Dryhopped too soon

[Trail]

Hey, all. Latest in my cavalcade of stupidity, I misread my calendar and dryhopped at the 9-day mark instead of day 16 like I planned. I put a half-ounce each of Cascade, Nugget and Centennial, and so far the aroma's nice, but my gravity isn't low enough to bottle yet.

Basically, my dry hops have been in the fermenter for 9 days already and I expect my beer will need at least a week more to finish.

As detailed in the previous chapter, I have less assurance than usual that I'm going to hit my target gravity. However, I'm now at 1024 over a planned 1017, and it continues to fall at a rate of approximately one point per day.

As I see it, I have these options:

• Rack to the bottling bucket early
• Leave it on the hops until the ferment's done

Any tips?

 

[lumpher]

no worries. just don't misread the bottling/kegging date, and it'll be fine

 

[Trail]

Well, I'm going to bottle it whenever the gravity is static for three days. Thought that was how it worked.

 

[iv_hokie12]

Did you do it with whole hops or pellets? I'm not sure if this is good practice or not, but you could rack it again into another fermenter and let it finish there.

 

[shuckit]

If your worried about the dry hops \adding too much vegetable matter to the taste I would rack it into secondary and let it ride out fermentation off the hops.

Edit: hokie beat me too it.

 

[CPFITNESS]

i've seen many people on here post that they dry hop for 2 weeks with zero issues. I wouldn't be worried in the slightest

 

[Trail]

Hokie: Pellets. I'm a little scared of racking while fermentation is still going because that's one of the things that made my first batch less than great.

Shuckit: As above, but without the first word.

CPFITNESS: I may just end up pushing it, yeah. If the pattern continues, I'll be at 1019 or so in five days. Honestly I do doubt my mash was efficient enough to get me to target gravity anyway - there was speculation that my ferment had stalled at 1028 ten days ago, and it was only through addition of a carboy water bath, a plug timer, and an aquarium heater that I brought temps up to 70 and fermentation continued.

 

[Breweralex]

Early dry hopping can lead to less perceived effect of the hops. This is due to volatile oils being carried out of the fermentor by CO2.

If you aren't hip to effective dry hopping, never use pellet hops. The process of pelletizing hops breaks open tons and tons of the plant's cells, releasing (and increasing the risk of) those darn vegetable and grassy flavors.

 

[Trail]

Blurgh. What I read was that pellets were "fine" but "less potent." Frig it all to heck.

 

[scoundrel]

Wait a minute. First off, after 9 days the yeast growth phase is over and the majority of the fermentation. Many commercial breweries dry hop at the tail end of fermentation to enhance the aroma. It's true that volatile oils can be scrubbed out, but after 9 days, probably not. Don't bother moving it. Pellets may lead to vegetal but not after a week of dryhopping. Give it time and it will settle out. I've used 4 oz of pellets in a keg for a month when my LHBS was out of leaf. I threw them in a paint strainer bag on a string of dental floss with no problems at all. I think it will be a great beer and if you don't want it, send it to me

 

[Trail]

Scoundrel, the majority of the fermentation is indeed over, but I am still a number of points high and a cold snap slowed me down up until a few days ago. I wouldn't be surprised if the gravity dropped to 1020 or lower, but we'll see.

I'll put you on the Junk Beer List, though!

 

[Camride]

You'll be fine. The pellets aren't ideal for dry hopping, but it's not going to ruin your beer either. I would aim for bottling at the 14th day of dry hopping though unless your FG is way off. You may lose a little aroma from dry hopping early, but throwing it in at 9 days isn't an "Oh Lawd, it's done for" moment.

 

[RM-MN]

Since you have an aquarium heater and need to get a few points less gravity, increase the temperature of your beer to between 73 and 75. Your beer's flavor is already set by the initial fermentation temperature and the yeast now need a little encouragement to finish the job so a little warmer won't hurt the flavor but it might speed up getting to FG. That way you won't have to wait so long with your dry hops in the beer before you can bottle.

 

[Trail]

Beautiful, good to know I can get away with doing that. My heater starts at 72, so if I pull the timer out of the mix it should get there quick enough.

 

[kh54s10]

I have seen some recipes where there was a week of dry hopping then another addition for another week.

I don't really know, but I don't think you have any problem other than not getting exactly what was originally planned.

 

[Wobbegong]

I've made a few IPA's with pellet dry hops that lasted 2 weeks. None of them had a grassy flavor at all.

 

[Trail]

I have seen some recipes where there was a week of dry hopping then another addition for another week.

I don't really know, but I don't think you have any problem other than not getting exactly what was originally planned.

The original plan was ruined by my LHBS being out of Chinook. Not to worry.

 

[unionrdr]

While dry hopping before FG is reached isn't ideal,it's not the end either. And it's not so much that co2 escaping carries off the lupulins,it's the oils coating the yeast cells & sinking to the bottom that settles out some of the oils being released during dry hopping.
That's why I always wait till I get a stable FG to dry hop,less oils lost.
And pellets have worked very well for me in dry hopping. The act of pelletizing them squeezes the lupulin glands so they also release some residual bittering. I think it makes the dry hop aromas give some slight bit of extra crispness. Raw or whole leaf hops seem to be a bit milder in this respect,since the lupulin glads are more or less intact. Both work well. It just depends on whether or not you want smoother hop aroma/flavor or crisper. That's what it seems like to me at this point.

 

[Trail]

Looks like I hit 1018 tonight. Wowzers, down .8 in three days. I'm pretty pleased!

Hydro sample was tasty upon tasty, too. Dizzang. It's pretty aromatic, so I may just bottle as soon as it stabilizes instead of dryhopping again.