New England IPA "Northeast" style IPA

[leesmith]

Cause Hops Direct had a bunch of 2019 available and it’s not that expensive. Both the Citra and Amarillo smelled awesome. Been using leaf more these days. Using a hopback stuffed with leaf for Pilsners and IPA/Pales for the last 7 or 8 beers I think. Enjoying the results.

Never dry hopped with leaf and probably wouldn’t except with this process.

Do you find any difference between pellets and leaf as far as flavor and aroma go?

 

[Blazinlow86]

Spunding, if you like your flavor and aroma to hang around. If you want it brown and meh by the time it’s carbonated then yah, set it and forget it will achieve that end.

Is that how the commercial brewers keep there beers from becoming Brown and meh? Cheers

 

[braindead]

Had a weird thing happen the last few neaps I made this is the reason Im asking.
When poured from the keg it looks slightly oxidised, not brown to not as bright, but after a few mins in the glass it seems to change a little and become a beautiful opaque orange.

 

[couchsending]

Do you find any difference between pellets and leaf as far as flavor and aroma go?

Honestly I don’t have a ton of experience with leaf. The previous 6 batches were also with some 2018 leaf that might have lost s little luster and I only used it hotside.

That being said I do believe it’s different. Heat is created during the pelletizing process and where that process has certainly come a long ways that heat does alter the hops in some way shape or form.

I think pellets are more stable and obviously easier to use but if you can find some good leaf I do believe it’s different.

There’s a reason the most advanced craft brewery in the US still uses leaf exclusively.

 

[hopheadbanger]

After reading this thread over many days I incorporated much of this in my latest BOTTLE CONDITIONED NEIPA. We've been using a few tricks for good bottle conditioning that I'll detail below (Hint: It's purging with CO2)

Full disclosure, we fermented this in a Spike Flex+ complete with a gas manifold in a fermentation chamber, but this could easily be adapted to a carboy with carboy cap or many other cheaper fermentation vessels.

I have become a convert to couchsending's method of soft crashing before the dry-hop and only a large single dry hop. In the past, I have found hop oils would drop out with the yeast when you finally refrigerate the bottle. You can't really roll or rouse the bottle without getting a lot of sediment in your pour. With a soft crash and then another crash before bottling I got the most intense hop flavor, stable haze, and less sediment in the bottle. Any fears of missing out on biotransformation can be allayed by using a large whirlpool addition. It's not like those oils are just going to disappear.

We blow CO2 through the manifold while dryhopping through the 4" TC port on top. I bought the Flex+ specifically for this feature over other brew buckets because it allowed me to do this. In the past, we purged with CO2 while doing the same in a PET carboy. We also maintain positive pressure while cold crashing to prevent oxidation from suckback (you could use the balloon method on a carboy or low PSI from a CO2 tank)

For the past two years we've been purging the headspace in our bottles with CO2 through a hose from the regulator, but recently splurged on a Blichmann Beergun. It is way easier to use, plus allows us to pre-purge the bottle and then again on the headspace. We bottled directly from the fermenter and carbed with a Domino Dot which worked pretty well. You could also do a closed transfer to a bottling bucket if you wanted to, but it seems like an extra step where something could go wrong. I found that in the past even doing open transfers to a bottling bucket the headspace purge led to much more stable beers.

My carbonation sample after 8 days in the bottle (one day in the fridge) was insanely aromatic, juicy and smooth. Better than many commercial examples and certainly better than previous homebrewed attempts.

Moral of the story is CO2 and soft-crashing are your friends.

 

[Dgallo]

After reading this thread over many days I incorporated much of this in my latest BOTTLE CONDITIONED NEIPA. We've been using a few tricks for good bottle conditioning that I'll detail below (Hint: It's purging with CO2)

Full disclosure, we fermented this in a Spike Flex+ complete with a gas manifold in a fermentation chamber, but this could easily be adapted to a carboy with carboy cap or many other cheaper fermentation vessels.

I have become a convert to couchsending's method of soft crashing before the dry-hop and only a large single dry hop. In the past, I have found hop oils would drop out with the yeast when you finally refrigerate the bottle. You can't really roll or rouse the bottle without getting a lot of sediment in your pour. With a soft crash and then another crash before bottling I got the most intense hop flavor, stable haze, and less sediment in the bottle. Any fears of missing out on biotransformation can be allayed by using a large whirlpool addition. It's not like those oils are just going to disappear.

