Dry Hopping and Cold Crashing

[leighbooth]

I've been thinking about dry hopping and cold crashing. I usually dry hop after 21 days, for 5-7 days, then cold crash for a week, then keg, force carb, and drink.
But I've been thinking about cold crashing, then dry-hopping, but read about pros and cons of this, so I had an instictive idea that I acted on, and now may be regretting. So I cold crashed after 2 weeks, then brought the temperature back up to fermenation temp, and I have just dry hopped. I plan to leave it for 5 days then cold crash again, then keg.

Is this cold crashing and then bringing the temp back up, a big no no? if so why?

Thanks in advance

Leigh

 

[enkamania]

I dry hop at room temp for two days and then cold crash and carb

 

[LarMoeCur]

The warmer the temperature the more oil extraction you will get. I know of a few commercial craft brewers that dry hop cold. If I were to dry hop under cold conditions, I would for sure drop the temperature and wait a few days before adding the dry hops. Particulate matter clumping and falling to the bottom will most likely take hop oils/resin with it. So, I'd give the beer a few days to clear then add the hops. Under cold conditions you can let the beer stay on the hops longer without picking up a grassy flavor.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

The warmer the temperature the more oil extraction you will get. I know of a few commercial craft brewers that dry hop cold. If I were to dry hop under cold conditions, I would for sure drop the temperature and wait a few days before adding the dry hops. Particulate matter clumping and falling to the bottom will most likely take hop oils/resin with it. So, I'd give the beer a few days to clear then add the hops. Under cold conditions you can let the beer stay on the hops longer without picking up a grassy flavor.

This regime is actually something I'm thinking about. I usually dry hop, crash, rack, but am trying a slow down to cool after primary (I'm trying to emulate Black Sheep Brewery's schedule, to see it out), and would then be dry hopping (though it's not crashing, I know - and curious what this will do to clarity - always got really clear ale after crashing and racking).

Do you have any info on what kind of extraction difference there might be when cool, cold, etc.? It would be great to have a table of some sort describing temp v. oil extraction, but I know that's probably not possible with all the variables at play.

 

[RM-MN]

I've been thinking about dry hopping and cold crashing. I usually dry hop after 21 days, for 5-7 days, then cold crash for a week, then keg, force carb, and drink.
But I've been thinking about cold crashing, then dry-hopping, but read about pros and cons of this, so I had an instictive idea that I acted on, and now may be regretting. So I cold crashed after 2 weeks, then brought the temperature back up to fermenation temp, and I have just dry hopped. I plan to leave it for 5 days then cold crash again, then keg.

Is this cold crashing and then bringing the temp back up, a big no no? if so why?

Thanks in advance

Leigh

I've started dry hopping after 10 days for 4 to 7 days (depends on what else I have to do) then bottling. My beers seem to clear out pretty well within a couple weeks in the bottle at room temp. I'm not patient enough to do 21 days, plus 2 weeks of cold crash, plus 5 days of dry hopping plus cold crash again. Try it for yourself. You might wait for the beer to come to FG, cold crash for 2 days, then let it warm to room temp for a 3 day dry hop before kegging.

 

[LarMoeCur]

Do you have any info on what kind of extraction difference there might be when cool, cold, etc.? It would be great to have a table of some sort describing temp v. oil extraction, but I know that's probably not possible with all the variables at play.

I have not seen any data on extraction rates based on temperature. There are a lot of articles on the web about dry hopping. Most recommend between 60-70F.

http://brulosophy.com/2016/01/18/dry-hop-temperature-warm-vs-cool-exbeeriment-results/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/10-tips-to-optimize-dry-hop-aroma.html

 

[springinloose1]

IMHO, the only thing you'll experience is more work. The main reason we cold crash in the first place is to basically force flocculate the remaining crud in the solution. Prior to dry hopping, you're starting with clear beer because you've cold crashed once. Raising the temp after cold crashing then dry hopping means double duty because now you've got a bunch of hop material you need to flocculate before kegging. I don't think it'll negatively or positively affect the beer, it's just more work.

However (again, just my opinion), if you have any diacetyl in the liquid, I think raising the temp back up will give the yeast a second chance to clean up prior to kegging. I do this with my lagers in the fermentation chamber. If I'm in lager mode at 33 degrees and want to brew another lager, I raise the temp to 55 so the new batch can ferment, then free raise to 60-62 for a d-rest on the second batch, rack to secondary, and slowly lower the temps back to 33. That's my thinking... I'm giving the yeast another chance in the first batch to clean up the solution because I do get minor yeast activity in the air lock upon raising the temp. The beers are always good and fine.

 

[day_trippr]

Unless one takes measures to avoid it, if there's a down-side to cold-crashing twice it's from the additional O2 uptake...

Cheers!

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm assuming this is an IPA? If so, you can radically cut down your schedule. I brew IPAs using WYeast 1318 and it's usually done fermenting in about 48 hours. If I brew on Saturday, I'm dry hopping Monday, cold crashing thursday and kegging saturday or sunday.

21 days is an eternity unless you're brewing really big beers (double digit abv) or brewing lagers.

 

[johnmac22]

Why not dry hop for the 4-7 days once fermentation is finished and crash in the keg? Seems like a lot more work for the same result.

 

[leighbooth]

Cheers for the input guys, yeah this is a really hoppy southern-hemi rye IPA (3.5oz Galaxy and 2.5oz Southern cross, in the dry hop for a 5Gallon batch)
All experimental - but my reason for cold crashing 1st was so that the hop resins don't attach to the yeast and proteins in suspension, and drop out with them, but I didn't want to add my hops to cold beer. (as it's my understanding that hop flavor extraction is better in warmer beer than cold)
'tho that's an interesting point about allowing the hops to sit longer without getting grassy flavors.

My main concern was that (after I did this) I read somewhere that you shouldn't mess with the temperature too much - but didn't understand why. Maybe as day_trippr says more O2 (why would temp change introduce more O2?) And interesting point springinloose1 on the diacetyl

Cheers! Hopefully it will be damn tasty anyway!

 

[couchsending]

A soft crash to 60 for a few days is often all the yeast will need to flocc. Then you can add the DH addition and let it warm back up slightly. DH Temp is all over the board, from Hop researchers and pro brewers. Most recommendations I’ve seen are between 60 and 65. My schedule lately has been to drop to 60ish for a few days, if you use a highly flocculent English strain this should be enough, then when I add the DH I’ll actually add a small amount of sugar to stimulate a little additional yeast activity and hopefully some O2 scrubbing. Leave for 4 days then crash for two and transfer to Keg. I always have positive head pressure when DH and crashing.

 

[BrianDorry55]

Just dry hopped with whole hops in the keg for the first time and very happy with the results.

 

[hoplex]

I worked with a commercial brewery recently that has started dry hopping immediately after fermentation (after racking to the CT) while the beer is still warm. Dry hop for a week, remove the hops then crash. That's better than rising the temp again, which is very difficult in micro craft breweries.

The difficulty for commercial brewers is removing the hops and stirring them back into suspension. Easy to do on homebrew scale. Commercial brewers use a hop rocket/ hop torpedo to do this.