Most extensive dry hop method ever.

[Schreiner]

Made a DIPA for a local competition, that ended up 2nd place out of 24 beers. I think the dry hopping process I used is what took the beer over the top. Trying to emulate the process the local brew pub uses without fancy conicals to play with. Anyone else go through a similar process?

Here is the process I used:

-Ferment at preferred ale temp.
-Secondary in CO2 purged keg (trying to avoid oxygen uptake from here on out.)
-Cold crash yeast out under pressure.
-Pull yeast off the bottom via cobra tap.
-Let beer come up to room temp.
-Transfer beer into a CO2 purged keg with loose dry hops.
-Dry hop day 2 & 3 Blow CO2 into the out port daily to stir up hops (for maximum hop/ beer contact.)
-Cold Crash beer under pressure.
-Change out dip tube for a shorter one that will pull from above that pile of dry hops.
-Transfer to CO2 purged keg.

 

[doomy86]

Nice work, why did you let the beer come up to room temp before the transfer?

 

[bigplunkett]

I dont have kegs yet but i do dry hop very specificly on my dipas 2 to 3 days into ferm as kruasen starts i hit it with 3 oz pull them at day 6 re dry hop with 2 oz for 2 days pull and add 4 oz let sit for 5 days. Get supper hoppy if i kegged id probly keg hop a few oz off the last bit or maby on top idk. I wish i had a way to c02 purge. Congrates on the top finish. U should post a full recipe.

 

[Schreiner]

Nice work, why did you let the beer come up to room temp before the transfer?

I did this based off the theory that you get best extraction with "warm" beer.

 

[Schreiner]

duplicate post.

 

[Schreiner]

Duplicate post. Stupid phone!

 

[Sourz4life]

Dry hop at cold temps next time. The colder the better. We've done quite a few expirments with dry hopping at my brewery and the colder the better for terepene extraction. By the way terpenes are the flavors and smells of plants in nature. This is the reason why yakima does cold extractions in nitrogen rich environments.

Keeping the hops moving is best as well, so the purge through the bottom is good. We have .5 micron stones that are exposed if we open a valve on our conical so we pump c02 through it every few hours, but not to much just enough to make sure its staying overly purged. We also found the best method is using pumps to keep them moving. Basically after we dump the yeast out of the cone we use our brewery pump to recirculate while its dry hopping so the hops never stop moving.

We also go a step further in the keg purging by filling it to the very top with saniclean and carbonating it a bit. We then c02 push that out so we can assure there is no O2 left at all. After that we sometimes put a torpedo tank of sorts in between the brite tank and the kegs and fill it with lupulin powder to give it one more last hoppy jolt, we just make sure to purge the hell out of the torpedo tank and lines.

So the only thing i'd change in your process is keep the beer as cold as possible after fermentation. You also don't really need to change your dip tube, but that's up to you.

 

[Schreiner]

Dry hop at cold temps next time. The colder the better. We've done quite a few expirments with dry hopping at my brewery and the colder the better for terepene extraction. By the way terpenes are the flavors and smells of plants in natural. This is the reason why yakima does cold extractions in nitrogen rich environments.

Keeping the hops moving is best as well, so the purge through the bottom is good. We have .5 micron stones that are exposed if we open a valve on our conical so we pump c02 through it every few hours, but not to much just enough to make sure its staying overly purged. We also found the best method is using pumps to keep them moving. Basically after we dump the yeast out of the cone we use our brewery pump to recirculate while its dry hopping so the hops never stop moving.

We also go a step further in the keg purging by filling it to the very top with saniclean and carbonating it a bit. We then c02 push that out so we can assure there is no O2 left at all. After that we sometimes put a torpedo tank of sorts in between the brite tank and the kegs and fill it with lupulin powder to give it one more last hoppy jolt, we just make sure to purge the hell out of the torpedo tank and lines.

So the only thing i'd change in your process is keep the beer as cold as possible after fermentation. You also don't really need to change your dip tube, but that's up to you.

I don't claim to understand any of the science behind dry hop oil extraction during dry hoping, but just following the recommendations from the Brew master at Red Eye Brewing. He know his hoppy beers. He did pretty well with Tragically Hopped when he entered it here a few years ago: http://brackets.brewingnews.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=440093&tclass=National Imperial IPA Championship 2013

I tried to transfer out without cutting the dip tube short, which immediately plugged the dip tube tight with hops.

 

[Schreiner]

I dont have kegs yet but i do dry hop very specificly on my dipas 2 to 3 days into ferm as kruasen starts i hit it with 3 oz pull them at day 6 re dry hop with 2 oz for 2 days pull and add 4 oz let sit for 5 days. Get supper hoppy if i kegged id probly keg hop a few oz off the last bit or maby on top idk. I wish i had a way to c02 purge. Congrates on the top finish. U should post a full recipe.

I've read a lot about dry hopping during fermentation with NEIPA's, so not doubt that can work.

The theory I'm working from is that clearing your beer the best you can before dry hoping will leave the most hop oil in suspension. If you dry hop with yeast present and then crash out the yeast, some of the hop oil drops because it has attached itself to the yeast.

 

[Sourz4life]

It may just be the kegs we use but we rarely get stuck dip tubes, but of course no issues with using a shorter one.

Soon enough my brewery will be working with another local lab that has a HPLC so we can truly find out the chemical extraction levels in certain environments. The hope is to finally have a solid answer on the best methods of extractions as up until this point its all be just opinions from experiences.

 

[Schreiner]

It may just be the kegs we use but we rarely get stuck dip tubes, but of course no issues with using a shorter one.

Soon enough my brewery will be working with another local lab that has a HPLC so we can truly find out the chemical extraction levels in certain environments. The hope is to finally have a solid answer on the best methods of extractions as up until this point its all be just opinions from experiences.

Science! Cool. Keep us posted!

 

[Queequeg]

How do you purge second keg?

 

[madscientist451]

Here is the process I used:

-Ferment at preferred ale temp.
-Secondary in CO2 purged keg (trying to avoid oxygen uptake from here on out.)
-Cold crash yeast out under pressure.
-Pull yeast off the bottom via cobra tap.

Couldn't you save a step if you cold crashed in the primary?

 

[Schreiner]

Couldn't you save a step if you cold crashed in the primary?

I hate watching the airlock suck air when I crash in primary, but yes you could.

 

[Schreiner]

How do you purge second keg?

It's not perfect, but I fill with starsan, and transfer it out with CO2. I then pop the keg back open to toss the hops in, and purge the keg with CO2 again. Could I have just tossed the hops in the first keg? Probably. Just trying to avoid Oxygen exposure the best I can.