When do you dry hop?

[TurnipGreen]

I feel like I see more people dry hopping at full krausen and I’m wondering why?
Good, bad, or indifferent I’ve always dry hopped right before the beer drops bright. I remember reading an article that dry hopping during krausen runs the risk of losing all the delicious hopping oils along with all the gases produced during active fermentation. Has that been debunked?

So, when do you dry hop and more importantly, why do you hop at a specific point?

thanks

 

[doogie]

I recently switched to cold crashing before dry hopping in my NEIPAs and the difference in aroma was very noticeable. I had previously been hopping at the end of fermentation. There is a greater risk of oxygen exposure, but I haven't had any issues as long as I keep it out in the rest of my processes.

 

[Golddiggie]

IF I'm going to add any hops post boil, it will be in the keg as it goes into the fridge/keezer to carbonate/chill. I like to use leaf hops for that since it seems to give me a better end result. It's one of the reasons I'm on the hunt for a pound (or two) of leaf EKG hops. I have about 4-1/2 pounds of pellet on hand. But wantz some leaf!

 

[tracer bullet]

I do tail end of fermentation. I work it backwards -

Predict when I might want to keg the beer, based on yeast activity (meaning actually the lack of yeast activity). Then decide how long I want the dry hops to be in the fermenter (usually 3 - 5 days for me). That tells me about when to throw them in.

Putting them in too early *might* (I don't have evidence) lose some aroma from the fermentation still going on, and / or end up with them sitting in there for 2 weeks if fermentation creeps along to the end for some reason. Putting them in too late - well there's not really such a thing within reason, and the worst is that it delays kegging by a couple days.

So I err on the late side. About when airlock activity is barely doing anything, it's time to put them in. Couple days later it's time to keg.

It's tough, I am a week into a pale ale fermenting right now and want to throw them in so I can keg and drink. But it's just too early yet.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

i work it backwards as well. after fermentation is done i decide what day is going to work with my schedule to keg and i put them in 3 to 4 days ahead of that. i usually do a soft crash before adding them.

 

[Jag75]

I dry hop 3-5 days before kegging .