Dry hopping timings

[MikeBusby]

I have just brewed a hoppy golden ale which requires dry hopping. At the moment, my fermentation schedule is 7 days @ 18C, then increasing the temp one degree C per day over 3 days, then cold crashing for 2-3 days. Total 13 days.

I understand that you should not keep the hops in the beer for more than 3 days. Does that include the cold crashing time though? Does that mean I should dry hop just before cold crashing?

 

[The Baron]

Can of worms and several different ides even with established brewers.
I can only give my schedule as you will get many different routines.
I dry hop after the first initial drop in fermentation say day 3 or 4 then dry hop for 3 to 5 days then remove the hops. I then let the fermentation finish as per your method then cold crash then keg/bottle.
It has been proved by a majority of brewers that you would have to dry hop for quite a time to get vegetative off flavours from the dry hop.
You will get loads of different schedules just go for the one that suits your brewing schedule best IMO

 

[MikeBusby]

Can of worms and several different ides even with established brewers.
I can only give my schedule as you will get many different routines.
I dry hop after the first initial drop in fermentation say day 3 or 4 then dry hop for 3 to 5 days then remove the hops. I then let the fermentation finish as per your method then cold crash then keg/bottle.
It has been proved by a majority of brewers that you would have to dry hop for quite a time to get vegetative off flavours from the dry hop.
You will get loads of different schedules just go for the one that suits your brewing schedule best IMO

Thanks, Baron. I wasn’t planning on removing the hops as, although I could put the hops in a bag, I can’t think of an easy way to remove the bag without potentially introducing a lot of oxygen. Any thoughts on that?

 

[The Baron]

That's why I dry hop while it is in active fermentation it is still producing co2.
So when you add the hops it is still in the end of vigorous fermentation and should still be releasing co2 albeit at the back end of fermentation when you remove them so that expels any oxygen and the beer will have a blanket of co2 over it when adding/removing the hops

 

[Jim Brewster]

When I've dry hopped the hops have never failed to drop to the bottom after a few days. I don't think putting them in a bag allows them to infuse as effectively.

 

[The Baron]

I have always put them in a bag with a couple of SS tablespoons to weigh them down while suspended with fishing line and never had a problem.
This where I have said different brewers have different schedules as does Jim and styles, neither is wrong but choose which suits your brewing style best

 

[Druncan]

I may be stirring things up but, I seem have found much better way of adding hop aroma to brews after fermentation. I use the equivalent of a cafetiere (french press) Sanitise then add hops and boiled and cooled 60*C water. Insulate and leave 15 mins. Add cooled tea to brew. Repeat until no aroma/you get bored,,,, I do seem to use less T90's / brew. I'll probably get shot down for this,,,,

 

[The Baron]

No Druncan it is yet another way, its up to the OP to glean as much info and find a way that suits.
All have been sensible methods albeit different up to now

 

[buddsy]

I was chatting to my relative who has a small commercial brewery here in Norfolk. He makes one of the best IPAs Ive ever had, He told me for dry hopping he puts the hops in a muslin bag into the fermenting beer. Then each day he dons sterilised gloves and give the bag a good old squeeze.

buddsy

 

[hoppyscotty]

I personally dry hop after active fermentation and for 3 days then pull the hops out of the beer or visa versa. I don't like to leave the hops in longer than necessary and after a few days they've done their work. Alot depends on the type of hop of course. Grassy flavour is desired for some beer styles so you can leave them in longer, but if you're after a modern light zingy citrous flavour then that requires a different approach altogether.

I dry hop out of the fermenter in a keg so can give the keg a good swirl to keep them agitated and pull the beer off when I want to control contact time exactly. I don't like beer, trub and hops to be occupying the same space at any one time.

 

[buddsy]

I have a beer fermenting I was going to dry hop but Im now thinking about adding as a hop tea.

What are peoples thoughts on adding that way rather than dry hopping?

EDIT: Sorry I forgot I got the idea from Druncan above in this thread!


buddsy

 

[MikeBusby]

I may be stirring things up but, I seem have found much better way of adding hop aroma to brews after fermentation. I use the equivalent of a cafetiere (french press) Sanitise then add hops and boiled and cooled 60*C water. Insulate and leave 15 mins. Add cooled tea to brew. Repeat until no aroma/you get bored,,,, I do seem to use less T90's / brew. I'll probably get shot down for this,,,,

That sounds like a good idea, Druncan. At what point do you add this ‘tea’?

 

[Druncan]

At the moment it's after conditioning as I keg. ,,, Just seems to work for me!

However, I have been experimenting with bulk conditioning a while regularly dropping trub as we use it to make bread. Beer goes into kegs almost clear. But it's a *ugger cleaning the unitank cooling coils even with CIP,,,,

But, it's all a learning process, always one step from flipping disaster:tinhat:,,,,

 

[hoppyscotty]

Well another option is to use the new hop extract products of course. I like adding hops to the beer as I think there is an interaction between the beer and hops that adds other flavour contributions other than just the hop aroma and flavour...I've never noticed anything form biotransformation which is why I don't do it..whenever I've dry hopped during active fermentation my fermentation fridge smells of hops as does the trub I throw away and all that is hop contribution I want in the beer...so getting the beer off the trub after fermentation and dry hopping cooler, at around 15 degrees, while closing up the fermenter seems to give the best results of all the methods I've tried so far. But I keep intending to try the new hop extract products...the Incognito for hop stands and the Spectrum for dry hopping, just to see, but kind of feels like cheating to me. But then compared to leaf hops pellets is cheating and Lupomax pellets takes the cheating to another level and once you're there its a natural next step to go to full on extracts, or a mixture of them.