When to dry hop

[Estrada]

I bought an extract kit from Northern Brewer. Original Gravity was 1.052, now it's at 1.011 (took 2 readings within a few days so the 1.011 is stable). The instructions state that after primary fermentation ends I should be racking to a secondary for 2 - 3 weeks and then dry hop for for a week, and then bottle. Well after some research I'm thinking that racking to a secondary is more trouble than its potential worth, so no racking to a secondary for me. With that in mind, should I be leaving it in the primary for the 2 - 3 weeks that it would have been in the secondary?

While the beer tastes good at this point, clarity isn't all that great. Initially I was going to rack to secondary to clear it up but after much internal debate, I decided to forego that option for some cold crashing.

Brewing a session IPA...

Thanks!

 

[WayFrae]

You can dry hop before or after you cold crash. I have found that I get slightly more hop aroma from dry hopping after a cold crash. It is a very slight difference though. I find it easier to just dry hop before my cold crash since the cold crash seems to help the hops sink to the bottom a little better.

 

[antony]

I'd leave it in primary for 2-3 weeks to clean up and then cold crash for clarity. Dry hopping is a personal preference, but I'm all for dryhopping around week 3 for 5 days then cold crashing then bottling.

 

[WayFrae]

I'd leave it in primary for 2-3 weeks to clean up and then cold crash for clarity. Dry hopping is a personal preference, but I'm all for dryhopping around week 3 for 5 days then cold crashing then bottling.

For what clean up? Yeast do their clean up within 24 hours of after fermentation has completed. Any additional time in the fermenter is just going to clear the beer and in this case cold crashing will be clearing the beer anyways.

 

[philosofool]

Dry hop now. Aggitate the fermenter after three days, again after five. This helps to redistribute the oils, increasing hop character. Once you hit eight to twelve days, add gelatin (unless you are vegetarian or care about that), which you can read about here, and cold crash. Gelatin appears to help a lot with hops debris. If you don't care about clarity, you can skip the gelatin.

 

[Calder]

Gelatin appears to help a lot with hops debris. If you don't care about clarity, you can skip the gelatin.

It also pulls some of those precious oils you just put in the beer with the dry hops.

Use gelatin before dry hopping.

 

[philosofool]

It also pulls some of those precious oils you just put in the beer with the dry hops.

Use gelatin before dry hopping.

Or just increase hops to compensate, make a marvelously clear beer that you want to look at and impresses your friends. Killing a little hop flavor isn't a sin, and you can fix it with... hops.

 

[Calder]

Or just increase hops to compensate, make a marvelously clear beer that you want to look at and impresses your friends. Killing a little hop flavor isn't a sin, and you can fix it with... hops.

Touche