Best choice to balance fermentation, dry hop, and no AC.

[iambeer]

I brewed my pale ale July 8th. It has been fermenting away all week and it's just starting to clear up on week 2.

My options are:

1. If gravity is close to target, drop hops in current carboy today or tomorrow, then rack to bottle on Friday.

2. Let sit until two weeks from now, then dry hop for about 3-5 days, then bottle.

It would seem #3 is best but as I am travelling, I will give my AC a break for the week, so there will like temps going up to 80 inside during the third week of fermentation. I could also leave the carboy in a wet t-shirt while gone to give it estimated 5 degrees cooler ambient temp.

Your thoughts?

 

[hercher]

Um, what is #3 precisely?

I would wait until fermentation is complete, if possible, then dry hop. Can you make room in your fridge for the carboy? That would be a good solution.

I don't like letting your beer get up to 80 degrees, so definitely do the wet t-shirt trick. If fermentation isn't complete by the time you leave, I'd wait to dry hop.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

It's done, it's now down to clarity and conditioning. It sounds like week 2 is almost over? I would go ahead and dry hop it tonight and bottle before you leave. You might have a little more yeast sediment in the bottles than normal if it doesn't all the way clear, but that's not a big deal if you pour it right and leave the yeast behind. This way it will be carbonated and ready to drink by the time you get back. I think that's a better option than letting it sit at 80 for three weeks and then bottling.

 

[Silentnoiz]

I'd guess that the 80 degree temp is probably too warm. If it were me, I would probably dry hop in the primary, let it sit while you're gone (do what you can to keep the temp down), then when u get back, cold crash it at least a day before bottling.

I just did another batch of my IIPA that sat in fermentation for 3 weeks (at about 75 degrees), dry-hopped in the primary for 2 weeks (at about 75 degrees), cold crashed for 1.5 days, then kegged. Probably a bit on the warm side for 5 weeks, but, it turned out awesome. I'm drinking some now.

 

[terrapinj]

i'd give it the full week to finish and let some of the yeast drop out - raising the temp now is fine but try to cold crash before you dry hop or let as much yeast settle out as possible before dry hopping

 

[iambeer]

Thanks for the recommendations. It looks like you all agree that 80 degrees is too hot even at the third week of fermentation.

I have to ask though, as this is something new for me: Why is it better that the yeast drops from suspension as much as possible before adding hops?

 

[terrapinj]

yeast will bind with some of the hop oils that you want for aroma