Dry hop before or after cold crash

[edroberts]

I've heard mixed things regarding when to dry hop with respect to cold crashing. Some have suggested that cold crashing after your dry hop will take a sizable chunk of your dry hop out. I've seen others say that is not true, and doing your dry hop after cold crashing simply introduces more haze.

I've always cold crashed after dry hopping, never the other way around. As such I don't have a base to go off prior to dropping my next dry hop in a few days. Any thoughts from those that have done either or both?

 

[kombat]

First, it helps to understand what you seek to accomplish by dry hopping. Dry hopping infuses volatile oils into the beer to contribute to the beer's aroma. It doesn't add any appreciable flavour. So cold crashing after dry hopping shouldn't diminish the impact of the dry hopping. What can potentially diminish the effect of dry hopping is doing it too soon, while CO2 is still being produced, because those CO2 bubbles will "scrub" away the volatile aroma contribution of the dry hops.

That said, here's what I do for IPAs.

• Ferment in a primary fermenter for 10-14 days.
• Move fermenter into the fridge to cold crash for 2 days.
• Add gelatin (with the fermenter still in the fridge), wait 4-5 more days.
• Gently rack the (clear) beer to a 5 gallon carboy (one of the rare instances I recommend a secondary).
• Dump the (pellet) dry hops directly into the carboy and allow the beer to warm up to room temperature.
• Wait 7-10 more days.
• Move the fermenter into the fridge to "cold crash" again, and encourage the floating hop debris to drop out. They've already contributed their oils, this is just to reduce the amount of hop flakes/material that makes it into the finished beer. Wait 2-3 more days. NO GELATIN this time. Gelatin can diminish the hop aroma.
• Gently rack the beer to a keg. Often there will still be a film of hop matter on the surface of the beer, so I rack from just below the surface, and stop when nearing the bottom.
• Put the keg on gas (12-15 psi), in the fridge, wait 2 more weeks.

The finished beer will still have a little bit of "hop haze," but that's to style and doesn't affect the flavour negatively. This protocol gets me the clearest IPA possible without sacrificing any of the aroma contribution of the dry hops.

 

[Pappers_]

I'm like both of you @edroberts and @kombat in that I've cold crashed IPAs post dry hopping and don't have an issue with it negatively impacting hop aroma. I've never tried kombat's method of cold crashing both before and after dry hopping, but I don't see that it could hurt and would only increase clarity.

 

[mbbransc]

I primary for ~11 days for IPAs, then cold crash, gelatin and let sit for ~48hrs. Then rack to purged keg on dry hops, roll keg a few minutes while at 30PSI, and let rest a few days. I leave the dry hop in the whole time unless I'm double-dry hopping. Then I'll remove the first sack and add a second. I've never gotten vegetal flavors. I always have that fresh punch in the face aroma of hops. And after about a week, the beer is crystal clear (post-sedimentary pours).

 

[smokinop]

I just kegged a beer this weekend that I cold crashed & then dry hopped. It was the first time I did it in that order; I usually dry hop before crashing. Beer was cold crashed first of last week, dry hopped 1oz this past Thursday & kegged on Sunday. This was an APA that I made a last minute decision to add some extra hops. Had a small sample last & although the beer was very tasty, will get a better idea of the results when beer is carbed properly.

Dry hopping after crashing was an after thought with this batch. I had planned to dry hop but forgot & cold crashed it. Then a couple of days later I remembered not dry hopping so searched HBT on this very subject & here I am. Looking forward to doing some test batches with pre & post crashing.

 

[Natdavis777]

First, it helps to understand what you seek to accomplish by dry hopping. Dry hopping infuses volatile oils into the beer to contribute to the beer's aroma. It doesn't add any appreciable flavour. So cold crashing after dry hopping shouldn't diminish the impact of the dry hopping. What can potentially diminish the effect of dry hopping is doing it too soon, while CO2 is still being produced, because those CO2 bubbles will "scrub" away the volatile aroma contribution of the dry hops.



That said, here's what I do for IPAs.

• Ferment in a primary fermenter for 10-14 days.
  
• Move fermenter into the fridge to cold crash for 2 days.
  
• Add gelatin (with the fermenter still in the fridge), wait 4-5 more days.
  
• Gently rack the (clear) beer to a 5 gallon carboy (one of the rare instances I recommend a secondary).
  
• Dump the (pellet) dry hops directly into the carboy and allow the beer to warm up to room temperature.
  
• Wait 7-10 more days.
  
• Move the fermenter into the fridge to "cold crash" again, and encourage the floating hop debris to drop out. They've already contributed their oils, this is just to reduce the amount of hop flakes/material that makes it into the finished beer. Wait 2-3 more days. NO GELATIN this time. Gelatin can diminish the hop aroma.
  
• Gently rack the beer to a keg. Often there will still be a film of hop matter on the surface of the beer, so I rack from just below the surface, and stop when nearing the bottom.
  
• Put the keg on gas (12-15 psi), in the fridge, wait 2 more weeks.
  

The finished beer will still have a little bit of "hop haze," but that's to style and doesn't affect the flavour negatively. This protocol gets me the clearest IPA possible without sacrificing any of the aroma contribution of the dry hops.

This is the method I planned on doing next for an ipa since I still wanted to use gelatin, but didn't want to strip a lot of the dry hop aroma