Dry Hopping

[WildKnight]

I've read a lot of methods for dry hopping, but not real explanation of why its done when its done. When is the best time to dry hop? What are the merits and flaws of the following times?

1) right when you pitch the yeast?
2) right after high krausen?
3) right after primary fermentation (in primary)?
4) right after primary fermentation (transfer to secondary)
5) once it's in the keg?

 

[MalFet]

General consensus is that later is better. You want to wait until after fermentation is done, because otherwise the movement of CO2 will drive out much of the hop aromatics that you're trying to get. Typically, you want the dry hops to be in there for a week or two before you bottle. Secondaries are often used for this purpose.

Some people dry hop in the keg, though I don't know much about that. Look up "randalizer", too. It's basically a device that attaches to your beerlines to do some hop infusion just as the beer is about to hit your glass.

 

[WildKnight]

Here are my thoughts on dry hopping. I want to wait to get the hops into the beer after there is sufficient alcohol to avoid problems with any contaminants from the hops (and bag). I also want to get the hops into the carboy before all fermentation activity is done so that the layer of CO2 will build back up and protect the beer (since you have to open the lid to insert the hops). I could also just put a bag of hops in the keg for a week, then depressurize, remove the hops and then re-pressurize. Generally, though, I want as clear a beer as I can get, and so I generally want what goes into the keg already as clear as possible.

 

[MalFet]

Sounds like a reasonable approach, but two comments:

For whatever reason, I don't seem much talk about dry hopping as a source of infection. I believe that relatively few organisms can live in the presence of alpha acids. I think you do want to wait until fermentation is done, but largely because dry hopping is not really effective before then. In addition to the CO2 driving off those hop aromas, I believe I read that yeast will bind to hop particles and will prematurely drag them down into the trub if you dry hop too early.

As for the CO2 blanket, if you're gentle with your addition you shouldn't need to worry about it. Simply opening the lid won't drive the CO2 off.

 

[EricCSU]

I could tell you what I do, but I would recommend listening to the Brew Strong podcast on Dry Hopping. Lots of good info there and you will learn a lot.

Eric

 

[pericles]

+1 toe EricCSU

When you dry-hop, you have two competing pressures: if you dry-hop during active fermentation, the CO2 being produced tends to drive off the hop aroma. If, on the other hand, you dry-hop after active fermentation has ended, the oxygen that's trapped in the hops will be transmitted to the beer, and result in staling.

Mike "Tasty" McDole's strategy is to dry hop at the very tail end of active fermentation. If you feel like too much of the hop aroma is driven off, his solution is to just add more hops.

My own strategy is to add the hops after active fermentation has ended. My beer gets drunk within a few weeks of being bottled or kegged, so staling and flavor stability isn't a big concern for me.

I'm not aware of anyone who advocates adding immediately after pitching, but any of the other three suggestions is fine, and will give slightly different results.