We blow CO2 through the manifold while dryhopping through the 4" TC port on top. I bought the Flex+ specifically for this feature over other brew buckets because it allowed me to do this. In the past, we purged with CO2 while doing the same in a PET carboy. We also maintain positive pressure while cold crashing to prevent oxidation from suckback (you could use the balloon method on a carboy or low PSI from a CO2 tank)

For the past two years we've been purging the headspace in our bottles with CO2 through a hose from the regulator, but recently splurged on a Blichmann Beergun. It is way easier to use, plus allows us to pre-purge the bottle and then again on the headspace. We bottled directly from the fermenter and carbed with a Domino Dot which worked pretty well. You could also do a closed transfer to a bottling bucket if you wanted to, but it seems like an extra step where something could go wrong. I found that in the past even doing open transfers to a bottling bucket the headspace purge led to much more stable beers.

My carbonation sample after 8 days in the bottle (one day in the fridge) was insanely aromatic, juicy and smooth. Better than many commercial examples and certainly better than previous homebrewed attempts.

Moral of the story is CO2 and soft-crashing are your friends.

Looks great. Question though, if your invested in a high quality FV why haven’t you got your self a kegging system?

 

[hopheadbanger]

Looks great. Question though, if your invested in a high quality FV why haven’t you got your self a kegging system?

We haven't kegged because my brewing partner and I live in two separate houses and for a while separate states. We both currently have no room for an extra kegerator either. Also, we often share/ cellar beer so we wouldn't give up bottles/cans entirely if we ever do start kegging. Not ruling it out eventually, but right now bottling is more convenient.

 

[Dgallo]

@Loud Brewing or anyone else who has purchased a CBD for their keg or fermenter, would you be able to post a link to where you got it? I’m currently using a fixed dip tube in my FV and think I’d rather move to a CBD

 

[Sbe2]

Anyone feel that 1318 overpowers the hops? Been using it for a while now and having some Other Half sprinkled in over the past few months, I feel like I am muting my hops.

 

[Dgallo]

Anyone feel that 1318 overpowers the hops? Been using it for a while now and having some Other Half sprinkled in over the past few months, I feel like I am muting my hops.

Someone posted a picture of one the day dreams fermentation chart and dry hop schedule that was hanging from a fermenter during their visit and they were using BSI A-18 which is London Ale III.

That being said I felt that way about kviek Hornindal the last two times I used it. Seemed to take away from the hops and both beers practically tasted the same with just subtle differences even though the hop bills were vastly different. So I get what you’re saying.

 

[Iseneye]

Is that how the commercial brewers keep there beers from becoming Brown and meh? Cheers

I have had numerous commercial examples that had brown tinges and should not be served to the public. For the good ones I assume they are either spunding or using high grade CO2 with little 02 impurity.

Having had several of the alchemist beers this year I assume they are spunding. They don't have brown tinged beers and the bubbles were nice and fine. They are also trying to reduce their ecological footprint so spunding would fit their motif.

 

[Frieds]

Here’s that fermentation chart photo from Other Half. I had it saved on my phone from when I saw it in another thread.

They’re using LA III fermenting at 72 and doing a single dry hop on day 7 according to what I gathered from this.

 

[BeerFst]

@Loud Brewing or anyone else who has purchased a CBD for their keg or fermenter, would you be able to post a link to where you got it? I’m currently using a fixed dip tube in my FV and think I’d rather move to a CBD

http://www.clearbeerdraughtsystem.com/

do I have the wrong acronym?

 

[Loud Brewing]

@Loud Brewing or anyone else who has purchased a CBD for their keg or fermenter, would you be able to post a link to where you got it? I’m currently using a fixed dip tube in my FV and think I’d rather move to a CBD

https://www.williamsbrewing.com/Top-Draw-Beer-Pick-Up-Tube-P4643.aspx this is where I got mine, but it looks like their out of stock atm. You can also just use a small section of dip tube, silicon tubing and get creative with the float. ie: sanitized pill bottle etc

 

[braindead]

Here’s that fermentation chart photo from Other Half. I had it saved on my phone from when I saw it in another thread.

They’re using LA III fermenting at 72 and doing a single dry hop on day 7 according to what I gathered from this.

