Plinian Legacy (Northern Brewer Pliny the Elder clone) dry hop schedule

[FuriousE]

Hello, brewed up the Plinian Legacy kit from NB. Got a question on the hop schedule. The suggested fermentation is 2 weeks primary, 2-4 secondary, and 2 weeks bottle conditioning. The dry hops are added in 2 rounds - one 10-14 days before bottling, the other 4-5 days before bottling.

I'm planning to keg, not bottle. I'm thinking about not doing a secondary. My tentative plan is to leave in primary the whole time. I plan to add the first round of dry hops at 2 weeks, and the second at 2 weeks and 5 days. Then, 3-4 days later, I will keg. My plan is to just toss the hops in loose.

Sound good? Do I need to remove the first round before adding the second?

 

[sparkeee277]

So from the research I've done and experience I have some rules of thumb:
1. I never leave beer on the original yeast cake more than 3 weeks. The yeast cake is done doing its work at that point, and some off flavors can start to develop after 3 weeks. (1 month might be OK)
2. I never leave the dry hops in the beer more than 4 days. Some people would argue this, but again, after 4 days the hops have mostly done what they are supposed to do, and they can start to develop a "swampy" flavor if left in for too long. If you are going to double dry hop, pull the first round out first.

If you are going to keg, why not just transfer to the keg and dry hop in there? Especially if you are going to double dry hop..... Use nylon hop bags..... They will swell in the beer but they are still easy to pull out through the big corny keg opening. I usually dry hop in the keg because you can seal it up tight and keep all that awesome aroma trapped in the beer.

I hope that helps.....

 

[FuriousE]

Thanks for the reply! I'm not very worried about leaving the beer in primary for 4-5 weeks. I've never gotten off flavors during that time.

Dry hopping in a bag in the keg isn't a bad idea. I might do the first round in primary and the second in a bag in the keg.

Any other thoughts?

 

[JonM]

I've made the original Pliny recipe maybe 4 times, and I've always done what you suggested in your original post and put both rounds of dry hops in the primary - it works just fine.

I've tried dry hopping in the keg in a hop bag, but I found it to be a pain and (I'm sure this was operator error) but I wound up with a ton of loose leaves floating around in the keg, and nearly every glass had leaf bits in them.

 

[kcmobrewer]

So from the research I've done and experience I have some rules of thumb:
1. I never leave beer on the original yeast cake more than 3 weeks. The yeast cake is done doing its work at that point, and some off flavors can start to develop after 3 weeks. (1 month might be OK)

Not true. Especially with that beer only being 8% or so. It will take a long time for any autolysis flavors to start showing up. Way longer than a month.

I have had to leave beers on their yeast cake for way more than a month. Didn't notice any difference.

 

[FuriousE]

I've made the original Pliny recipe maybe 4 times, and I've always done what you suggested in your original post and put both rounds of dry hops in the primary - it works just fine.

I've tried dry hopping in the keg in a hop bag, but I found it to be a pain and (I'm sure this was operator error) but I wound up with a ton of loose leaves floating around in the keg, and nearly every glass had leaf bits in them.

Ah! Excellent! This is what I was hoping to hear. Thank you, sir!!

 

[sparkeee277]

Not true. Especially with that beer only being 8% or so. It will take a long time for any autolysis flavors to start showing up. Way longer than a month.

I have had to leave beers on their yeast cake for way more than a month. Didn't notice any difference.

So I wouldn't necessarily say "not true", but maybe true with your experience. I suppose if your ambient temperature was absolutely consistent after fermentation was completed, you could leave it on the cake longer than a month. I live in California where we have huge temp swings, and I don't use a fermentation chamber... Therefore I pull if off the cake after 3 weeks..... In my scenario, the potential for autolysis is there at a faster rate....

I know John Palmer isn't the "end all, know all", but he advises a month max in How to Brew..... So I have always followed suit....

Bottom line, go with whatever works for you and your experience. Learning is all about trial and error....

 

[sparkeee277]

I've made the original Pliny recipe maybe 4 times, and I've always done what you suggested in your original post and put both rounds of dry hops in the primary - it works just fine.

I've tried dry hopping in the keg in a hop bag, but I found it to be a pain and (I'm sure this was operator error) but I wound up with a ton of loose leaves floating around in the keg, and nearly every glass had leaf bits in them.

I usually take a sanitized rubber band and close the top of the hop bag super tight with it, just in case you wanted to give it another shot sometime..... Nothing's ever escaped.....

 

[seanybubbles]

Ideally, I guess you could dry hop in the primary for a few days then transfer to secondary to dry hop again. Personally I would just dry hop in the primary....


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[TheToE]

In case anyone comes across this I'd like to thrown out my experience with this kit. I went super crazy/lazy with this one lol. No secondary and both rounds of dry hop at once!

I went 4 weeks in primary then dry hopped both rounds at once! :rockin:

Dry hopped for 4 days then to keg. Best beer I've made yet. Could be the best IPA i've ever tasted. I will be planning on doing this the same way next time. Between this and the 15 minute cascade pale ale, I simply see no need for me to go all grain at this point in time.

 

[PGEduardo]

...I simply see no need for me to go all grain at this point in time.

I started out extract and made great beer, but once you go all grain (BIAB is super easy) the major difference is being able to brew your brew for less than HALF the cost!

$50 for a 5 gallon kit is still cheap compared to COTS beers, but sub-$20 IPA's are where it's at :rockin:

 

[TheToE]

I started out extract and made great beer, but once you go all grain (BIAB is super easy) the major difference is being able to brew your brew for less than HALF the cost!

$50 for a 5 gallon kit is still cheap compared to COTS beers, but sub-$20 IPA's are where it's at :rockin:

Touche! You are right man, that is the one thing that keeps going through my head. I need to read up on BIAB.