Brewing Pliny the Elder Double Dry-Hopped - How soon should I rack to secondary?

[J2W2]

Hi,

I've brewed several batches of Pliny, but this is my first shot at their Double Dry-Hopped variation. Per the recipe, I added seven ounces of loose pellet hops to my primary on day one. On day six I'll add the final three ounces. Assuming it ferments like my regular Pliny batches, it will take a full two weeks, or more, to hit final gravity. From what I've read, two weeks is about the max I'll want to leave the beer on the hops.

I let my beers rise to room temp (approximately 70 degrees) for the last few days of fermentation, which I'll do before the two week mark with this one. And when I use a secondary (rarely now), I let it sit at room temp a few to several days before I cold crash.

So should I leave it in my primary until fermentation is complete, even if it takes more than two weeks, or should I rack it to my secondary at two weeks, regardless of where it's at, and let it finish there?

Thanks for your help!

 

[sibelman]

Best guess (with unsolicited advice): rack to secondary, which holds the second second hop charge and has been purged with fermentation CO2 effluent. When? when it's settled down a lot and near final gravity.

Sounds like a great beer! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[J2W2]

Best guess (with unsolicited advice): rack to secondary, which holds the second second hop charge and has been purged with fermentation CO2 effluent. When? when it's settled down a lot and near final gravity.

Sounds like a great beer! Let us know how it turns out.

Since it's my first time brewing it, I'm going to stick to the recipe's hop schedule, which says to add the second hop addition to the primary on day six. Both additions go in while fermentation is very active. This is right off the Russian River website: " The original Pliny is dry-hopped on day 7 with about 2 pounds per barrel, and DDH Pliny is dry-hopped on day 1 and again on day 6 for a total of about 4 pounds per barrel. This double dry-hopping process adds even more flavor, complexity, hop aroma, and freshness to the beer."

My secondary has been purged with fermentation CO2, as has the keg, so both are ready when the time comes. I am leaning toward racking it off when it's almost done. Unfortunately, my Tilt must be gunked up bad, because it's reporting a gravity of 0.999. Either that or I just set a personal best for fasted fermentation.

I'll be sure to post back when it's done. I already have several volunteers lined up to provide a comparison to my original recipe!

 

[anotherbeerplease]

You've brewed this several times so I would just go with your intuition... For me personally, I would not rack an 8% beer to secondary before it's finished unless I was ok with a stalled/incomplete fermentation. I think your chances are pretty high it will not finish out if you take it off the yeast cake before it's done.

 

[DarrellQ]

I have brewed an excellent 8.5% abv Pliny clone several times, single dry hopped, left it in primary 3 weeks and never racked to a secondary. I just cold crash before a pressure transfer from Fermonster to keg.