DryHopped too early and more - suggestions?

[Redpiper]

Hi,
Here's the short version. After 2 weeks fermenting I opened bucket to take a gravity reading and dry hopped at the same time. Rookie mistake as I figured fermentation was done (based on all all my previous batches).

Turned out fermentation had stalled (OG 1.050, reading was 1.020). I roused the yeast and the airlock resumed slow and steady. It's now another week later and I still get a bubble every few minutes which likely means yeast are still busy. I'll take a reading this weekend.

Here's the issue. I'm concerned that dry hopping too long will produce off flavors. If I don't bottle this weekend, may have to wait until next. This would be 16 days of dry-hopping.

I could just wait and RDWHAHB. I could rack to secondary (if reading is near 1.010 expected FG). Which is best? Are there other options?

Thank you!

 

[deggenbe]

airlock activity is not how you find out if fermentation is done or not. use gravity readings only.

Also, a 1.020 FG is common for Extract brewing, if this is what you did. /shrug

if it truly isn't finished according to gravity readings, just dry hop again.
(albeit, not as much as some aroma's will still probably reside from dry-hopping)

 

[BrewThruYou]

How did you dryhop? If in a bag, you could pull it out.

 

[Redpiper]

Dry hopped commando!

I'm aware airlock activity isn't the way to measure fermentation being done or not. It is, however, a sign that activity is taking place. When there's bubbling I don't see a reason to open the bucket and take a reading. If it's quieted by Sunday, I'll check again. (I realize what happened was the fermentation stalled because the temp dropped to 59 one night. Rousing the yeast restarted the fermentation it appears. My mistake was dry hopping before I checked the reading and figured out what happened.)

Also, all my beers, extract and otherwise, have hit the estimated FG based on Beersmith (give or take a tenth). Estimated is 1.010. 1.020 sounds like bottle bombs to me.

My concern has to do with off flavors produced if the dry hopping goes too long. So I was wondering if pulling it into secondary until I can bottle might be a way to avoid this.

 

[Christianb17]

Are u supposed to use a bag to dry hop?? Ive got an ipa in the secondary and I just dumped some hop pellets right in there. Was that a mistake?

 

[ShakerD]

No it's fine to go commando but if you leave it to long you will get grassy flavors.

The brewing network has a good podcast on dry hopping

 

[JuanMoore]

It's possible to get grassy or vegetal flavors from dryhopping for extended periods, but you'll probably be fine. It depends a lot on what hop variety you used and how much.

 

[RM-MN]

Airlock activity is not a sign of fermentation. It simply means there is a slight pressure differential between the inside and the outside. It could be fermentation, it could be outgassing of CO2, it might be temperature change, it might be a change of atmospheric pressure. Your hydrometer is how you tell if fermentation is over, nothing else.

 

[usfmikeb]

Are u supposed to use a bag to dry hop?? Ive got an ipa in the secondary and I just dumped some hop pellets right in there. Was that a mistake?

It isn't that you can't do this, the issue is that it's difficult to get the beer off those disintegrated pellets. Personally, I only dry hop with flowers, and always use a bag.

 

[Calder]

Don't worry about extended dry hop. I regularly go 2 weeks with no issues. I had one that went over 4 months with Amarillo, and tasted great. If you leave it too long, you might want to re-dry hop to get some of the flavor you were after.

Personally I've never noticed a grassy flavor, and I dry hop a lot of beers.

If you used pellets, the activity could be CO2 coming out of solution. The particles provide nucleation points to release the CO2. Hopefully it is further fermentation.

I find pellets drop nicely, and very few get into the bottling bucket. When I bottle, only the last bottle gets any hop particles.