Forgive me if this is a subject beaten to death already, because I've read a lot of threads on when the best time to dry hop is, exactly. Ok, so "best" is subjective, so I'm looking for maximum oil extraction and retention, so I get the most into the bottle/keg. That's a better metric I think? I'm curious to know what you know or think you know about this and why.
The conventional wisdom seems to be, dry hop in the secondary, so there isn't any volatilization of the oil that goes into the headspace and out the airlock with the escaping CO2. Peripheral reasons include slightly more nebulous ideas that there will be fresher taste and aroma characteristics if you go with a ~7 day, secondary only dry hop as opposed to maybe a 14 day that goes in with the yeast.
The reasons I have to be at least mildly skeptical of this wisdom is that oils are relatively big and heavy molecules, especially compared to water and ethanol. When you're well below their flash points and boiling points, they don't like to go into vapor. Oils, being mostly non polar, won't be very soluble in water/ethanol, and are less dense and would collect at the top, I will give that. But during an active fermentation there's a fair bit of agitation, possibly enough to keep the oil in an emulsion. So you have heavy molecules that aren't that volatile at fermentation temps, possibly dispersed away from the liquid/gas interface. That and given any time you open your fermenter you increase by some non zero amount the risk of infection, I'm think I'm given to just dry hop when I pitch yeast. Furthermore, I wonder if the agitation from active fermentation actually helps the oil get into suspension and might actually yield better results.
So is there good evidence of when to dry hop to get the most oil extraction (assuming this yields the most flavor/aroma contribution)? What is your evidence? I'm interested in anything, from the high tech/quantitative down to your own thoughts and experience. Also, feel free to correct me if my whole premise is wrong to begin with.
The conventional wisdom seems to be, dry hop in the secondary, so there isn't any volatilization of the oil that goes into the headspace and out the airlock with the escaping CO2. Peripheral reasons include slightly more nebulous ideas that there will be fresher taste and aroma characteristics if you go with a ~7 day, secondary only dry hop as opposed to maybe a 14 day that goes in with the yeast.
The reasons I have to be at least mildly skeptical of this wisdom is that oils are relatively big and heavy molecules, especially compared to water and ethanol. When you're well below their flash points and boiling points, they don't like to go into vapor. Oils, being mostly non polar, won't be very soluble in water/ethanol, and are less dense and would collect at the top, I will give that. But during an active fermentation there's a fair bit of agitation, possibly enough to keep the oil in an emulsion. So you have heavy molecules that aren't that volatile at fermentation temps, possibly dispersed away from the liquid/gas interface. That and given any time you open your fermenter you increase by some non zero amount the risk of infection, I'm think I'm given to just dry hop when I pitch yeast. Furthermore, I wonder if the agitation from active fermentation actually helps the oil get into suspension and might actually yield better results.
So is there good evidence of when to dry hop to get the most oil extraction (assuming this yields the most flavor/aroma contribution)? What is your evidence? I'm interested in anything, from the high tech/quantitative down to your own thoughts and experience. Also, feel free to correct me if my whole premise is wrong to begin with.
