When dry-hopping in primary, can you add hops too early?

[damdaman]

I'm planning on dry-hopping a beer I made a week ago, and the schedule I drew out has me throwing in the dry hops after 7 days. Thing is, the airlock is still bubbling happily away, several per minute, and I can still see very small yeasties slowly stirring around in the beer, so I think it's still in primary fermentation stage. The krausen has fallen back in (except for the stuff stuck to the sides of the carboy).

Can I just go ahead and dry hop as planned or should I wait until more yeast drops out?

Thanks in advance...

 

[pkiller001]

I don't have too much experience here, but I'd wait.

The last time I dry hopped when I transfered to secondary, which re-started the fermentation. I lost a lot of hop aroma out the airlock.

My two cents: hold off until you're at, or at least close to, target gravity.

-aaron

 

[pkiller001]

I don't have too much experience here, but I'd wait.

The last time I dry hopped when I transfered to secondary, which re-started the fermentation. I lost a lot of hop aroma out the airlock.

My two cents: hold off until you're at, or at least close to, target gravity.

-aaron

 

[RyanPDX]

I am far from an expert, but I believe you want to wait until the bulk of fermentation is complete before dry hopping. And as always, the airlock is no way to tell if its done.

 

[janzik]

Check your gravity. When it stabilizes a few days in a row, then either rack it or leave it (everyone will tell you something different) then add your dry hops (in a bag or not, everyone will tell you different).

I rack to a secondary carboy and sometimes just throw the hops in, sometimes I use a grain sock. It depends how lazy I am and what I have available at the time.

 

[damdaman]

Thanks for the opinions. Yeah I'm aware not to trust the airlock entirely but seeing all the yeast still swirling around kind of tells me that it's still working.

I'm going to wait until it looks more like it's done before taking a hydrometer reading and making a decision.

 

[billdog]

So I was a little toasty durring my last brew day. As a result I added my dry hops to the primary at the same time I added the wert and yeast. This was my first experience with the whole "dry Hopping" thing, so did I reaslly screw up the batch? What ill effects will I have?

 

[Calder]

I'm planning on dry-hopping a beer I made a week ago, and the schedule I drew out has me throwing in the dry hops after 7 days. Thing is, the airlock is still bubbling happily away, several per minute, and I can still see very small yeasties slowly stirring around in the beer, so I think it's still in primary fermentation stage. The krausen has fallen back in (except for the stuff stuck to the sides of the carboy).

Can I just go ahead and dry hop as planned or should I wait until more yeast drops out?

Thanks in advance...

Wait until yeast activity seems to have stopped. If you add the hops too early, a lot of the aroma will go out with the CO2. If the airlock has bubbles, there will be some aroma going out too.

So I was a little toasty durring my last brew day. As a result I added my dry hops to the primary at the same time I added the wert and yeast. This was my first experience with the whole "dry Hopping" thing, so did I reaslly screw up the batch? What ill effects will I have?

The beer will be fine, you will just lose some of the aroma from the dry hops. You can add some more later to get the dry hop effect.

 

[iancl]

"Originally Posted by billdog
So I was a little toasty durring my last brew day. As a result I added my dry hops to the primary at the same time I added the wert and yeast. This was my first experience with the whole "dry Hopping" thing, so did I reaslly screw up the batch? What ill effects will I have?"

I'm in the same boat. Is there any benefit to pulling out the bag? It has only been in 24hrs.

 

[matt2778]

You ideally want primary fermentation to cease. The co2 will scrub out the hop aroma if fermentation is active. If you did hop too early there's nothing to worry about other than that your not using your hops efficiently. If your dryhopping with an ounce of cascades it's not a big deal but wasting 5 ounces of simcoe is a bit of a tragedy.

 

[Pilgarlic]

You want even more patience than has been suggested. Let the beer clear, then dry hop. If you dry hop before then, the flocculating yeast will carry some or even much of the hop character with it. Wait for the beer to clear, dry hop, wait a week, and package. I have an APA I'm waiting to dry hop right now. I've been waiting three weeks and it's not nearly cleared, so I'll continue to wait.