BlueHouseBrewhaus
Well-Known Member
I pretty much give all my brews a minimum of 3 weeks in the fermenter and have a stabile FG for a week or more so I know incomplete fermentation isn't my problem. However, the hoppier my IPAs the bigger the head I get. I use a priming calculator and carefully measure my priming sugar. I usually bottle at about 2.4 vol (no, I do not keg). None of my other beers do this even when carbed at 2.6 vol or higher. Once I get into DIPA territory, it doesn't matter how slowly and gently I pour or if it's been in the fridge for a week or a month. The head overflows before the bottle is 3/4 empty.
The one thing these all have on common is that they are all dry hopped with anywhere from 2 to 4 oz. I have seen a few posts that support the idea that hop particles left in the beer from dry hopping create nucleation points for CO2 to attach to and create the excess head. I dry hop with pellets in nylon hop bags and cold crash for about 48 hours before bottling but that doesn't seem to make much difference.
I've never used gelatin or finings before but I'm considering it for the DIPA I currently have in the fermenter. Am I missing something? Is the "nucleation point" issue a real thing? Has anyone else had success with using finings to address a similar issue?
OK, let the head jokes commence.
The one thing these all have on common is that they are all dry hopped with anywhere from 2 to 4 oz. I have seen a few posts that support the idea that hop particles left in the beer from dry hopping create nucleation points for CO2 to attach to and create the excess head. I dry hop with pellets in nylon hop bags and cold crash for about 48 hours before bottling but that doesn't seem to make much difference.
I've never used gelatin or finings before but I'm considering it for the DIPA I currently have in the fermenter. Am I missing something? Is the "nucleation point" issue a real thing? Has anyone else had success with using finings to address a similar issue?
OK, let the head jokes commence.