Dry hopping timing question – what would you do?

[mtnagel]

I am hoping to brew a pale ale tomorrow (11/28). I am going on vacation 12/20-12/29. I need to dry hop for 1 week before bottling.

Here are the 4 options as I see them:
1) Assuming its ready, I can move to secondary after two weeks (on 12/12) and dry hop for 1 week and bottle on 12/19 before I leave.
2) Transfer to secondary before I go and wait to dry hop until coming back so it would be in primary/secondary for over 5 weeks total.
3) Leave in primary until I come back and then transfer to secondary and then dry hop for a week.
4) If it's not ready to move to secondary after 2 weeks, can I dry hop in primary after 2 weeks? And bottle before I go.

Any other options?

 

[Euripidez]

Option 3.

Leaving in primary for longer won't hurt anything, while the other options might rush your beer and make less than optimal results.
You might hold off on brewing for a week or so, and let it sit for 20-25 days before you are back from vacation, then dry hop.

Relax and enjoy your vaca!

 

[stpug]

I would go with option 1 or 4 if it were me, but I would aim for bottling before the trip so you can try a sample bottle when you get back . I would choose 4 because I'm lazy

If the ABV isn't too high then I would think 1 or 4 would be fine, if it's a high ABV then just transfer to secondary before you leave and dry hop when you get back.

 

[Golddiggie]

5) Leave it in primary and dry hop it in there.

IME, you don't gain much of anything by dry hopping in another vessel. Unless you want to harvest/wash the yeast at least. You can also either try to cram it in before you leave, or relax and do it when you get back.

 

[steber]

going to say 1 or 3. My IPA hit final gravity in 10 days, I racked to secondary and dry hopped for 6 days. Its currently cold crashing and I'll be bottling tomorrow.

If you dont hit your final gravity, just let it sit in primary until you get back, then rack and dryhop then.

 

[mtnagel]

Option 3.

Leaving in primary for longer won't hurt anything, while the other options might rush your beer and make less than optimal results.
You might hold off on brewing for a week or so, and let it sit for 20-25 days before you are back from vacation, then dry hop.

Relax and enjoy your vaca!

That's what it seemed to me is that I was rushing. I guess another option is to pick a beer that doesn't require dry hopping and will be ready to bottle in 3 weeks.

I would go with option 1 or 4 if it were me, but I would aim for bottling before the trip so you can try a sample bottle when you get back . I would choose 4 because I'm lazy

If the ABV isn't too high then I would think 1 or 4 would be fine, if it's a high ABV then just transfer to secondary before you leave and dry hop when you get back.

OG is 1.058.

5) Leave it in primary and dry hop it in there.

IME, you don't gain much of anything by dry hopping in another vessel. Unless you want to harvest/wash the yeast at least. You can also either try to cram it in before you leave, or relax and do it when you get back.

I've heard that you really don't need to secondary unless you were doing later additions True or not true?

When I first started, I dry hopped in the primary because I didn't have a secondary container. Now I do, so I figured I was doing it the "right" way by using a secondary.

going to say 1 or 3. My IPA hit final gravity in 10 days, I racked to secondary and dry hopped for 6 days. Its currently cold crashing and I'll be bottling tomorrow.

If you dont hit your final gravity, just let it sit in primary until you get back, then rack and dryhop then.

That's pretty much what option 1 would become assuming it's not ready to transfer in two weeks.

 

[headbanger]

Option 3 is the best choice you have listed but, as others have said, there's nothing wrong with dry hopping in primary either. A longer primary (around 30 days) will help finish the beer, just because there are no bubbles in the airlock doesn't mean that yeast are not active. There's nothing wrong with secondary, rather in most situations it's simply not needed. You can still use secondary to dry hop if you want to, it wont hurt anything and will probably help clear things up. But if you elect to do so, do it after you get back.

 

[mooshimanx]

I legitimately don't understand the love for Option 3. I've never brewed a beer that wasn't fermented out in 2 weeks and despite what you hear on the internet, I've never found any real benefit to leaving a beer in primary for three weeks, particularly not if you're going to rack to secondary and dry hop; if you really want to leave it on the yeast cake as long as possible, why not just dry hop it in the primary after it hits terminal gravity (or whenever you think its fermented out long enough).

The fact that autolysis isn't a thing anymore doesn't mean there's actually some benefit to leaving it on the yeast cake for a month. I just find it weird that the convenience factor of skipping secondaries/worrying about autolysis has now turned into actively recommending multiple week/month long primaries before even dry hopping.

 

[mtnagel]

Thanks guys. Great info as always. So I will dry hop after I come back.