Interesting to see how low the Ph is, that's close to sour levels.
Also how the Plato rises from day 6

 

[beervoid]

Interesting to see how low the Ph is, that's close to sour levels.
Also how the Plato rises from day 6

Thats pretty standard post fermentation PH and also fine for crisp beer like lager

 

[couchsending]

Interesting to see how low the Ph is, that's close to sour levels.
Also how the Plato rises from day 6

You’d be surprised how low the pH of an ale ferment gets during fermentation especially certain English Ale yeasts and even more so when fermented a bit warmer. I had wlp072 (which for all intensive purposes is English) hit 3.76 a few weeks ago. Went back up over 4 eventually.

 

[jjw5015]

https://www.williamsbrewing.com/Top-Draw-Beer-Pick-Up-Tube-P4643.aspx this is where I got mine, but it looks like their out of stock atm. You can also just use a small section of dip tube, silicon tubing and get creative with the float. ie: sanitized pill bottle etc

Morebeer has something identical to the top draw in stock. I have one on the way now.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/floating-dip-tube-1.html

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Interesting to see how low the Ph is, that's close to sour levels.

Murphys : "The acceptable range of pH for cask conditioned beers is 3·7 – 4·1 units"

 

[BeerFst]

What temp are you guys dry hopping after the soft crash? I crashed a 4gallon IPA (an all simcoe west coast) to 50F using A15 Independence for a few days. Transferred to starsan purged keg with 2oz Simcoe Pellets, and 2oz Simcoe Cryo (my first cryo experience). I wasn't really fearing Diacetyl or creep, but I dry hopped for 2 days at 60, then threw it in the keezer at 38. I'm using a CBDS on this one. Aroma during transfer (whatever came out the spund) was godly, but on the first pour a day later was pretty meh. I let it go 2-3 days like that and it improved slightly, but i'm wondering if it was just too cold to get good extraction. I went ahead and took it out the keezer last night to let it warm to ambient (65ish) to see if it gets better, and will throw it back in tonight.

all my previous dry hop attempts have been 65-70 as well.

Also wondering if its the CBDS, or if the cryo just isnt as potent as i expected. I had another IPA, similar dry hop amount though all pellets (albeit clear as well), where i used the janish dip tube so i was basically pulling beer through the dry hop charge. It has an incredible aroma the whole keg through. This beer was also fermented and served from the same keg so in hindsight yeast should have had an impact, but didnt at all.

 

[couchsending]

You might need a little longer at 60 than at higher temps. I’ll usually go 4 days between 57-62 before slowly dropping to 48 where I’ll hold for a few more days and then transfer. Generally dumping hops and trub along the way.

Give it time in the keg . Things can take a while to come together. I find it takes 7-10 days for things to come together and you might even go through waves of it smelling great and then seeming dull.

With highly flocculent yeast you don’t need to go that low. With independence you probably could just leave it at 60 for two days.

 

[Sbe2]

Here’s that fermentation chart photo from Other Half. I had it saved on my phone from when I saw it in another thread.

They’re using LA III fermenting at 72 and doing a single dry hop on day 7 according to what I gathered from this.

I will have to look for citra daydream and compare it to my citra NEIPa.
Is 1318 and A18 the same? I thought I read some where here that their isn’t an equivalent to 1318. Maybe @Northern_Brewer can point me in the right direction.
I need to try different yeasts is what it boils down to.

 

[couchsending]

A-18 is 1318 from BSI. A yeast lab in CO for professional breweries.

 

[SRJHops]

After reading this thread over many days I incorporated much of this in my latest BOTTLE CONDITIONED NEIPA. We've been using a few tricks for good bottle conditioning that I'll detail below (Hint: It's purging with CO2)

Full disclosure, we fermented this in a Spike Flex+ complete with a gas manifold in a fermentation chamber, but this could easily be adapted to a carboy with carboy cap or many other cheaper fermentation vessels.

I have become a convert to couchsending's method of soft crashing before the dry-hop and only a large single dry hop. In the past, I have found hop oils would drop out with the yeast when you finally refrigerate the bottle. You can't really roll or rouse the bottle without getting a lot of sediment in your pour. With a soft crash and then another crash before bottling I got the most intense hop flavor, stable haze, and less sediment in the bottle. Any fears of missing out on biotransformation can be allayed by using a large whirlpool addition. It's not like those oils are just going to disappear.

