Dry hopping in a conical

[kchomebrew]

Wanted to gather some thoughts from everyone on this. I found a presentation by Kelsey McNair about his Hop Fu recipe and techniques. I was reading through the dry hop process and noted: 
Day 1: Cool wort to ideal pitching temp of 67F, Aerate wort with pure O2 through diffusion stone, Pitch yeast starter or freshly harvested slurry, and Attach blow off tubing
Day 2-7: Maintain 67F fermentation temperature via external temp controller
Day 8: Remove blow off, seal fermenter (keg or conical only!!) Day 10: Reduce to 60F for diacetyl rest
Day 11: Dump trub, harvest yeast slurry, add dry hops, return to 67F
Day 14-16: Begin crash cycle, cooling 10F every 12 hours until 37F Day 17: Rack...

Anyone have any thoughts on the Day 8 comment ? Removing the blow off and "seal fermenter" ? Is it possible he's completely sealing off the conical fermenter (no airlock) for the remainder of the fermenting/dry hop/crash cycle ? Sort of makes sense to me as I think about it - and especially with the drop to 60F, I would assume that would drop out a lot of yeast/cease most of the active fermentation before increasing back to 67F for 4 days for the drop hop. I'm interested to try this, and my conical has a pressure relief valve in the event the pressure exceeds 3 psi. Really makes great sense to me.

Anyway, does anyone here follow this process / had success with this ? Thanks.

 

[jddevinn]

Decreasing the temperature will cause the pressure in the fermenter to DECREASE. I know the pressure reliefs in my conical only work for internal pressure (not vacuum). I cold crash under positive pressure from a CO2 tank at 1-2 psig.

 

[kchomebrew]

Not sure I understand what the heck a 60F diacetyl rest refers to on an ale.....

 

[jddevinn]

Diacetyl rest for ales has been done... one example http://byo.com/hops/item/534-dealing-with-diacetyl-tips-from-the-pros

 

[bierhaus15]

I can see where he is going with this, but as it is written, this is not good brewing practice.

Basically, pitch yeast below ferment temp (62-64F) and free rise to 67F or whatever your target is. When the beer is done fermenting and a D-rest is complete (no need to increase temp beyond max ferment temp - should be good by day 10 - reduce the temp to 60F. This will drop yeast and protein. Best to have at least a few PSI of C02 top pressure for each step here on out. Dump trub/yeast or harvest for future use. Add dry hops. Turn cooling off, let free rise to whatever dry hop temp you want. 60-65F is fine, no real need to go higher than that. After 1/2 way through dry hopping, start to reduce temp slowly until hit 32-34F. Dump hops and transfer beer. Dry hop should not take longer than 7 days, little benefit to go longer.

I've dryhopped in everything from 2bbl conicals to 2000bbl CCV (no joke) and the premise is virtually the same for all, with the exception of the largest CCV's which follow strict fermentation and cooling controls.

 

[kchomebrew]

Diacetyl rest for ales has been done... one example http://byo.com/hops/item/534-dealing-with-diacetyl-tips-from-the-pros

I think you misunderstood me. A diacetyl rest at 60f after fermenting at 67f makes no sense.

 

[kchomebrew]

I usually d rest 2 to 3f higher than the initial ferment. So initially ferment at 67f for 10 days and then add dry hops and increase to 70f for 3 days and return to 67f for duration of dry hop before cold crash.