Dry Hopping Infection

[joety]

Well, I've ruined two beers this way so if I'm going to be making IPA's in the future (and I'm getting kind of burned out on IPA's anyway), they'll be final hopped at flameout.

6 hours is way too much time to put into a washout

 

[Synovia]

It's possible, but there was clearly a visible change in behavior. I know that's not the most exacting way to determing whether fermenting has stopped (I've had a big porter drop from 1025 to 1021 in the secondary long after any visible signs of fermentation) but I now have a beer that tasted fantastic and no longer does.

You switched containers. Its most likely an equipment problem (infection in siphon, the target carboy, etc)

 

[babalu87]

1: Airlock activity is NOT ALWAYS an indication of fermentation activity
2: Re-starting fermentation COULD have been cause because the beer wasnt quite done and the racking onto hops created nucleation points for the yeast (think of the hops as the Beechwood in this passage)

Many old-world brewers used beechwood chips instead of other types of wood because beechwood is low in phenolics and resins that otherwise would impart woody flavor to the beer. These chips are boiled in water and baking soda-and not soda ash-before use. Having a latticework of beechwood chips on the bottom of our lager tanks allows our lager yeast to settle over the wood instead of creating layers at the bottom of the vessel. This in turn allows a greater amount of yeast contact with aging beer, which ensures complete fermentation, natural carbonation and flavor maturation.

 

[joety]

1: Airlock activity is NOT ALWAYS an indication of fermentation activity

No, but a drop of 4 points in gravity certainly is.

2: Re-starting fermentation COULD have been cause because the beer wasnt quite done and the racking onto hops created nucleation points for the yeast (think of the hops as the Beechwood in this passage)

Based on the OG and my typical techniques, no way I would have expected 1006 as my FG.

I hear you on the nucleation points. That could be it. I didn't change anything in how I sanitized my hoses, containers and racked, but I have since replaced all the flexible tubing.

It's just odd that the only time it happened was the last two beers I dry hopped and nothing else. I have dry hopped before with great results, but not with hops from this store which were clearly repackaged after he got them from the distributor. We now have a Northern Brewer in town so I doubt I'll ever buy hops from this store again.