We blow CO2 through the manifold while dryhopping through the 4" TC port on top. I bought the Flex+ specifically for this feature over other brew buckets because it allowed me to do this. In the past, we purged with CO2 while doing the same in a PET carboy. We also maintain positive pressure while cold crashing to prevent oxidation from suckback (you could use the balloon method on a carboy or low PSI from a CO2 tank)

For the past two years we've been purging the headspace in our bottles with CO2 through a hose from the regulator, but recently splurged on a Blichmann Beergun. It is way easier to use, plus allows us to pre-purge the bottle and then again on the headspace. We bottled directly from the fermenter and carbed with a Domino Dot which worked pretty well. You could also do a closed transfer to a bottling bucket if you wanted to, but it seems like an extra step where something could go wrong. I found that in the past even doing open transfers to a bottling bucket the headspace purge led to much more stable beers.

My carbonation sample after 8 days in the bottle (one day in the fridge) was insanely aromatic, juicy and smooth. Better than many commercial examples and certainly better than previous homebrewed attempts.

Moral of the story is CO2 and soft-crashing are your friends.

Nice post. Power to the bottlers!

Was your final crash a hard cold crash? Or another soft crash?

For my latest, I did a soft crash to 60 on day 9, then the DH addition. I can't cold crash, but I am planning to go sub-50 via swamp cooler prior to bottling.

How many are doing a hard cold crash? Does it defeat the purpose for this style? If not, then could some gelatin be used instead of a cold crash? I'm thinking a really small amount like .25 tsp for 5 gal.

 

[Dgallo]

Nice post. Power to the bottlers!

Was your final crash a hard cold crash? Or another soft crash?

For my latest, I did a soft crash to 60 on day 9, then the DH addition. I can't cold crash, but I am planning to go sub-50 via swamp cooler prior to bottling.

How many are doing a hard cold crash? Does it defeat the purpose for this style? If not, then could some gelatin be used instead of a cold crash? I'm thinking a really small amount like .25 tsp for 5 gal.

Think about kegs and bottles to go in the fridge, does storing the beer and serving them cold hurt the beer in any way? No, cold crashing will just drop yeast, large branch proteins, and hop particles.

 

[BeerFst]

With highly flocculent yeast you don’t need to go that low. With independence you probably could just leave it at 60 for two days.

ywah I figured I was being a bit quick. Normally, even if I spund it seems to take a couple days for carb to be good and I’m probably getting benefit there. This batch it was spot on right away. Also A15 hasn’t been as flooculent as some of the other yeasts I’ve tried recently. It took the left over starter a full month to clear nicely

 

[SRJHops]

Think about kegs and bottles to go in the fridge, does storing the beer and serving them cold hurt the beer in any way? No, cold crashing will just drop yeast, large branch proteins, and hop particles.

True - just worried about stripping out flavor.

So what do you think about using a little gelatin instead? It would be easier for me than cold crashing. I have to set up the swamp cooler, lug water, and buy ice, etc. Real pain in the...

 

[tld6008]

True - just worried about stripping out flavor.

So what do you think about using a little gelatin instead? It would be easier for me than cold crashing. I have to set up the swamp cooler, lug water, and buy ice, etc. Real pain in the...

I think for gelatin to work properly it also needs cold temps

 

[SRJHops]

I think for gelatin to work properly it also needs cold temps

Oh, so it has to be used with cold crashing. Makes sense. Would some other fining agent work?

 

[isomerization]

Oh, so it has to be used with cold crashing. Makes sense. Would some other fining agent work?

Something like Biofine clear might work for you, I believe that works at room temps.

https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/biofine-clear-1-kg

 

[isomerization]

*duplicate post*

 

[SRJHops]

Something like Biofine clear might work for you, I believe that works at room temps.

https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/biofine-clear-1-kg

Thanks -- will take a look. I will probably just cold crash as best I can. Some of these fining agents freak me out: Polyclar is tiny bits of plastic?! WTF?

 

[hopheadbanger]

Nice post. Power to the bottlers!

Was your final crash a hard cold crash? Or another soft crash?

For my latest, I did a soft crash to 60 on day 9, then the DH addition. I can't cold crash, but I am planning to go sub-50 via swamp cooler prior to bottling.

How many are doing a hard cold crash? Does it defeat the purpose for this style? If not, then could some gelatin be used instead of a cold crash? I'm thinking a really small amount like .25 tsp for 5 gal.

We only crashed to 50, just to help the hops drop, and it seemed to do the trick. I have read lots of bottlers claiming to ferment quickly and leave lots of yeast in suspension but in my opinion that leads to all those solids crashing out in the bottle and then you've just got a bunch of sediment and less flavorful beer. As Dgallo said, the beer is gonna get cold sometime, might as well get all the stuff out and have 12 oz of clean, flavorful beer. The best thing you can do if you're bottling is purge the headspace of your bottles before capping. That has been a night and day difference.

