Dry hopping for max effect

[user 157712]

So, I'll be brewing McDole's Brown Ale this weekend and I was wondering about dry hopping. If I would keep in primary for 4 weeks, my gut tells me to dry hop at week 3 for one week before bottling. I'm guessing they'll drop to the bottom and have finished thier work by bottling time. From there I'd bottle condition for another 4 weeks minimum. I'm just looking to maximize the effect of dry hopping for as long as possible. Maybe somebody with some good experience on this could give me their two cents. Thanks!!

 

[Hammy71]

Yes, you can ferment for four weeks and add the dry hops at the third week. Often though, the hops haven't dropped out after a week. If you have the ability to crash cool your fermenter by placing it in a refrigerator for a day or two, the hops will drop out with no problems. The average time most of us dry hop is a week. So, you could leave in the fermenter for the four weeks, and then just dry hop for another week. The beer will be fine. After crash cooling you will still be able to bottle and there will be plenty of yeasties left to do their job. :rockin:

 

[user 157712]

Hammy,
You bring up another question I have...Is there any advantage to cold crashing your beer anywhere in the process from grain to glass? Or, do you strictly cold crash after the bottle conditioning phase, prior to drinking? I assume the best way to let beer clear and get good flavor is to just let the yeast do thier thing right? be patient...

 

[tre9er]

Hammy,
You bring up another question I have...Is there any advantage to cold crashing your beer anywhere in the process from grain to glass? Or, do you strictly cold crash after the bottle conditioning phase, prior to drinking? I assume the best way to let beer clear and get good flavor is to just let the yeast do thier thing right? be patient...

It's not just dropping out suspended yeast, it's dropping out particulate matter from grain and hops. I like to dry hop in a bag in the keg. If you do this in your fermenter, you can leave it in during cold crash and even rack and never have to worry about grabbing hops. Just make sure the whole bag is wetted and tie it loosely so there is a lot of room for the hops to float. You might even squeeze it before racking to get all that juicy hop aroma out.

 

[user 157712]

Crash cooling really speeds the clearing process if you do it at end of primary...before bottling? For reference my more complex beers are clear at 4&4 weeks. I've done about two dozen 3 gallon Ag batches and never thought about doing this. Maybe I need to start.

 

[Hammy71]

You crash cool before you bottle or keg. Like you, most of my beers are clear after 3-4 weeks, so I don't bother cold crashing the fermenter. But, after dry hoping, the beer is usually cloudy with hop particles. Like tre9er stated, it also gets a lot of other 'stuff' out of suspension. One thing to remember if you do decide to put the fermenter in the fridge. Remove the air lock. The pressure difference that is caused by the chilling will suck your air lock liquid into the fermenter. You can alleviate this by simply using a sanitized piece of aluminum foil. Your beer will be just fine without the air lock. I've heard that the S-shaped air locks are a what you/I need to stop this, but I don't have any nor seen the need to get some. The beer has alcohol in it and can stand up to a lot of nasties by then.

 

[user 157712]

Thanks for the tip...I would have left it on in the fridge I will try cold crashing with this batch and see how it goes!

 

[tre9er]

The s-type airlocks were the kind that sucked liquid into them for me. The 3-piece airlock can't suck liquid back in because the liquid line is below the tubing. It will suck the bell onto the tubing, but that's it. I've not lost any fluid from my 3-piece airlocks, but my s-types routinely were nearly dry. I despise them.

 

[rkbarnes82]

I've had liquid sucked in with 3 piece airlocks

 

[jbaysurfer]

The s-type airlocks were the kind that sucked liquid into them for me. The 3-piece airlock can't suck liquid back in because the liquid line is below the tubing. It will suck the bell onto the tubing, but that's it. I've not lost any fluid from my 3-piece airlocks, but my s-types routinely were nearly dry. I despise them.

I'm a simpleton. I like watching the gas work it's way through the S-Lock, and I like only having one piece to keep track of.

But everything you say is 100% right.

 

[thood6]

I've lost liquid in a three piecer before too. I stopped cold crashing because I was worried about oxygenation from suck back

 

[rajun50]

I stopped cold crashing because I was worried about oxygenation from suck back

This is why I keg before cold crashing. Keeps everything under CO2 and no chance of getting airlock liquid in the beer. When I'm done crashing I just jump to a new keg and it's good to go.

As for dry hopping, I use a hop bag in the keg and take it out after 4 or 5 days. I've left dry hops in longer, but I didn't see any improvement by doing so. My experience in dry hopping is very limited, though.

