Dry-hopping at ambient vs cold temperatures

[MVKTR2]

I'm curious if anyone has experience or is aware of a source that has tested results for comparing the results of dry-hopping at fermentation or room temps vs under refrigeration?

What about the pros, how do they mostly do it? A lot of homebrewers would be quite surprised at the varieties of approaches from even a small sampling of 'elite' professional breweries/brewers. My inclination is that pros would generally confirm fermentation is complete, give it 24-72 hours rest, cold crash/drop the yeast, dry hop, package as this would yield the quickest route to finished product.


With alcohol being a solution and general experience with how things dissolve my inclination is that warmer temps will more readily extract hop oils and compounds. However, if there is yeast in suspension when the dry hopping takes place and the beer is cold-crashed afterwards (or perhaps just in the bottle) when the yeast drops out theoretically it takes hop compounds with it. Which is the better approach? If what I've stated is true would it be best to floc the yeast then dry hop while compensating with either or both higher dry hopping rate/longer time?

 

[MannyEdwards]

The hops contain a range of aromas, some of which are more volatile than others. The more volatile aromas will tend to disperse into the beer (and then out of it into the air, if you're not careful) before the less volatile ones, and this process is accelerated by higher temperatures. I've done cold dry hops with Mosaic to isolate only the most volatile mango, peach, and tropical aromas. The trick is to keep it cold even during bottling to minimize the loss of aroma; if you smell it in the room, it has left the beer.

I did this with a Citra-Mosaic IPA that was tropical on the nose, and distinctively grapefruity to the taste. Very interesting.

But then, some people don't like mango IPA's, and so for them it's a good idea to dry hop it warmer, allow the volatile mango to dissipate, and extract the deeper aromas like grapefruit, herbal, earth, and pine.

 

[MVKTR2]

Manny Edwards my understanding of your input is that it is accurate information. What do we do with it and is it verified through other's experiences? Are some hop oils released at lower temps and some not? Anything in the brewing technical books clarifying best practices for dry hopping related to pre vs post floc and at warm vs cool temps?

I'm very curious here as to what is best practice. Might be time to divide up a batch and treat it different ways to try and draw some conclusions. Not only that might shoot an email to a few breweries and maybe some brewing luminaries.

 

[unionrdr]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. Do, say, an IPA in spring/summer, then in winter & compare the two. Would definitely be interesting to note the minute differences in the aroma from the same recipe at different times of year at the least.

 

[GCPHomebrew]

I'm splitting a 10gal batch and trying this.

I think I'll cold crash and gelatins both. Then dry hop, leaving one in the fridge and taking one out to room temp.

 

[Flakk]

At the brewery where I work we dry hop at the end of primary, seal up the fermenter and hold off on cold crashing until a few days before packaging.

 

[logdrum]

At the brewery where I work we dry hop at the end of primary, seal up the fermenter and hold off on cold crashing until a few days before packaging.

Do you drop the yeast first?

 

[unionrdr]

That's essentially what cold crashing is for. But I do imagine, like us, they let the yeast drop out pretty good first?

 

[logdrum]

I recall reading that Russian River drops the yeast from the cone of the conical, dry hops then cold crashes to drop the hop debris and remaining yeast; I was curious if the brewery Flakk works at follow the same protocol.

 

[MannyEdwards]

Manny Edwards my understanding of your input is that it is accurate information. What do we do with it and is it verified through other's experiences? Are some hop oils released at lower temps and some not? Anything in the brewing technical books clarifying best practices for dry hopping related to pre vs post floc and at warm vs cool temps?

I'm very curious here as to what is best practice. Might be time to divide up a batch and treat it different ways to try and draw some conclusions. Not only that might shoot an email to a few breweries and maybe some brewing luminaries.

That would be interesting. I have some dry hopping coming up soon, and I'll need to do a comparison -- one in the keezer at 56 or so, and one at 68.