Just so I can continually learn, can someone explain why option 3 is preferred over option 2? For simplicities sake, let's say I'm doing 5 weeks in primary/secondary and then dry hopping for 1 week in secondary. Why is doing 5 weeks in primary, then transferring and dry hopping in secondary for 1 week better than doing primary for 3 weeks and then transferring to secondary for 2 weeks and then dry hopping for 1 week?

 

[Xpertskir]

I legitimately don't understand the love for Option 3. I've never brewed a beer that wasn't fermented out in 2 weeks and despite what you hear on the internet, I've never found any real benefit to leaving a beer in primary for three weeks, particularly not if you're going to rack to secondary and dry hop; if you really want to leave it on the yeast cake as long as possible, why not just dry hop it in the primary after it hits terminal gravity (or whenever you think its fermented out long enough).

The fact that autolysis isn't a thing anymore doesn't mean there's actually some benefit to leaving it on the yeast cake for a month. I just find it weird that the convenience factor of skipping secondaries/worrying about autolysis has now turned into actively recommending multiple week/month long primaries before even dry hopping.

How do I dislike this post?

A few things.
I typically ferment on the cooler side of temp ranges and thus have an extended active fermentation period.
In line with this, I also let the carboy warm up for a week or so after ferm to let the yeast eat the diacetyl, and any other off flavor(s) I dont want.
Finally and IMO most importantly the longer it sits on the yeast cake the better the clarity. In fact I would say that less time is required for clearing beer with only the primary than if you were to have used two vessels.

My typicaly IPA ferm(1.060-1.075)

4-6 weeks total time in the primary with the last 10-14 days used for dry hopping and a few days of cold crashing.

Beer clarity, neutral yeast character, and lack of off flavors are all quite good.

I vote option 3, except just dry hop in primary. Nothing to be gained by rushing a beer, and typically quite the opposite.

Use that secondary to make apfelwein

 

[evilpresence]

I legitimately don't understand the love for Option 3. I've never brewed a beer that wasn't fermented out in 2 weeks

I brewed the Presidents Honey Ale (Northern Brewer kit) on November 3rd. It still had a solid inch of krausen on it November 21st before I went on vacation. I checked it this morning and there is no more krausen but I'll still let it sit another few days before I get the gravity reading on it.

 

[Brewphish]

Meh, if it was me I'd dry hop (in primary or secondary, whatever you prefer) while on vacation, then bottle when I got back.

 

[mooshimanx]

How do I dislike this post?

A few things.
I typically ferment on the cooler side of temp ranges and thus have an extended active fermentation period.
In line with this, I also let the carboy warm up for a week or so after ferm to let the yeast eat the diacetyl, and any other off flavor(s) I dont want.
Finally and IMO most importantly the longer it sits on the yeast cake the better the clarity. In fact I would say that less time is required for clearing beer with only the primary than if you were to have used two vessels.

My typicaly IPA ferm(1.060-1.075)

4-6 weeks total time in the primary with the last 10-14 days used for dry hopping and a few days of cold crashing.

Beer clarity, neutral yeast character, and lack of off flavors are all quite good.

I vote option 3, except just dry hop in primary. Nothing to be gained by rushing a beer, and typically quite the opposite.

Use that secondary to make apfelwein

Well, my response would be that first off, your history of slow fementations is the result of your personal perference to ferment the beer colder than typical temperatures, so that doesn't really have anything to do with the underlying point.

Moreover, the beer will clarify far faster in a cold conditioning keg than it will sitting in the primary. Finally, I've never noticed a taste difference between kegging a couple days after reaching terminal gravity (say 10 days) vs. a month (and I've done it to find out). It just takes more time between brewing and having beer.

I'm fairly convinced that for most typical fermentations, the theory that yeast takes weeks and weeks to "clean up" is mostly just an urban legend. Reasonable minds can disagree, of course.

 

[Xpertskir]

Well, my response would be that first off, your history of slow fementations is the result of your personal perference to ferment the beer colder than typical temperatures, so that doesn't really have anything to do with the underlying point.

Moreover, the beer will clarify far faster in a cold conditioning keg than it will sitting in the primary. Finally, I've never noticed a taste difference between kegging a couple days after reaching terminal gravity (say 10 days) vs. a month (and I've done it to find out). It just takes more time between brewing and having beer.

I'm fairly convinced that for most typical fermentations, the theory that yeast takes weeks and weeks to "clean up" is mostly just an urban legend. Reasonable minds can disagree, of course.

Seems as though we agree, good beer takes time. We just use different vessels to bide that time.
I have more fermenting space than cold conditioning space, for now. Once that changes, I may spend less time in the primary.