IPA an Hop Creep??

[Allekornbrauer]

Hello how does one prevent Hop Creep when dry-hopping there IPA, Double IPA,NEIPA???.

 

[IslandLizard]

I don't think you can prevent it, it just happens, part of brewing hoppy beers.

 

[Iseneye]

Based on a lecture I went to the issues with hop creep are different for commercial brewers. Hop creep can add 0.5% or so ABV which if not allowed for pushes commercial beers outside their label amounts. For home brewers and commercial brewers the issue is dry hop creep at end of fermentation causes diacetyl which isnt cleaned up by yeast activity.

One solution is dry hopping prior to final gravity being reached so yeast can clean up diacetyl.

 

[dmtaylor]

Maybe split the dry hop charge. Use some after the first ~3 days of fermentation, then another charge ~3 days later. This will give you some of the "creep" enzymes at middle of fermentation instead of saving them all for the end.

 

[Dgallo]

Hop creep can also cause acetaldehyde reformation and VDK. So it can certainly impact a homebrew in this way. Also for people who bottle, it can also cause over carbonization.

You cant totally prevent it but you can certainly limit it but you'll need to have some form of practice or equipment to prevent oxygen contact.

1) first way is to dryhop at 50*f where most ale yeast would be far less active if active at all. That works but it also is at a lower extraction temp, so it’s a give a take.

2) you can softcrash to 50*f for 24 hours to drop the yeast out of suspension then let the beer warm back up to roomtemp to DH. This will cause dramatically less yeast to be in suspension during dryhoping and lessens the possible for those yeast to convert any of the newly available sugar for the hop enzymes.

 

[hottpeper13]

Just brew Kolsch and Lagers!

 

[dmtaylor]

1) first way is to dryhop at 50*f where most ale yeast would be far less active if active at all. That works but it also is at a lower extraction temp, so it’s a give a take.

2) you can softcrash to 50*f for 24 hours to drop the yeast out of suspension then let the beer warm back up to roomtemp to DH. This will cause dramatically less yeast to be in suspension during dryhoping and lessens the possible for those yeast to convert any of the newly available sugar for the hop enzymes.

No offense intended, but both of these methods sound dangerous to me. Yeast doesn't just drop out and quit at 50 F. I've fermented batches with regular ale yeast in the household refrigerator at roughly 35-40 F. Fermentation continues, just more slowly, may take months instead of days. But given time, or if god-forbid you bottle it thinking the yeast won't be active anymore, well you'd still be at risk of overcarbonation, or possibly even explosions, as well as the diacetyl thing.

 

[Dgallo]

No offense intended, but both of these methods sound dangerous to me. Yeast doesn't just drop out and quit at 50 F. I've fermented batches with regular ale yeast in the household refrigerator at roughly 35-40 F. Fermentation continues, just more slowly, may take months instead of days. But given time, or if god-forbid you bottle it thinking the yeast won't be active anymore, well you'd still be at risk of overcarbonation, or possibly even explosions, as well as the diacetyl thing.

None taken. This is a proven method for dryhoping however and does drop substantially portion of yeast out of suspension. It’s called softcrashing. Scott Janish refers to it multiple times in his his new book. I also contacted imperial yeast previously to ask about if the yeast that drops out from softcrashing will become resuspended and they responded.
My question

Response:

Also, I actually just pulled my FV out after the 24 hour crash at 50 this morning to warm it back up for dryhopping. If you look at the trub there is a clear 1/2 centimeter line of yeast that is now sitting on top.

 

[couchsending]

I’ve never experienced hop creep after I stopped dry hopping during fermentation.

Let fermentation finish, give it a few more days. Do a forced diacetyl test. If it passes, crash to 50/55/60 for 24-48 hours, pull yeast. Dry hop at 58-62 for 4 days or so.

I never get additional fermentation that I’m aware of. I have a finishing hydrometer and degas the samples. I used to do another VDK test just to make sure but stopped after not experiencing any refermentation.

Probably 70 or so beers.

I’ve even tried to promote hop creep on a few beers that finished a little high and had no luck? Not sure exactly why.

 

[dmtaylor]

I’ve even tried to promote hop creep on a few beers that finished a little high and had no luck? Not sure exactly why.

Different hops, and even different crops from the same variety same place, different year, will give different creep effects. It's not consistent across the board for all hops. But I know for certain I've experienced hop creep a couple of times. It's a very real effect. If you want to do it on purpose and want to guarantee results, perhaps try dry hopping a stuck ferment or a dextrinous beer with multiple different hops. The odds will increase substantially if you add a lot of different dry hops. Impact might be less for a SMASH beer for example where maybe you don't see any effect if only one hop was used throughout.

 

[Dgallo]

Idt anyone is trying to say it doesn’t happen. But it happens to a much lesser extent if you dryhop after dropping the majority of yeast out of suspension

 

[snarf7]

One solution is dry hopping prior to final gravity being reached so yeast can clean up diacetyl.

This. Works like a charm.

 

[Coffeeturnal]

Crashing the yeast to prevent hop creep would only work if you are kegging, correct?

If you are bottling that method cannot work, if I understand the mechanism correctly. The premise being that there is no (or too little) yeast left to ferment the newly available fermentable sugars. If this is the case the bottles also will not carbonate, or if they do they will become overcarbonated.

I feel this is an important distinction to make as the OP had not stated whether they bottle or keg.

 

[dmtaylor]

Crashing the yeast to prevent hop creep would only work if you are kegging, correct?

If you are bottling that method cannot work, if I understand the mechanism correctly. The premise being that there is no (or too little) yeast left to ferment the newly available fermentable sugars. If this is the case the bottles also will not carbonate, or if they do they will become overcarbonated.

I feel this is an important distinction to make as the OP had not stated whether they bottle or keg.

The trouble with yeast is that even when you've removed "most" of the yeast, there are still billions of active cells left to keep on fermenting. Bottles WILL still carbonate... and likely will could overcarbonate.

Kegging is different from bottling only in that you can safely ignore the extra carbonation piece of the problem.

But either way, kegging or bottling alike, you can typically expect 0.1-0.5% extra alcohol added as part of refermentation in the keg or the bottle.

 

[Allekornbrauer]

This. Works like a charm.

So one would want to add there dry-hop’s at about 4day into fermentation??

 

[snarf7]

So one would want to add there dry-hop’s at about 4day into fermentation??

Yep for most ales that's going to be about right, but as always with the caveat that different yeasts work at different paces yadda yadda

 

[Jag75]

Honestly I've never had hop creep .that I know of.