Dry hops producing bubbles?

[coldrice]

Is this a phenomenon that is documented that I somehow missed the memo on? Fermentation was complete (or so I thought) when I racked to secondary. Batch was fermented with 2 pcks Nottingham and dry hopped with 1oz. Mt. Hood and 1oz. Northern Brewer. I was going to bottle after 5 or 6 days but the sucker kept bubbling. Its been 16 days now and it still bubbles every minute or two? What gives? I'm going to grab another 1 oz. of Mt. Hood and chuck 'em in after scraping the old dry hops off the top, unless someone tells me I'm stupid...

 

[Revvy]

You added hops, that added nucleation sites which caused co2 to be relesead..you added something to the fermenter which changed the volume and displaced co2, so co2 is coming out...take a grav reading but remember, airlock bubbling just means co2 is getting out...not WHY co2 is getting out.

 

[coldrice]

Thanks for the lightning-speed response. Is it reasonable, then, to assume that much of the aromatic properties of the hops have been carried off by co2 escaping? Would there be some merit to adding more hops or would I risk overdoing it? Its a RyePA, and I'd hate to over-balance it with too much aroma hops and screw up the palate's perception of the rye in the beer. It's just odd because I have dry hopped with 2oz of hops in the past and never seen this... though I am no experienced brewing Jedi. This is probably my 25th or so...

 

[Revvy]

It's reasonable to assume you are over thinking this.....don't worry about what the co2 is doing, you're not going to loose precious hop aroma just because something that happens to all of us when we add hops is happenning. It's not like adding hops during the height of fermentation where it's so active that it's scrubbing the beer clean, it's just built up pressure being released.

 

[coldrice]

Har! I know, I just meant because it had been 16 days. I just did a reading, its at 1.012 and holding. It's really delicious- tastes like DFH Shelter PA but cleaner and lighter. I think I'll bottle tomorrow. Thanks for the input.