Because of the renewed fermentation the yeast will use the O2 minimizing the oxidation that occurs. I view that as the primary benefit of the process. Many craft brewers use some sort of circulation in there fermenters to keep the dry hops suspended. Some will pump wort out the dump port and back in to the tank. Other will slowly add co2 into the bottom of the fermenter. On a smaller scale this can be done by dry hopping during fermentation or by restarting a smaller fermentation. Incision a tea bag, if you move the tea bag in the hot water you will extract the tea faster. Thirdly there is ongoing research into hop glycosides. Some yeast have the ability to split glycosides into a fermentable carbohydrate and linalool. Linalool is highly aromatic, think sweet orange. It sounds like these guys are using good science.

 

[hetyu]

Thanks for the feedback to all!
I indeed found some articles confirming this method may be valid as well due to the above listed reasons. I always tend to forget that brewing is not black and white.