For how many days do you guys dryhopp on average?

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Elysium

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I have read a few articles on dryhopping...but I'd like to hear some 1st hand accounts on how many days people dryhop..

I normally do 4-7 days. I am wondering if it is enough to completely extract the goodness during that period.
 
Do you keg or bottle? If you keg you can put your hops in a stainless stell tea ball and put them directly in the keg. I wouldn't let it go past 4-5 weeks this way.

If your bottling I would say dry hop for about 5 days and then taste to see if it needs more hop time or it is at the level you like.
 
Rockn_M said:
Do you keg or bottle? If you keg you can put your hops in a stainless stell tea ball and put them directly in the keg. I wouldn't let it go past 4-5 weeks this way.

If your bottling I would say dry hop for about 5 days and then taste to see if it needs more hop time or it is at the level you like.
Click to expand...

The tasting part is a good idea. I havent thought about this at all.
The only thing is that we normally dont like opening the fermentor...we dont have a tap on it...but I think we need to start doing this...so that we would get an idea how many days it takes to extract the goodness.
Thanks.

oh..and we dont keg. We bottle. Kegging is something we still need to learn.
 
i typically do 3-4 days in primary, then cold-crash for 2 days (with the hops still in there).

i've read - forget where - that the oils are extracted relatively quickly, like within the first 48 hours.
 
7-8 days in primary LOOSE, after bubbling mostly stops. If I want a hoppy beer i use 4 oz. I have bottled and had strong great fresh aroma after two months. Don't know how much longer it would have lasted cause the beer all got drank. Dry hopping in keg is also good but i think extraction is slower cause the temps are colder and it is restricted inside a bag instead of floating free.


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I use pellets to dry hop and normally only leave the beer on the hops until the pellets dissolve. The best hop aroma I have achieved was when I dry hopped for only 24 hours. Usually for an IPA I'm dry hopping with 4 oz. and it has never taken more than 3 days for the hops to dissolve.
 
I was doing 7 to 10 days, but recently (after reading a few magazine articles) I have started only doing 4 to 5 days. My last one was a IIPA that tastes just like it's brother from last year that was dry hopped for 10 days. The first one I did in the keg and fought with a huge amount of hop matter the entire keg. The second one I dropped the hop pellets directly into the primary and racked over to the keg afterwards. Less hop gunk, but the same flavor and aroma.
 
I had been doing 14 days, but was told by a few that 10 days was plenty, and have being doing it this way since. Hard to say if there's been a difference as I've not remade the same beer, and a lot of time passed as I only dry hop IPA's and an occasional hoppy pale.
 
Ca mouse.

Try a small hop bag zip tied to the outgoing beer post. You can push the baggy to the middle or bottom of the keg with a large stir spoon or just rack into keg after attaching. The zip tie will keep it at any height as long as you pull tightly on it.




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good point: if you want more hop aroma, add more hops. whether you're adding 1 oz or 6, their flavor will be extracted in less than a week. leaving them in there for longer won't gain you more flavor (other than maybe a grassy off-flavor, according to some... i've never left my hops in there long enough to find out).
 
I'm getting ready to dryhop a IIPA I did 2 weeks ago, but I have a question. Is there any reason to split the dry hops over a couple of additions? I'm doing a total of 4oz of dryhops, but it's a mixture of 3-4 different hops, should I just mix them all together and pour all 4 ounces in at once or do 2 ounces and for 2-3 days and then add the other 2 ounces?

In the past I've always just done all the dryhops at the same time, but I've read a couple of articles(on here, i think) where some people do multiple dryhop additions.
 
I've not had a grassy off flavor after 14 days.

Interesting concept on adding dry hops at various stages.

As I really enjoy the hop flavor/aroma, much as a west coast styled IPA, to stay within (I'm usually just beyond) specs I can't add any more to the aroma addition, which is where the dry hop comes in.

I've been thinking about whirl pooling, but I don't know much about it yet.
 
rodwha said:
I've been thinking about whirl pooling, but I don't know much about it yet.
Click to expand...

I did somewhat of a makeshift whirlpool where I killed the flame and took a sanitized paint stirrer(bought brand new from bix box store) attached to a drill and gave it a whirl for about 2 minutes then tossed in the last bit of hops, the flameout addition to be more specific. Let that sit for about 20-30 minutes, then give it another whirl with the paint stirrer and turned on my IC. Let the wort settle while its chilling, then drain the BK to the fermenter.
 
This gives it more aroma without adding to the IBU's?

And what of the notion of chilling quickly?
 
From all the reading I've done on the whirlpooling method, yes it gives it more aroma/flavor without adding IBUs. Lots of people say to chill to about 180 because this will stop isomerization of the AAs in your hops, which contributes to more IBUs.

I've only done this once so far, on my most recent batch which is still in the fermenter, so I can't comment on the effects of it as of yet. I will report back once I get this one kegged and have my first taste.
 
Please do!

Several months ago I was in a conversation with someone about this, and they got me considering it enough to where I created an upcoming IPA recipe to include some Cascade just for it.
 
