Dry hop technique for an IPL.

[Justdrumin]

So I'm planning an IPL recipe for a future brew and I'm trying to figure out how to keep the punch of hop aromas from the IPA during the lagering process. Does anyone see anything wrong with raising temps to the low to mid sixties at the end of lagering to dry hop? I was thinking that would allow me to have the clean, crisp, and clear characteristics of a lager, but maintain the hop aromas of an IPA. Any thoughts?

Edit: I forgot to mention that I wanted to raise temps to have better extraction from the dry hops. Otherwise I would dry hop at the end of lagering while still at lager temps.

 

[Yooper]

That's probably what I would do- dryhop for 5-7 days before packaging, at 65 degrees.

 

[Justdrumin]

That's probably what I would do- dryhop for 5-7 days before packaging, at 65 degrees.

Thanks Yooper! I just thought it was logical. There's no sense in dry hopping before lagering or dry hopping at lager temps. I didn't think I would get the hop aromas this way. I wasn't sure if there would be any ill effects from raising temps to do so. It being a new style kinda makes things difficult. I'll have to try it and find out. I greatly respect your opinions though, as do many others. If I were a member of the AHA I would vote for ya

 

[Transamguy77]

Are you gonna keg or bottle? If you are kegging you just dry hop in the keg if not do what Yooper said.

 

[Justdrumin]

Are you gonna keg or bottle? If you are kegging you just dry hop in the keg if not do what Yooper said.

Hopefully I'll be able to keg this batch...I started a keezer build but, life happened, cars needed registered and tires...so it's taken a back seat for a while. I'm hoping to have it done in the next few months. I do plan on doin a few other brews ahead of this one though. Which should be done by the time everything's all done with lagering etc. I have a sneaky suspicion the keezer is gonna be an "extended" build.

 

[Justdrumin]

Are you gonna keg or bottle? If you are kegging you just dry hop in the keg if not do what Yooper said.

Hopefully I'll be able to keg this batch...I started a keezer build but, life happened, cars needed registered and tires...so it's taken a back seat for a while. I'm hoping to have it done in the next few months. I do plan on doin a few other brews ahead of this one though. Which should be done by the time everything's all done with lagering etc. I have a sneaky suspicion the keezer is gonna be an "extended" build.

 

[ErieShores]

I'm wondering the same thing. Is it possible to lager and then bring it back to room temperature and dry hop?

 

[Justdrumin]

I'm wondering the same thing. Is it possible to lager and then bring it back to room temperature and dry hop?

That's exactly what I plan to do. I'm going to lager for three weeks or so, raise the temp to around 60-62 ish, and dry hop for a week. Hopefully ill brew this one up next.

 

[Calichusetts]

I'd consider dry hopping during the D-rest, then lagering, then dry hopping again before bottling. Maybe even add a hop tea at bottling. This may seem over the top but a IPL should be hoppy and this can be difficult with a lager

 

[Justdrumin]

I'd consider dry hopping during the D-rest, then lagering, then dry hopping again before bottling. Maybe even add a hop tea at bottling. This may seem over the top but a IPL should be hoppy and this can be difficult with a lager

That's exactly why I wanted to dry hop at the end of lagering. I've heard of dry hopping during the d rest, but I'm concerned that it will be a bit of a waste and I'll lose majority of it while lagering. I usually lager most of my lagers for a minimum of 4 weeks. I read in BYO that most of the commercial versions are lager end for around 3 weeks. I was thinking at the end of lagering and I may consider some more dry hop in the keg. You should also note that an IPL may not require the same amount of dry hop because of its crisp clean lager characters.

 

[Quetzolcotl]

I wanted to add my own experience for future readers.

I split my dry hop and did 1/2 during the D rest and then did the other 1/2 after laggering. Looking back now I'd rather do the whole dry hop after laggering and do this in the keg in a hop sack. It will take longer for the flavors to come through since it is so cold but this is much more preferable to a 3-4 week old dry hop done before laggering. You can purge the keg a few times to get rid of excess O2 and I'd skip warming the beer back up for the dry hop.