 

[MVKTR2]

The reality is different brewers/breweries attack problems and develop protocol differently. For instance Heady Topper is dry hopped 4 days most of the time while Pliney the Elder iirc is dry hopped 12 days. I'm sure the same approach applies to dry-hop temps and pre vs post floc additions.

I for the life of me can't imagine hopping without having the yeast floced. Yet I'm positive it's done and may even be best practice! I have an IPA that gets kegged tomorrow or Tuesday with 1 oz each of Waemea, Calypso, & Centennial, did the same 3 oz combo in whirlpool. Sadly I have no other batch to compare to.

 

[unionrdr]

I always dry hop after getting a stable FG & settled out clear or slightly misty. Having said that, though, ambient temp is the variable in my experiences. I'm beginning to think cooler ambient temps from fall through to spring might be better than from spring through summer? I wish I'd thought to make note of this as well...

 

[samandbekah]

The hops contain a range of aromas, some of which are more volatile than others. The more volatile aromas will tend to disperse into the beer (and then out of it into the air, if you're not careful) before the less volatile ones, and this process is accelerated by higher temperatures. I've done cold dry hops with Mosaic to isolate only the most volatile mango, peach, and tropical aromas. The trick is to keep it cold even during bottling to minimize the loss of aroma; if you smell it in the room, it has left the beer.

I did this with a Citra-Mosaic IPA that was tropical on the nose, and distinctively grapefruity to the taste. Very interesting.

But then, some people don't like mango IPA's, and so for them it's a good idea to dry hop it warmer, allow the volatile mango to dissipate, and extract the deeper aromas like grapefruit, herbal, earth, and pine.

MannyEdwards - At what temperature range did you dry hop cold? I have been researching for quite awhile now and I am about to dry hop my next batch. I am very intrigued about dry hopping in the cold temperatures however I am curious to know what temperature range I should try...

 

[isomerization]

MannyEdwards - At what temperature range did you dry hop cold? I have been researching for quite awhile now and I am about to dry hop my next batch. I am very intrigued about dry hopping in the cold temperatures however I am curious to know what temperature range I should try...

Last seen in 2017, so don’t hold your breath!

You should be able to get your yeast to drop out at 60F (24-48 hr), and then dry hop at that temp for 2+ days. I like 2 days at 60F, then cold crash at 40F for 2 days, so you could call that 4 days before packaging.

 

[samandbekah]

Last seen in 2017, so don’t hold your breath!

You should be able to get your yeast to drop out at 60F (24-48 hr), and then dry hop at that temp for 2+ days. I like 2 days at 60F, then cold crash at 40F for 2 days, so you could call that 4 days before packaging.

Gotchya thank you, so you're starting "warm" and then cooling down the dry hop... Interesting... are you adding your hops (pellets I am assuming) directly to the beer or are you bagging them with anything? I recently heard about trying to use pantyhose (thought process is they allow more to flow through than cheesecloth).

Most recently I dry hopped in the low 60s with great success - all pellets directly to the fermenter... then I roused them once a day for 4 days. However it took me about another 3 to 4 for cold crashing to drop them out of solution so I didn't keg until about 8 days after dry hop

 

[isomerization]

Gotchya thank you, so you're starting "warm" and then cooling down the dry hop... Interesting... are you adding your hops (pellets I am assuming) directly to the beer or are you bagging them with anything? I recently heard about trying to use pantyhose (thought process is they allow more to flow through than cheesecloth).

Most recently I dry hopped in the low 60s with great success - all pellets directly to the fermenter... then I roused them once a day for 4 days. However it took me about another 3 to 4 for cold crashing to drop them out of solution so I didn't keg until about 8 days after dry hop

I use pellets with no bags and they take forever to drop on their own. However after 40F for about 36 hr, the top of the beer is almost spotless. I use a SS Brew Bucket, don’t know if that affects things or not.

I’d say extraction is pretty much 100% after 2 days and you are only risking loss of hops oils (among other things) by continuing for longer.