hop creep- should i cold crash to stop fermentation.

[fluketamer]

hi i dry hopped for the first time last week and my lager took off like on day 1 with a new kreusen forming and the beer turning cloudy. i checked the gravity last two days and its still stable even tho i have signs of fermentation.

i want to package this beer
should i cold crash it to stop the fermentation then package or wait it out til the beer clears before packaging.


edit i guess a third option would be to try to remove the hops to stop the creep but then i would have to open the fv to get at them .

any help appreciated

thanks

 

[RCope]

The "packaging" makes a huge difference. If you are kegging you can cold crash and transfer to the keg for lagering at any time. If you are bottling, you should let it stabilize to avoid bottle bombs. If you are checking gravity with a hydrometer, 3 days of no change is a pretty good benchmark for stability.

 

[IslandLizard]

Were you fermenting under pressure? If so, it can well be outgassing, due to adding nucleation sites.
The lack of additional attenuation would indicate that it's not fermenting. But it depends on how accurate you can measure gravity and attenuation.

 

[fluketamer]

thanks
im kegging it so i guess i will cold crash it tonite and then keg it tomorow .


it wasnt under pressure . i dont think its fermenting either since the gravity is stable.

thanks

 

[IslandLizard]

im kegging it so i guess i will cold crash it tonite and then keg it tomorow .

Yeah, kegging is much safer, even if there's a slight hop creep, or any restarted fermentation for other reasons.

Hop creep comes from enzymes in the (added) dry hops, that metabolize unfermentables into fermentable sugars. Hence fermentation resumes.

Re: The beer getting very cloudy when dry hopping.
Did you take the cleared beer off the yeast/trub before adding the hops?

 

[fluketamer]

no i added them directly to primary i didnt know i was supposed to rack to secondary before dry hopping as i never dry hopped before and instructions said to simply dump in primary after 1 week of fermentation

i did use a hop sack tho with marbles in it to weigh it down somewhat.,

 

[day_trippr]

Probably for the better, racking to a secondary vessel carries a ton of oxidation risk best avoided when dealing with highly-hopped beers, and likely explains many HB beers that turn brown and lose all hop character. I only ever use a "secondary" for two beers: racking a wheat beer on top of 10 pounds of raspberry puree and hibiscus tea; and racking my imperial chocolate stout on top of a pound of dark rum-marinated cocoa nibs that I don't want to disappear in the primary's heavy trub.

For the last six months I've been following (more or less) the Scott Janish "cool and quick" dry hop approach and it has been working really well. I'm definitely a fan. I do a 2 day "soft crash" to 50°F, add all of the dry hops in one go, let it sit for two days, then hard crash for two days then keg, with both crash phases done under light exogenous CO2 pressure to keep the O2 at bay...

Cheers!

 

[BrewerofBeers]

Can we agree on one thing? Cold crashing alone will not stop fermentation. If fermentation halts for another reason, then fine. But cold crashing won't stop it prematurely. It will slow fermentation.

I'm under the the impression that you must kill the yeast or remove them. Creating an unsuitable environment won't do the trick.

 

[Bassman2003]

Probably for the better, racking to a secondary vessel carries a ton of oxidation risk best avoided when dealing with highly-hopped beers, and likely explains many HB beers that turn brown and lose all hop character. I only ever use a "secondary" for two beers: racking a wheat beer on top of 10 pounds of raspberry puree and hibiscus tea; and racking my imperial chocolate stout on top of a pound of dark rum-marinated cocoa nibs that I don't want to disappear in the primary's heavy trub.

For the last six months I've been following (more or less) the Scott Janish "cool and quick" dry hop approach and it has been working really well. I'm definitely a fan. I do a 2 day "soft crash" to 50°F, add all of the dry hops in one go, let it sit for two days, then hard crash for two days then keg, with both crash phases done under light exogenous CO2 pressure to keep the O2 at bay...

Cheers!

