Time to dry hop?

[evanlee19]

Making a black ipa that calls for dry hopping. Been in primary for a week and I just took a reading; it is exactly where it should be at 1.012

There is still a layer of yeast on the top. Can I just toss the pellets in on top, or should I rack to a secondary. I know that nowadays most people say no reason to even use a secondary.

The plan is to add 2 ounces of pellets. Should put 1 ounce in this week, and then another ounce next week, then bottle? or just wait another week, then add the 2 ounces, wait a week, and bottle?

Primary is a 6.5GA Pail, and secondary would be a 5GA glass carboy if that matters.

Thanks for the help

 

[unionrdr]

1 week in primary isn't long enough. Give it another week to make sure it's done & you get a stable FG. Not to mention,letting it clean up & settle out more. Then put in both ounces in hop sacks to keep it clean for a week. Then bottle.

 

[Yooper]

I like to dryhop about 3-7 days before packaging. So, about one week before packaging is when I would dryhop the batch. If there is krausen, it may not be finished.

 

[ILBMF]

1 week is not long enough for dry hopping. 10-14 days will extract much more flavor. I like to use a secondary just out of habit not that it's necessary. Mostly because I reuse the yeast after one week and because I like to get the beer off of the yeast...it's all in my head.

 

[Yooper]

1 week is not long enough for dry hopping. 10-14 days will extract much more flavor. I like to use a secondary just out of habit not that it's necessary. Mostly because I reuse the yeast after one week and because I like to get the beer off of the yeast...it's all in my head.

Can you provide a link showing where 1 week isn't long enough for dryhopping and that longer will provid more flavor? That's almost exactly the opposite of what I believe and what I do- 3-7 days provides the best flavor in my experience. Thanks!

 

[SkyHighBrew88]

Listened to the BN's IIPA podcast yesterday. They basically were saying the amount of hops used in the dry hop, the amount of alcohol, and any CO2 coming off the beer had a lot to do with how much time was required. Pellets would take less time than leaf or whole they were saying. Also mentioned was that a guy from Russian River Brewing did some tests saying the aroma will peak and then turn vegetal soon after (talking day 14 or more).

 

[drez77]

I listened to a presentation form Vinnie at Russian River and he was advocating multiple dry hop additions for a shorter time. 5-7 days if my memory is right.

I like to do shorter dry hop times to avoid any vegetal flavors.

 

[ILBMF]

Can you provide a link showing where 1 week isn't long enough for dryhopping and that longer will provid more flavor? That's almost exactly the opposite of what I believe and what I do- 3-7 days provides the best flavor in my experience. Thanks!

I don't need a link. In my case, I switched from 7 days to 10-14 on the same recipe and I no longer need to add a 1/2 ounce of pellets to my kegs to get the same effect. After the longer duration my IPA's become almost too hoppy if I add the 1/2 ounce to the kegs...just my experience with my main recipe.

I switched from 7 to 10-14 days on the advice from a brewmaster that suggested 7 days was too short in a conversation we had. My own experience proved he was right. When I rack from the secondary to the priming tank I always taste a small glass of the beer and it never screamed ''HOPS!'' until I increased the duration to at least 10 days. Now, every time I taste that little glass of beer I'm reminded of how I do not need the 1/2 ounce in the keg. No bull, no exaggeration at all, just what I have observed repeatedly with my particular recipe for a Simcoe based IPA.