Dry hopping at high krausen

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

Seems like a lot of the kids are doing it these days. For those who do this, or other strategies aiming at getting that fabled "biotransformation," how do you do it? Do you use a hop bag? Do you just leave the first set of dry hops in for the entire fermentation? Transfer to secondary after fermentation is complete? Something else?

The concern, obviously, is avoiding grassy flavors. But maybe this early dry hop thing is supposed to buck that conventional wisdom, too.

 

[marjen]

I usually just throw the hops in loose on top of the krausen. Seems to work its way down over time. Never had any grassy flavors.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

A belated thanks for the feedback, marjen.

Anyone else? I just did dry hop #1, and it would be re-assuring to me to hear that other people dry hop near high krausen and just leave the loose hops in primary without getting grassy flavors.

 

[day_trippr]

I dump my dry hops (almost always pellets) straight into the carboy. For the neipa's that have been dominating my brews of late the first round goes in on Day 4, the second round on Day 8, start a two-day crash on Day 12, keg on Day 14. I'm guesstimating there's about 10% of the original fermentables remaining at the start.

As with all my dry-hopped brews I cold-crash everything to the bottom and rack to a keg with a square of ~400 micron nylon mesh over the end of the racking tube to keep hop fragments out of the keg. Never any grassy notes...

Cheers!

 

[JordanKnudson]

One of my most successful/popular recipes is a hoppy blond ale with wai-iti hops. The first time I made it (long before the NEIPA craze), I realized I wasn't going to be around to add the dry hops after fermentation, due to going out of town for a few days, so I just threw the dry hops in the fermentor on day 1 and left them. I packaged the beer 2 weeks later, and it became the most requested beer I had ever made. It did have that haze, which isn't my favorite thing, but nobody else seemed to care. I still brew that beer for friends, family, and myself on a regular basis, and I still add the hops at the very beginning.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

Alright, day_trippr, sounds like you're leaving the beer on dry hops for 10 days (day 4 through day 14), and Jordan, you're leaving them in for about 13 days. Good to know.

I wonder if a blonde ale would be different from an IPA since it uses a lower dry hopping rate (unless that was one hoppy blonde!).

People who have responded, do you have any opinion on whether your not getting grassy notes has something to do with adding the hops during fermentation? Do you ever get grassy notes from dry hopping other beers, where you might add the dry hops well after the beer has reached its final gravity?

 

[Sbe2]

I dry hop my NEIPAs at high krausen, never had grassy notes. The grass may come from what hops you use and/or how fresh they are. The note I get the most is the hop burn, but that goes away in a week at most, usually within two or three days.

 

[JordanKnudson]

Alright, day_trippr, sounds like you're leaving the beer on dry hops for 10 days (day 4 through day 14), and Jordan, you're leaving them in for about 13 days. Good to know.

I wonder if a blonde ale would be different from an IPA since it uses a lower dry hopping rate (unless that was one hoppy blonde!).

That's true, it isn't hopped quite as aggressively as an IPA, but it is still a 4 oz dry hop, which I think would be enough to cause the same problems you're worried about, and I've never noticed a grassy flavor!

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I dry hop just past peak fermentation. Then do another about 4 days later, cold crash 3-4 days after that. All hops are pellets dumped directly into the fermentor. No issues with grassy notes. I scored a 40 at my first competition last weekend and that was far from my best NEIPA.