how should i dry hop my beer?

[fluketamer]

i know this question will get a million different answers but i really cant descide what to do.

i have 18l of a hoppy pale ale in an oxebar keg with a blowoff right now at day 5 . it looks like its at high kreusen.

i want to add 1-2 oz of dry hops.

i usually like to just ferment and serve out of the oxebar, but if i open the top and dump in the hops they would sit ther for up to a month while i drink it. that seems like too long.

should i instead dry hop for a few days before transfering to a keg instead.
has anyone else left there beer on hops for a month?

 

[lumpher]

You could use the magnet and hop bag trick to get the hops into it, and just slide the magnet down the side to lower the hops gently, then reverse the process after a few days to get the hops back out. Never tried it, and it might be a hare-brained idea, but maybe worth a thought.

 

[Knightshade]

I've left some hops in the serving keg before and it seemed like it was way too grassy and it never let up. If you're got a spare keg, maybe add the dry hops into that one, purge it, then transfer. Cold crash, then transfer to serving keg.

 

[sibelman]

Unlike @Knightshade (and many others), I've dry-hopped IPAs in the serving keg with no grassy effects. But the result did vary over the life of the beer even though I've got good closed transfer and purged my kegs.

However, I've taken to dry hopping in the fermenter, then transferring to the purged keg, so that the beer stays the same for the life (~3 months) of the batch.

 

[Jag75]

I'd just dry hop before you package. Maybe 3 days

 

[IslandLizard]

I would dry hop in the Oxebar, as you intended. It has a relatively small amount of headspace so easy to purge with CO2.
You can then swirl, rock, or invert the Oxebar a few times a day for better (or quicker) hop extraction. Let it all settle out, and transfer the clear dry hopped beer to a serving keg.

There are some variations and timing preferences using this general concept.

 

[fluketamer]

its on day 4 of the dry hops and i can actually taste how the hops have transformed over the last few days. the citra became much more dank but not at all in a bad way. i think i am going to transfer the beer off the hops too a purged keg.
this is the first time i am really experimenting with decent hop amounts.
i got great aroma and not too much bitterness but the flavor seems to be quick and fading when you drink it. like i get a big punch of hop aroma expecting that in the flavor but its kind of like i am tasting more of the beer then the hops if that makes sense.


my schedule was
.5 oz magnum at 60
2 oz citra at 10
1 oz citra at 0

and 1 ounces citra dry hop at day 7

i dont want the beer anymore bitter so if i was to add more low alpha acid hops at 20 mins would that give more flavor or does it have to do with the grain bill and water as much as the amount of hops i am using.

 

[hottpeper13]

When I was experimenting with the Abaxis terpines I left out the whirlpool hops to get an idea of the flavor contribution. Well the aroma was awesome but no flavor. I would put 1 oz at 10 min and 2-3 at 0 with a 10-20 min whirlpool or steep.

 

[prrriiide]

I don’t know your setup…can you whirlpool? Counterflow/plate chiller? If you have those capabilities:

I would ditch the 10 min hops. Recirc through your chiller until your kettle temp hits 160 and hold it there as long as possible. If it drops, that’s fine, just don’t let it go up. Add 4-5 oz of hops at that temp and whirlpool for at least 30 minutes. Chill and cast out as usual after that.

Even if you have an immersion chiller and no way to whirlpool, get the temp down below 170 (the precious flavor and aroma components you are looking for volatilize fairly quickly above 180°. So knock the temp down below that and do a considerable hop stand with a larger amount of hops. If you use BeerSmith, it can account for this.

Money-saving tip: if you can recover those whirlpool hops (use a bag) you can use them to bitter your next brew since you haven’t extracted any of the alpha acids from them.

 

[fluketamer]

i am planning on this.

5.5 gallons:

full vol no sparge.

filterd nyc tap water

10 lbs of breiss 2 row
.5 lbs crystal 20
.5 lb of carapils.

.5 oz magnum at 60
1 oz citra at 10
2 oz citra whirlpool
1 oz citra and 1 oz zamba dry hop day 5- 8ish

with bry 97 at 65 degrees.


but you are saying something like this:

.5 oz mag 60
4 oz citra whirlpool 160 30 mins.

then still keep the 2 oz dry hop additions at day 5- 8?

or drop the dry hop and dump it all in whirlpool?

 

[prrriiide]

but you are saying something like this:

.5 oz mag 60
4 oz citra whirlpool 160 30 mins.

then still keep the 2 oz dry hop additions at day 5- 8?

or drop the dry hop and dump it all in whirlpool?

Keep the dry hop. Maybe move it up a couple of days into fully active fermentation (just before high krausen) to catch some biotransformation. Citras have a lot of biotransformational properties.