West coast IPA brew schedule

[Hsuan-Tso Shen]

Hi all

I plan to brew the west coast IPA, and need to ship the beer to competition on Sep 30th, and the judge date is on Oct 7th.

Due to super busy schedule during Aug and Sep. There are two schedule as follows which I can only did for this batch of beer, but no idea which one is better.

Option 1
Brew Aug 17
Dry hop Aug 28
Pack to Keg. Aug 31
Two week to generate Co2. Sep 14
Transfer to PET and ship Sep 30
Judge date Oct 7

Option 2
Brew Aug 25
Dry hop Sep 11
Pack to Keg. Sep 14
Two week to generate Co2. Sep 28
Transfer to PET and ship Sep 30
Judge date Oct 7

The major different between option 1 and 2 is the main fermentation days. For option 1, it is 2 weeks. For option 2, it is three weeks.

Question
1. For the advantage of option 1, the fermentation is spend 2 weeks. I think the whirpool can be well stay on the beer.
However, the disadvantage is that I pack the beer onr month before the judge date. I think that it will somehow impact dry hop flavor .

2. For the disadvantage of option 2, the fermentation need to spend 3 weeks. I think whirpool flavor will not as good as option 1 ； however, I just pack two weeks before the judge date. So dry hops flavor should be better than option 1.

Pleaee just let me know your comments
Big thanks

 

[JohnSand]

I think the difference won't be much. I would generally start sooner to allow for any schedule changes or adjustments to the beer. I also find that my beers change for the better in the first few weeks.
Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Pleaee just let me know your comments

Did you brew the beer? Timing IPAs for comps can be a bit of a challenge, especially when the submission deadline is several weeks before the judging. I tend to think that American IPAs should look fairly clear, so a brew day of 5-6 weeks before submission is about idea. This gives ~2 weeks for fermentation, dry hopping and cold crashing (with some wiggle room) and 3-4 weeks of conditioning in the keg.