Dry hop while cold conditioning

Is it just as affective to dry hop while cold conditioning for a week or is more aroma added to the beer at fermentation temps?

 

I have switched to dry hopping in the keg at serving temps. I just leave the hops in while serving. Usually takes two days for me to get the full effect of the hops @ 37F. YMMV as I guess it depends on your hops.

 

I'm bottling this batch and I was wondering if I could prime and bottle before the beer had a chance to warm back up? Will it affect carbonation? The bottles will be stored at room temp. of course.

 

+1 on this question!

I need to time my IPA dry hop and cold conditioning over the holidays and travel. Doing both together for a week would simplify things. Seems like it would take a bit longer than at fermentation temps (ale, not lager, 64-66 degrees), but an experienced reply would be greatly appreciated.

Rich

 

If you do a search, (I'm too lazy), there was a long thread on this. Bottom line, yes, you can prime and bottle before the beer has warmed up. The debate was over the amount of sugar to add, as the amount of CO2 dissolved is different for different temperatures. Bottom line for me is to use the "conditioning" temperature to determine the sugar, meaning normal priming amount. That's the temp where the CO2 is produced and absorbed, and it works, which is what is important.

BTW, I've also taken to "bottle conditioning" at the ferment temps. You are basically fermenting again. So, for example, if you ferment at the low end of a yeast's range to reduce fruity, estery profies and off tastes, then you should do the same for the bottle conditioning. Fortunately, my winter "room temperatures" take care of that problem

Rich

 

I think the extraction from the dry hops is temp dependant. Warmer temps = quicker extraction.

 

Commercially most of us dry-hop with pellets, just as fermentation is ending. ( 65-68F ),
then held at ferm. temp for 1 or 2 days. Then crashed cooled 5F a day over a week. The
benefits of glycol chilled S/S uni-tank. But back to the question, I have dry hopped using colder temps, 45-50F after racking yeast also. But found less aroma in the finished
product. Hope that helps. Cheers!!!

 

I'm accidentally cold conditioning a I2PA right now while trying to dry hop with 2.75oz whole nugget (the weather got cold real fast and my wife won't let carboys inside the house). I did an intial dry hop of 2oz of nugget for 3 days in the primary, then racked to secondary where I am dry hopping for a week. The fermentation and initial dry hop was at 60-65f but a couple days after starting the secondary dry hopping, ambient temperature dropped to the low 40s. Hopefully I'll still get enough flavor and aroma.

 

It's instructive to know how dry-hopping developed to answer this question.

Dry-hopping as we commonly practice it was developed by British brewers, who would place loose hops flowers in cask before racking green beer and priming therein. While conditioning in the pub's cellar - 50-60F - the dry hops flavor the ale.

Practically, I prefer dry-hopping at cooler temperatures. Professionally, I've dry-hopped at 35F and 60F and seen no difference in flavor or aroma between the two in blind tastings. So far as I'm able to determine from the science, there is no definitive correlation between temperature and flavor/aroma impact from dry-hops. Time, yes; temperature, no.

Bob

 

1. Aroma = volatile.
2. Extraction = increasing at higher tempertures, however, you run the risk off off flavors from the yeast and volatilization of the aroma through the air lock.

Either cold crash dry hop for a longer amount of time, resulting in a cleaner yeast profile, and great aroma or dry hop at fermentation temperatures, and possibly lose this aroma, as well as subject the aroma to volitalization.

For a quick fix, room temperature or ferm temperture is fine, however, if I'm not in a rush, I'll let the dry hop sit in secondary cold crash. Result = Clear beer, good aroma, minimal off flavors.