When to dry hop?

[dave8274]

I brewed a mini mash recipe last weekend, and it called for 14 days in fermenter and to dry hop after a week.

I'm planning on leaving it in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks rather than 2, so should I still dry hop today or wait a week so the hops are only in there for 1 week?

 

[unionrdr]

I always wait till the beer's at a stable FG & settling out clear or slightly misty to dry hop. Otherwise,the hop oils coat the settling yeast cells & go to the bottom with them. I dry hop one week with good results.

 

[Lechien]

I dry hop right in my primary fermenter, I see no need to move it to secondary.

 

[Yooper]

I dryhop for 5-7 days or so, right before packaging the beer. However long it's in the fermenter is fine, then add the hops a week before bottling.

 

[dave8274]

Great thanks! Yeah, it's done fermenting but I'm still planning to keep it in there 2 more weeks, so I will wait until next weekend to dry hop.

 

[IslandLizard]

1 week dry hop is plenty. Longer may extract grassy notes, but I never noticed any after an unintentional 2 weeks.

14 days in fermentor means very little. The key is: is it done? 2 matching gravity samples, 3 days apart, and being near your estimated FG, will tell you.

Once it is done, extra time on the yeast cake will improve the beer flavor while the yeast cleans up her byproducts (conditioning phase). 3 weeks of fermentation/conditioning is my standard. Followed by a week of dry hopping.

As a rule of thumb, dry hop a week before you're bottling.