 

[SRJHops]

We only crashed to 50, just to help the hops drop, and it seemed to do the trick. I have read lots of bottlers claiming to ferment quickly and leave lots of yeast in suspension but in my opinion that leads to all those solids crashing out in the bottle and then you've just got a bunch of sediment and less flavorful beer. As Dgallo said, the beer is gonna get cold sometime, might as well get all the stuff out and have 12 oz of clean, flavorful beer. The best thing you can do if you're bottling is purge the headspace of your bottles before capping. That has been a night and day difference.

Got it to 47 right now...will try to keep it around 50 til bottling tomorrow night.

I don't purge, but I do fill the bottle almost to the top. I fill straight from the fermenter into bombers with a sugar tablet in them. Cap on foam. Works like a charm!

 

[Hannabrew]

Spunding is fantastic and I use it for most beers but it doesn't work for this style.

A) hopping during fermentation does change and imo "muddy" the flavor
B) once the yeast drops so does the majority of the flavor/aroma. Shaking the keg temporarily revives it but I personally don't care to drink that much yeast in suspension.

 

[Hannabrew]

Slightly off subject but since it's been discussed in this thread and the other thread is more or less dead, for those doing closed transfers with fermonsters modded to have floating dip tubes, are you not running into flow issues? I'm about ready to go back to a spigot as I've had too many instances where I have to mess with it a bunch to get it to work right which defeats the purpose

for starters it takes a lot more pressure than I would expect to get the initial flow going. If there is even the slightest bit of a leak in the weldless fittings in the lid It can be a problem.

Secondly, after all the dry hopping the dip tube is sure to be clogged so I always blow gas through the liquid post a couple times during the crashing process.

Even with that, I've had issues getting the flow to start. Other times it will work great until I get to the last gallon at which point it stops. I've cut the tubing to try to make it so the dip tube won't go much lower than the gallon mark... Perhaps I just need to cut it more and just tilt the fermenter to get the remainder?

I just got done racking a beer that completely stopped no matter what I did. I eventually gave up and scrapped the last gallon above the trub and yet when I took the lid off and ran water through the post it came right out the dip tube so I have no idea what was stopping it from flowing. I could see the dip tube in the beer and it was not directly sucking up trub and when I blew gas through it it bubbled.

I hate losing beer so I dumped the remainder of semi-clear beer into a gallon mason jar and will wait for it to settle out before decanting it into PET to force carb and drink quickly but this sucks

 

[beervoid]

Slightly off subject but since it's been discussed in this thread and the other thread is more or less dead, for those doing closed transfers with fermonsters modded to have floating dip tubes, are you not running into flow issues? I'm about ready to go back to a spigot as I've had too many instances where I have to mess with it a bunch to get it to work right which defeats the purpose

for starters it takes a lot more pressure than I would expect to get the initial flow going. If there is even the slightest bit of a leak in the weldless fittings in the lid It can be a problem.

Secondly, after all the dry hopping the dip tube is sure to be clogged so I always blow gas through the liquid post a couple times during the crashing process.

Even with that, I've had issues getting the flow to start. Other times it will work great until I get to the last gallon at which point it stops. I've cut the tubing to try to make it so the dip tube won't go much lower than the gallon mark... Perhaps I just need to cut it more and just tilt the fermenter to get the remainder?

I just got done racking a beer that completely stopped no matter what I did. I eventually gave up and scrapped the last gallon above the trub and yet when I took the lid off and ran water through the post it came right out the dip tube so I have no idea what was stopping it from flowing. I could see the dip tube in the beer and it was not directly sucking up trub and when I blew gas through it it bubbled.

I hate losing beer so I dumped the remainder of semi-clear beer into a gallon mason jar and will wait for it to settle out before decanting it into PET to force carb and drink quickly but this sucks

Did you spray some starsan around the seams while pressurizing it? Sounds like u got some leaks.

 

[Hannabrew]

No leaks in this particular case...I can hear the leaks when there is one and the fermenter shows a steady 10 PSI

 

[flintoid]

Slightly off subject but since it's been discussed in this thread and the other thread is more or less dead, for those doing closed transfers with fermonsters modded to have floating dip tubes, are you not running into flow issues? I'm about ready to go back to a spigot as I've had too many instances where I have to mess with it a bunch to get it to work right which defeats the purpose

for starters it takes a lot more pressure than I would expect to get the initial flow going. If there is even the slightest bit of a leak in the weldless fittings in the lid It can be a problem.