I love Cascade hops :D I did NBs Cascade Mtns IIPA(Extract). I didn't hit my OG on it, but the cascade still shines. I'm going to be doing that one again soon since I have all the ingredients on hand(AG).

Plan on whirlpooling that one too. Hoping to be adding a pump and whirlpool valve to my setup soon so that I can do a true whirlpool, as I absolutely love IPAs
 
TimelessCynic said:
I feel like a week in a cold keg is not enough.


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Click to expand...

I agree. Extracting the hops oils for flavor and aroma during dryhopping is temperature dependent. In a cold dryhop, it may take three weeks to get the same results as 3 days at room temperature.

That's why I generally dryhop at room temperature 3-5 days, and then if I want to enhance and prolong hops aroma and flavor to a keg and keep it cold. Those hops stay in for the life of the keg.
 
3 Days is plenty at room temp. I think a lot of us do longer based on habit. There are a few scientific papers out there that suggest 1-3 days gets basically all your going to get out of the hops. I still tend to do 7 days based on convenience and habit (full 7 at room with no cold crash or 3-4 days at room then a cold crash)
 
So might I get a more crisp aroma out of the hops by dropping down to 7 days from 10, or even the 14 I was originally doing?

Is it even better to do 7 days vs 10?
 
Read these:

The first talks about 3 hours to a day to get the accepted hop profile but notes that it can take up to 12 days for 100% extraction. It also says that pellets did the best job at extraction time and aroma, though the pellets appear to be different from what homebrewers get:

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/34093/Wolfe_thesis.pdf

This is a website that summarizes the findings:

http://inhoppursuit.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-aroma-oil-faster-dry-hopsters-holy.html
 
Calichusetts said:
Read these:

The first talks about 3 hours to a day to get the accepted hop profile but notes that it can take up to 12 days for 100% extraction. It also says that pellets did the best job at extraction time and aroma, though the pellets appear to be different from what homebrewers get:

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/34093/Wolfe_thesis.pdf

This is a website that summarizes the findings:

http://inhoppursuit.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-aroma-oil-faster-dry-hopsters-holy.html
Click to expand...
12 days to get 100% extraction out of the hops (i.e. the oils in the hops are completely depleted), but in the meantime you are losing aroma. "Beer samples dry hopped for one day had significantly more aroma than beer dry hopped for 7 days." it seems that this study argues in favor of shorter dry-hops. also, this study was done on a commercial scale, with agitation, with a different kind of pellet as you pointed out, etc. i'm wondering how much we should take away, as homebrewers.
 
I dry hop at room temperature, exclusively with pellets. I dry hop for 2-3 days, though I have dry hopped for 1 day and been happy with the results. I rarely go longer than 4 days, and only if I forgot or something comes up. Once those pellets are completely dissolved, you've got most of your hop oils in the beer.
 
I need to acquire some more some buckets from my local grocery store so that I can do some side by side experimenting with whirl pooling and dry hopping.

I have been convinced to at least drop down from 10 days to 7, and for this experiment down the road I suppose I'd compare 7 days to 3-4.
 
Whats the point in only dry hopping for 3 days? Beer likes time. I can't see any harm leaving them in primary or secondary for weeks.


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TimelessCynic said:
Whats the point in only dry hopping for 3 days? Beer likes time. I can't see any harm leaving them in primary or secondary for weeks.


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Click to expand...

I used to think this too, but after a couple of batches where I dry hopped for a couple of weeks at room temp and they started giving off a grassy flavor, I have reduced the time in the fermenter to about 4 days average. Haven't noticed any appreciable difference in fresh hop flavor or aroma at the shorter times, but never had a batch taste grassy since.
 
beinert said:
I used to think this too, but after a couple of batches where I dry hopped for a couple of weeks at room temp and they started giving off a grassy flavor, I have reduced the time in the fermenter to about 4 days average. Haven't noticed any appreciable difference in fresh hop flavor or aroma at the shorter times, but never had a batch taste grassy since.
Click to expand...


I've read about the 'grassy' flavor. Never encountered it myself. I guess i have never left hops in long enough. Longest in the fermenter was around 8 days. I always thought people who didnt like hops complained about grassy flavors. Clearly i was wrong.


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Yes beinert, based on the info in this thread you will be safe anywhere from 1 to 10 days.


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TimelessCynic said:
Whats the point in only dry hopping for 3 days? Beer likes time. I can't see any harm leaving them in primary or secondary for weeks.
Click to expand...
you start losing aromatics, which are highly volatile. you want to drink IPAs as fresh as possible. you want them to ferment, dry-hop, carb, etc as long as they need to - but not any longer.
 
sweetcell said:
you start losing aromatics, which are highly volatile. you want to drink IPAs as fresh as possible. you want them to ferment, dry-hop, carb, etc as long as they need to - but not any longer.
Click to expand...
++1, this is what I'm after when heavily dry hopping an IPA or even some APA's. They're still good after a few weeks in the keg, but better fresh.:rockin:
 

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