 

[user 157712]

Another question...If I don't keg and can't purge oxygen, do I need to dry hop in a secondary and then cold crash. I brew 3 gallon batches now, so do I need 3 gallon carboys for secondary?

 

[adamdillabo]

On my next dry hop I will use a bag to put them in or a a mesh over my auto siphon. I recommend you do the same. Had to leave almost a gallon behind and hops in my beer. My first dry hop I didn't have any problem of the dropping and be compressed with yeast.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Another question...If I don't keg and can't purge oxygen, do I need to dry hop in a secondary and then cold crash. I brew 3 gallon batches now, so do I need 3 gallon carboys for secondary?

No, you can dry hop right in the primary.

 

[user 157712]

Sorry, should have been more specific...I'm worried about oxygen replacing CO2. My primary has a gallon of head space which I'm not worried about for fermenting. But if I put in the fridge, is that head space going to get replaced with oxygen...will it suck in oxygen? So I was wondering if I need 3 gallon carboys for my 3 gallon batches when cold crashing in the fridge.

 

[jbaysurfer]

^ I gotcha. Yes, as the liquid contracts, the ambient gasses will be sucked into the fermenter. You clearly know that your airlock sanitizer/liquid is going to get sucked in, so replace that with a piece of sanitized foil over the bung. Your beer has created c02 in that headspace (as you know), so any 02 sucked in will settle above that c02 blanket. I recommend you cold crash near where you rack so when you move your beer, you won't slosh too much and mix that co2 and o2 layer up.

Another options which I do frequently, is to put a #0 stopper in the bung and cold crash it. The Better bottle will warp as the liquid/gas contracts, but then you can move it for racking without fear of mixing the co2/02. You can even burst some co2 right at the bung as you remove it so the ensuing "suck" from the fermenter will be sucking in c02 rather then 02.

Hope this helps. The big thing is to try and not disturb that layer of c02 over your beer. Cold crashing is a 24-48 hour thing, so if you don't disturb that layer and use the foil method you won't be oxygenating your beer. I mostly use the stopper method and deal with the temporary misshaping of the better bottle (it generally bounces right back) but if you do this too many times, you will notice the shape tends to persist a bit. I don't really care about that personally, but some will.

 

[jbaysurfer]

You know what though OC, if you already have the 3g fermenters, I would just flush that with c02 and rack into it and actually secondary. That large headspace is going to create a lot of warping using the #0 stopper method. I still don't think it'll hurt your BB, but I know some people will not like seeing how triangular a carboy with that much headspace can become. ;-)

Ultimately those are your 3 choices. Stopper over primary, Foil over primary (or some version of these things), and racking to a 3g bb for a secondary...but honestly that'll introduce some 02 as well.

 

[user 157712]

Thanks jbay, that does help alot. My primary is actually a 4 gallon pale. It would probably be best to rack to a 3 gallon carboy to get headspace down to basically zero, than to let it with a gallon of air on top in the pale. Either way I'm probably worrying too much, but I like to be safe. As a noob I brewed an oktoberfest that I lagered in my father-in-laws fridge. Well that carboy got transferred back and forth all over the place. That beer ended up tasting like cardboard...bad. I learned my lesson from that experience

 

[tre9er]

Had a honey pale that I wasn't too fond of (just was lacking). So into the keg went a previously used bag of dry-hops that I Just pulled from another keg. Agitated slightly, pulled a pint half hour later, instantly a better beer. Got a little cloudy, but ask me if I care.

 

[Quaffman]

I crash cool every one of my beers and using a 3 piece airlock, have never had suckback of the liquid into the fermenter. All I do is make sure the liquid level in the airlock is only about half an inch high. That is all of the liquid you need in an airlock anyway. It's just there to ensure no nasties can get inside and it's worked great for me. No need to fill the airlock all the way to the liquid fill line marked on it.

 

[jbaysurfer]

^ I don't know how you're not getting O2 in there even if the liquid doesn't suck back into your fermenter.
Physics are at work here, and that means warmer beer is more voluminous then colder beer, so any crash cool involves a fermenter contracting and either sucking in air, sanitizer, or the walls of the fermenter. Something has to give. TBH, I may be missing something, but that's the logic I apply.

OC, you probably <i>are</i> worrying a bit excessively, but you're also talking about dryhopping, and if O2 has caused you problems before, it'll only be amplified for a dryhopped/hoppy beer. Better to worry a bit too much then not enough in this case.