Dry Hop & Cold Crash

[J2W2]

Hi,

I have an IPA that has been dry hopped in the secondary for a week now. I'm planning to cold crash it with gelatin findings.

Should I remove the hops before I crash it? The hops are bagged (floating on top),and I'm using a Big Mouth Bubbler, so they would be easy to get out.

Thanks for your help!

 

[kombat]

If the hops are in a hop sock that can be easily removed, then yes, go ahead and remove them.

That said, I would not recommend adding gelatin to fine this beer. Go ahead and cold-crash, but skip the gelatin. Gelatin can strip away some of the volatile hop oils that you just spent a week infusing into your beer. If you'd wanted to use gelatin, a better time to do so would have been before dry hopping. My old process for IPAs is as follows:

• Ferment in primary for 3 weeks.
• Move into fridge to cold crash for 1 day.
• Add gelatin, wait 3-4 more days.
• Rack to 5 gallon carboy, add dry hops, leave out of fridge to allow it to warm up.
• Wait 7 more days
• Move into fridge to cold crash for 2-3 days, but NO GELATIN this time
• Rack to keg and begin carbonating.

That said, lately I've been combining the cold-crash/gelatin/rack to keg steps for my beers, to minimize contact with oxygen. I'll ferment for 3 weeks, then just rack it straight to a keg and put it in the fridge under 10-12 psi. If it's an IPA, I'll dry hop in the primary during that third week. I find that most beers clear up on their own once they're in the fridge. Beers that remain cloudy after a few weeks, I'll hit 'em with some gelatin, right in the keg (except for IPAs, a little haze is to style for them).

 

[bobeer]

I guess you could take them out. It might make racking the beer out of the fermentor easier so the bag doesn't get in the way. They've been in there for 7 days already so if you plan on cold crashing for more than a day or two then I'd take them out. Either way it doesn't really matter. I got tired of buying muslin bags for hops so I just toss em in both the boil and for dry hopping. If you cold crash it all falls out anyway.

Good luck!

 

[Paradigm]

Hi! I did a lot of research on dry hopping and gelatin for clear, hoppy IPAs. The best solution I found (and used) was two stages of cold crashing:

1. Cold crash with gelatin before you dry hop!
2. Warm the beer back up and dry hop for your allotted time.
3. Cold crash again without gelatin

The gelatin will get the haze out of the beer, but gelatin will also take a lot of flavor out of the dry-hop, kind of defeating the purpose. A normal cold crash is enough to get the big, fat hop particulate out of the beer while still retaining a lot of flavor.

I've done this and the result is an impressive combination of clarity and hoppiness. Obviously not as hoppy as not cold crashing a second time.

 

[joshesmusica]

this isn't a very wide experiment, but this shows that if you're blind to the fact that gelatin was used, it's unlikely you'll taste a difference, as not even half of the tasters could tell a difference:
http://brulosophy.com/2015/01/05/the-gelatin-effect-exbeeriment-results/
and then out of the ones who guessed correctly, those people basically concluded no real detectable difference between the two as far as hop aroma and flavor went.

 

[J2W2]

Thanks for the advice on the gelatin, and removing the hops.

I've used gelatin on my last few beers, and cold crashed as well. My cold crash up to now has involved putting as many ice jugs as I could in my fermentation chamber. The best I managed that way was 45 degrees. I just repurposed my kegerator, so I should be able to get this one very close to 32.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[J2W2]

this isn't a very wide experiment, but this shows that if you're blind to the fact that gelatin was used, it's unlikely you'll taste a difference, as not even half of the tasters could tell a difference:

I missed this post while I was replying to the other. This is my second time brewing this particular IPA as its my favorite right now. I can't remember if I used gelatin on the first batch or not (I'm trying to keep better notes for just this reason).

I kind of think I did use gelatin on the first one as I had just started kegging and I was disappointed with the clarity on my first couple beers.

I may go ahead and add it. This IPA has a very strong hop presence. If I used it before and don't this time, it may be too much. If I didn't use it before and I do this time, I'll be able to tell if it effects the flavor. Either way I'll know which way I prefer going forward.

Thanks for your input.

 

[joshesmusica]

no problem. i personally don't use gelatin. i try to cold crash for 2-3 days. it can even go longer. i still have a few in bottles right now that i cold crashed for 5 days. they carbed up just fine in the normal 3 week period. but i don't personally care for commercial style clarity. as long as it's not super cloudy, nobody who's drinking my beer will notice a difference.
i suppose, though, if i ever did decide to enter a competition, then i would definitely think about gelatin. although, i'm pretty sure they use opaque cups, so maybe it doesn't even matter at that point.

 

[jwalker1140]

I always remove the hop bag before I cold crash. After 2-3 days at 40F, I add gelatin to the empty keg and rack the cold beer on top.

Personally, I've never noticed the gelatin stripping out hop flavor or aroma, which apparently supports the Brulosophy experiment linked above. That said, if I did notice some sort of loss, I would be more inclined to simply adjust the recipe (i.e., add more hops) than to do multiple rounds of cold crashing. But that's just me. YMMV.

 

[joshesmusica]

I always remove the hop bag before I cold crash. After 2-3 days at 40F, I add gelatin to the empty keg and rack the cold beer on top.

Personally, I've never noticed the gelatin stripping out hop flavor or aroma, which apparently supports the Brulosophy experiment linked above. That said, if I did notice some sort of loss, I would be more inclined to simply adjust the recipe (i.e., add more hops) than to do multiple rounds of cold crashing. But that's just me. YMMV.

yeah that's a good point as well. but i would prefer the easiest process possible with still making quality beer. i don't mind tossing in a few more grams of hops to make up for what the gelatin might strip out.

 

[J2W2]

I was going to remove the hops bag last night, but as soon as I bumped it, it sank. So I guess I'm cold crashing with the hops!

 

[jwalker1140]

Next time consider tying a bit of fishing line to the draw strings of the hop bag and run it out the top of the carboy.

 

[J2W2]

Next time consider tying a bit of fishing line to the draw strings of the hop bag and run it out the top of the carboy.

That's a good idea - thanks!