dry hopping confusion

[jedheuer]

Hey all,

So i am having some confusion with regard to dry hopping. I have been researching the matter and came to the conclusion that dry hopping toward the end of primary fermentation seems like a good idea to drive off oxygen in the pellet hops and from opening the fermentor to add the hops. So I went ahead and dry hopped my double IPA at the end of day six. I racked to a second carboy and added the hops.

So I only want to dry hop a max of 7 days so my question is, should I just bottle after the dry hopping in the secondary? It will be only 2 weeks total fermentation time by then. Should i have dry hopped in the primary and then racked off to secondary after 7 days? If i would have gone that route then it seems that i would loose the advantage of the co2 driving off the oxygen introduced at dry hopping. If i do bottle after just 2 weeks I still plan on letting the beer mature 4 more additional weeks. Any thoughts on the matter? Thanks!

 

[jester5120]

I usually try to dry hop the last few days of the secondary fermenter or I rack into a teritiary fermenter for a few days. I don't like doing that tho cuz each time you screw with the beer you risk contaminations.

 

[cricky101]

I've made a hand-full of dry-hopped pale ales and IPAs and I ferment for 2 to 2.5 weeks, check to see if my hydrometer readings are consistent, and then dry-hop in primary for a week to 10 days before bottling/kegging.

Haven't had any problems yet.

 

[BrewerinBR]

I dry hop in primary at day 21. Six to seven days later I bottle it.

 

[gunner65]

I dry hop in primary at day 21. Six to seven days later I bottle it.

Ditto

 

[CTownBrewer]

If you're dry hopping before primary fermentation has completed, you'll succeed in driving off the oxygen from the pellets. BUT, any gas still leaving your fermenter as a result of fermentation will be taking away some of that hop aroma as well. That's why a lot of people dry hop in a keg...because it's a completely sealed vessel so none of that aroma will escape.

IMO the amount of oxygen introduced from dropping pellets in won't give you any issues with off flavors because it's so minimal. I think it's worth it to wait until your fermentation is complete before dry hopping.

 

[sboarder3303]

3 days in primary or until fermentation has slowed. Then 7 days in secondary with dry hop, then transfer to another 5 gallon carboy leaving the the hops behind for another 3-7 days, then last couple of days I cold crash for 2 days. I do it this way because if you transfer straight to your keg from secondary with dry hops, you can transfer some hops into keg, then it will clog your pickup tube from your keg, and then it is another pain in the butt to unscrew the tube, clearing it acouple times. Just my 2 cents

 

[Brewskii]

I have an ipa that I pitched with 2 dry packs of US05 after 10 days It was down to 1.012 from 1.060 so I moved it to secondary on 1 oz Nugget whole hops in a muslin bag soaked in starsan and wrung out.
5 days later it started fermenting again and it's now day 11 on dry hops and it's still going.
What is going to happen to this if I have to wait another 3/4 days to bottle it?
Should I pull the hops or rack it again?

 

[dcp27]

I have an ipa that I pitched with 2 dry packs of US05 after 10 days It was down to 1.012 from 1.060 so I moved it to secondary on 1 oz Nugget whole hops in a muslin bag soaked in starsan and wrung out.
5 days later it started fermenting again and it's now day 11 on dry hops and it's still going.
What is going to happen to this if I have to wait another 3/4 days to bottle it?
Should I pull the hops or rack it again?

did you witness a new krausen or just going by the airlock? chances are its just all the nucleation sites from the hops and not actual fermentation. if the gravity hasn't changed, feel free to bottle at any point. waiting 3-4 more days won't cause any issues either way

 

[LKABrewer]

Did you raise the temperature when you dry hopped?

 

[Brewskii]

Actually when I dry hopped I move the ferm to the garage and we had a cold snap. It re-'started despite being 59-60 deg F. When I took my thief sample I did see a thin krausen on it Which I was shocked about. I will resample and probably bottle this weekend but I was worried what the extended dry hop would do cause this is the first I've done and seems most like to not go over 5-7 days on dry hops.

 

[daksin]

You don't want to dry hop with any fermentation happening at all- you'll just be losing aroma. Let your beer totally attenuate out, then give it some "cleanup" time before dry hoping, 3-7 days. Then dry hop for the week prior to bottling. Hops are going to fade quickly, so you want to bottle as soon as it's done dry hopping and not age super-hoppy beers too long.

 

[Brewskii]

You don't want to dry hop with any fermentation happening at all- you'll just be losing aroma. Let your beer totally attenuate out, then give it some "cleanup" time before dry hoping, 3-7 days. Then dry hop for the week prior to bottling. Hops are going to fade quickly, so you want to bottle as soon as it's done dry hopping and not age super-hoppy beers too long.

Good chit.
I thought it was done at the time...( I used a higher than usual conversion temp to get more body so I was not too surprised to see it crap out with a little higher FG).
Thanks for the info. Looking forward to doing a better job on my next dryhop attempt ( Simcoe American ale).

 

[Carter5112]

Worried about oxygen from the pellet hops causing a problem with dry hopping??? Never heard this. Sounds like bunk to me!