Another IPA dry hop question

[alby44]

Subject says it all....new brewer who brewed first IPA on 1.24, so a two week primary so far. Am I good to toss in my dry hop, 5-7 days, 2-3 oz of falconers at this point?

Was looking to take an FG sample today, toss in the primary, then take another FG sample next week, gelatin, crash, then bottle.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Kealia]

Your plan sounds just fine. After two weeks I would expect that you are at FG already barring something odd going on. The time you dry hop varies on who you ask. I've seen it range from 24 hours to 10 days. You'll need to do some experimenting on your own at some point to see if you can tell a difference in the time versus benefits.

Congrats on your first IPA (brew?).

 

[Weizer]

You have waited what I always consider the minimum time until I dry hop. I usually dry hop 2 oz for a single ipa, and 4 oz for a double IPA. This is really all at the discretion of the brewer. You could do a small dry hop each day for a week, a big dry hop for 7-14 days, etc

Try different methods, and see what you enjoy best!

 

[tooblue02]

Might want to take a few FG readings over a few days to ensure you are at FG. I just dry hopped a blond ale after 3 weeks, it hit FG about 6 days ago.

 

[alby44]

great, thanks for the prompt replies all! already have a belgian w/gelatin settling in and am eager to get these brews bottled so I can move on to the next batches. Damn this crazy obsession!!!

 

[kombat]

Was looking to take an FG sample today, toss in the primary, then take another FG sample next week, gelatin, crash, then bottle.

You're almost certainly done fermenting, so yes, it's safe to add your dry hops at this point. The risk in adding them too early is that the CO2 produced by the still-fermenting yeast will scrub the volatile hop aroma out of the beer.

One caveat though regarding your plan. I've also read that gelatin can strip out some of that precious hop aroma that you worked so hard to impart with dry hopping. So I use a slightly modified protocol for clarifying my IPAs.

I allow a full 3 weeks to ferment (but you're probably fine with 2), then cold-crash for a day, then add gelatin and wait 3-4 more days. Note that this is all prior to dry-hopping.

After that, I rack the beer to a 5-gallon secondary fermenter (carboy), leaving the sediment behind, and allow it to warm back up to room temperature. I then add the dry hops and leave it at room temperature for another 5-7 days. I then cold-crash it again for 3-4 days to get those dry hops to fall out, then I rack it into the keg and begin carbing.

This allows me to still get the clarity from having cold-crashed and applying gelatin, without worrying about the gelatin scrubbing out the dry hop aroma (because they're added AFTER the gelatin).

Sent from my grave using a Ouija board

 

[alby44]

You're almost certainly done fermenting, so yes, it's safe to add your dry hops at this point. The risk in adding them too early is that the CO2 produced by the still-fermenting yeast will scrub the volatile hop aroma out of the beer.

One caveat though regarding your plan. I've also read that gelatin can strip out some of that precious hop aroma that you worked so hard to impart with dry hopping. So I use a slightly modified protocol for clarifying my IPAs.

I allow a full 3 weeks to ferment (but you're probably fine with 2), then cold-crash for a day, then add gelatin and wait 3-4 more days. Note that this is all prior to dry-hopping.

After that, I rack the beer to a 5-gallon secondary fermenter (carboy), leaving the sediment behind, and allow it to warm back up to room temperature. I then add the dry hops and leave it at room temperature for another 5-7 days. I then cold-crash it again for 3-4 days to get those dry hops to fall out, then I rack it into the keg and begin carbing.

This allows me to still get the clarity from having cold-crashed and applying gelatin, without worrying about the gelatin scrubbing out the dry hop aroma (because they're added AFTER the gelatin).

Sent from my grave using a Ouija board

Thanks for the feedback! Should have mentioned that I'm w/o a 2ndary due to my carboy is currently fermenting apfelwein. Given that, would you recommend skipping gelatin, dry hop now for 5-7 days, then crash 3-4, then bottle?

 

[kombat]

Should have mentioned that I'm w/o a 2ndary due to my carboy is currently fermenting apfelwein.

$15 and 10 minutes surfing Craigslist/Kijiji should fix that quickly.

Given that, would you recommend skipping gelatin, dry hop now for 5-7 days, then crash 3-4, then bottle?

That's probably your best bet, yes. Your other option would be to cold-crash, add gelatin, wait 3-4 days, then bring it back to room temperature and dry hop, trying not to swirl the preciptated solids back up into solution as you move the fermenter. In my experience, however, once a beer has been cold-crashed, allowing it to warm back up results in the CO2 off-gassing from the yeast cake (the little buggers keep working slowly, but the CO2 stays in solution at colder temps. As the beer warms up, the CO2 is less soluble and effervesces out), which clouds the beer back up again.

So, yeah, if you can't/don't want to buy a 5 gallon carboy, do what you said.

Sent from my kid's room using a Lite Brite

 

[alby44]

$15 and 10 minutes surfing Craigslist/Kijiji should fix that quickly.



That's probably your best bet, yes. Your other option would be to cold-crash, add gelatin, wait 3-4 days, then bring it back to room temperature and dry hop, trying not to swirl the preciptated solids back up into solution as you move the fermenter. In my experience, however, once a beer has been cold-crashed, allowing it to warm back up results in the CO2 off-gassing from the yeast cake (the little buggers keep working slowly, but the CO2 stays in solution at colder temps. As the beer warms up, the CO2 is less soluble and effervesces out), which clouds the beer back up again.

So, yeah, if you can't/don't want to buy a 5 gallon carboy, do what you said.

Sent from my kid's room using a Lite Brite

Thanks and good to know!!