Will give this a try. I have been dropping my magnets after fermentation but in the mid 60's. Maybe doing the soft crash then final crash helps drop more yeast simulating a "post transfer" dry hop in the primary? Always fun to try things.

 

[MaxStout]

For the last six months I've been following (more or less) the Scott Janish "cool and quick" dry hop approach and it has been working really well. I'm definitely a fan. I do a 2 day "soft crash" to 50°F, add all of the dry hops in one go, let it sit for two days, then hard crash for two days then keg, with both crash phases done under light exogenous CO2 pressure to keep the O2 at bay...

Cheers!

I tried the cool & quick method with an IPA recently, worked well. After fermentation was done, I crashed to low-50s for a day or so, added dry hops (free-range, no bags), let it sit 2 days. Then packaged. Difficulty: I bottle, so I anticipated a little hop creep during conditioning. I carbed lower--to about 2.3 vols--and after the bottles conditioned a couple weeks in my 68F basement, the carbonation was spot-on, as if it were 2.7-2.8 vols. No gushers out of the dozen or so I've tried so far. My guesstimate was hop creep in the bottles added a half volume or so.

 

[uweschmitt]

To be sure, I'd do a forced diacetyl test before cold crashing.

 

[InspectorJon]

To be sure, I'd do a forced diacetyl test before cold crashing.

What does this test tell you about hop creep?

 

[uweschmitt]

What does this test tell you about hop creep?

It is about the effects of hop creep: hop creep restarts fermentation and (similar to the primary fermentation) yeast might produce some diacetyl. The test ensures that diacetyl got cleared up again (if it was present).

 

[DuncB]

It is about the effects of hop creep: hop creep restarts fermentation and (similar to the primary fermentation) yeast might produce some diacetyl. The test ensures that diacetyl got cleared up again (if it was present).

First time for me using ALDC to try and mitigate or help manage this issue.

 

[ncbrewer]

I bottle, so I anticipated a little hop creep during conditioning. I carbed lower--to about 2.3 vols--and after the bottles conditioned a couple weeks in my 68F basement, the carbonation was spot-on, as if it were 2.7-2.8 vols. No gushers out of the dozen or so I've tried so far. My guesstimate was hop creep in the bottles added a half volume or so.

My favorite Clint Eastwood quote: "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
Dirty Harry
1971

 

[fluketamer]

update
so I had split this up into two batches one with an ale yeast and one with a lager. THe lager was kegged after two weeks primary the last 7 days of which was dry Hopped. I had only planned on 3 or 4 days dry hop but got distracted . I’m very happy with the results and am tempted to dry hop all my beers now.

the ale I got totally messed up with my pipeline and is still stuck in primary waiting for an empty keg it’s been dry hopped for almost 12 days now . I lowered the temp to 60 to hopefully slow everything down thinking maybe it won’t extract more of whatever it is I don’t want. Kegging it tomorrow. Will it taste like barn hay. Or is 12 days not a real big deal in your opinion. I have read that too long dry hopping can bring out vegetal flavors.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

update
so I had split this up into two batches one with an ale yeast and one with a lager. THe lager was kegged after two weeks primary the last 7 days of which was dry Hopped. I had only planned on 3 or 4 days dry hop but got distracted . I’m very happy with the results and am tempted to dry hop all my beers now.

the ale I got totally messed up with my pipeline and is still stuck in primary waiting for an empty keg it’s been dry hopped for almost 12 days now . I lowered the temp to 60 to hopefully slow everything down thinking maybe it won’t extract more of whatever it is I don’t want. Kegging it tomorrow. Will it taste like barn hay. Or is 12 days not a real big deal in your opinion. I have read that too long dry hopping can bring out vegetal flavors.

Yeah you can get some flavors from dry hopping too long but I don't think they're going to blow in your face, you might not notice anything at 12 days. You need all that fermentation to finish, that's for sure. I vote you won't taste any negative flavors from dry hopping 12 days.