Secondly, after all the dry hopping the dip tube is sure to be clogged so I always blow gas through the liquid post a couple times during the crashing process.

Even with that, I've had issues getting the flow to start. Other times it will work great until I get to the last gallon at which point it stops. I've cut the tubing to try to make it so the dip tube won't go much lower than the gallon mark... Perhaps I just need to cut it more and just tilt the fermenter to get the remainder?

I just got done racking a beer that completely stopped no matter what I did. I eventually gave up and scrapped the last gallon above the trub and yet when I took the lid off and ran water through the post it came right out the dip tube so I have no idea what was stopping it from flowing. I could see the dip tube in the beer and it was not directly sucking up trub and when I blew gas through it it bubbled.

I hate losing beer so I dumped the remainder of semi-clear beer into a gallon mason jar and will wait for it to settle out before decanting it into PET to force carb and drink quickly but this sucks

This has been a dance I've been learning as well. I've ran into all of the above issues, including broken lids. You end up flying through C02 if you have leaks, so here are some things that I've done to make things "better:"

- I've stopped dry hopping "excessively" in the primary. Sometimes I get drunk and toss in an ounce or two for the "biotrans" hopping, but usually I keep it to whirlpool and dry hopping only. This saves your CBD dip tube. Recently, I ran out of kegs to dry hop in, so I had to dry hop in the fermonster. I soft crashed at 50F to get all the hops to fall out, but I still lost about 1/2 gallon of beer once the dip tube got near the hop bed. Either brew sacrificial beer or keep the hopping in the fermonster to a minimum

-pressure to get it to transfer: 15psi seems to be the sweet spot. Any more and your ball lock towers start to leak around the base, or you risk deforming the vessel, or breaking a lid. I usually drink a beer or two while I do the transfer, casually releasing the pressure of the purged keg to keep things flowing. It takes usually 15 minutes if things don't hang up.

-leaks around the lid during transfer: if you have a fermentation that "goes nuts" and krausen gets all up in the lid and spills out of your spunding valve, make sure to never "reset" the lid seal if you have a leak, especially if you have hops in there. It'll gum up your lid if you un-tighten the lid and re-tighten, and your leak will be that much worse and you'll fly through c02. It's best to set it firmly and forget it

-clogged CBD tube: light blasts of c02 at 10psi usually clears it. The last transfer I did 15psi didn't clear the CBD.. pellet gunk got near that metal "ring" in the end of the tube and jammed it. If the floating ball was attached some other way, it'd prevent a lot of jamming. But then it'd just gum up the ball lock, so maybe it's a good "filter" of sorts. Maybe adding holes in the metal behind it will allow beer to still slowly transfer?

It's an art for sure. But keeping dry hopping to purged kegs and cold/soft crashing before a transfer makes it better. If you do get a jam, it's at the back end, and usually it's only about 1/2 gallon loss, rather than an oxidized batch. So over-brew a bit and you should be gtg even if you're dry hopping in the primary- I know you hate losing this beer, but I end up using it for gravity measurements and tasting notes after I pour it out and let the trub settle out of it- it ends up being quite useful. (that "primary vessel dry hopped" process yielded me an amazing beer btw with s04/t58/wb06 yeast blend... wow. I served it at a party I threw with a LA3 NEIPA and everyone loved the former over the latter)

 

[cheesebach]

Spunding is fantastic and I use it for most beers but it doesn't work for this style.

A) hopping during fermentation does change and imo "muddy" the flavor
B) once the yeast drops so does the majority of the flavor/aroma. Shaking the keg temporarily revives it but I personally don't care to drink that much yeast in suspension.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but I’m curious what issues you have seen when spunding with this style? It’s not clear to me how A & B in the second part of your post relate to spunding.

For me, I haven’t used spunding the last few times I’ve brewed this style, but it’s mostly out of laziness. The only way I’ve found to get dry hops in post-fermentation with spunding is to add an extra transfer to a secondary keg for the post-fermentation dry hop. You could also add sugar to carbonate after the dry hop, but then you’re defeating the purpose of the cold crash to drop the yeast.

Next time I have the time/desire to clean 5 kegs for one batch of beer, I may try a split batch to compare spunded vs force carbonated for this style to see whether I notice a difference.