Dry hopping with krausen still present

[Simonh82]

I've just had my first go at dry hopping and I am a little concerned I may have messed it up. I'm making an AIPA; an extract brew of my own invention. There's nothing particularly crazy about it, 3.7kg of DME, 400g of various steeping grains, US-05 yeast, rehydrated before pitching. It was 23L in the fermentation vessel with an OG of 1.054.

Fermentation seems to have been going fine and it is now 9 days in. I weighed out 90g of Simcoe and Cascade to dry hop with and added them to the wort.

The thing that surprised me was that there was still quite a significant krausen present and when I added the hops they just sat on top. I closed up the lid again as I didn't want to leave it open to infection for too long. Should I have given them a bit of a stir to get them to submerge, or will they be OK like this? Should I go back and give them a stir now, or just leave well alone? I know a lot of people use hop bags, or similar but I've just added them directly to the FV.

I was expecting primary fermentation to have finished by now so was surprised to see a significant krausen still very much present. Does this suggest there is something wrong with the fermentation? I've not taken a gravity reading yet, I wasn't going to mess with it until Friday and then I was planning on bottling at the weekend, assuming I've hit a stable FG.

 

[RZH]

I've just had my first go at dry hopping and I am a little concerned I may have messed it up. I'm making an AIPA; an extract brew of my own invention. There's nothing particularly crazy about it, 3.7kg of DME, 400g of various steeping grains, US-05 yeast, rehydrated before pitching. It was 23L in the fermentation vessel with an OG of 1.054.

Fermentation seems to have been going fine and it is now 9 days in. I weighed out 90g of Simcoe and Cascade to dry hop with and added them to the wort.

The thing that surprised me was that there was still quite a significant krausen present and when I added the hops they just sat on top. I closed up the lid again as I didn't want to leave it open to infection for too long. Should I have given them a bit of a stir to get them to submerge, or will they be OK like this? Should I go back and give them a stir now, or just leave well alone? I know a lot of people use hop bags, or similar but I've just added them directly to the FV.

I was expecting primary fermentation to have finished by now so was surprised to see a significant krausen still very much present. Does this suggest there is something wrong with the fermentation? I've not taken a gravity reading yet, I wasn't going to mess with it until Friday and then I was planning on bottling at the weekend, assuming I've hit a stable FG.

You won't know anything without taking a hydrometer reading. Fermentation takes as long as it needs to, there's typical times but nothing is definite.

Typically, dry hopping isn't done until primary fermentation is complete but in your case I guess it's too late. Just give the bucket a swirl, even if the hops are still floating on the top they will still give their lovely flavours.

It's best not to keep opening the lid, but you really need to take a reading to see how things are getting on.

 

[rodabod]

There's actually some logic to dry-hopping just short of final gravity: the theory being that the active yeat will absorb the oxygen introduced by the hops whilst also purging the oxygenated headspace with more CO2.

 

[clibit]

As long as the hops are in the beer and not just sat on foam they will do their aromatic business. Go back and swirl or stir if necessary. The krausen is not a problem, there is nothing wrong. I'd probably give it a very gentle stir, then swirl gently with lid on, this will release CO2 from the beer to protect the beer and encourage the yeast to drop too.

 

[Leon103]

Did you put them in loose? I usually put them in a Muslin hop bag and weigh down with a sterile spoon

 

[Simonh82]

I must admit that I panicked slightly when I opened the lid. I had already thawed and weighed out the hops and just assumed that the krausen would have subsided 9 days in. I think this is why I just chucked the hops in without really thinking.

This is only my second brew and the krausen of my first one went down much quicker despite erupting out from under the lid at one point.

I checked back a couple of hours later and the hops were still sat on top of the foam so I gave it a swirl. I think I was too vigorous so I hope I haven't oxygenated it significantly.

You live and learn aye!

It smells incredible even before the dry hop editions so I'm hoping for something passable in the end.

 

[clibit]

It'll be fine.

 

[Simonh82]

It'll be fine.

Just thought I would follow up on this thread. I had my first couple of bottles a few days ago (still very young I know).

Anyway it tastes amazing. Like the best American IPAs i've drunk and way better than the supermarket versions of AIPAs that have been popping up over here recently. I'm really happy with it!

I don't think it will hang around long:drink: but I'm not planning on leaving it to mature either. I did end up giving it much more of a stir to get the hops submerged than I would have liked. I'm worried it may end up going stale over time.

 

[marinali29]

:whistle:

it twists and turns,result is full :thumb:

Just thought I would follow up on this thread. I had my first couple of bottles a few days ago (still very young I know).

Anyway it tastes amazing. Like the best American IPAs i've drunk and way better than the supermarket versions of AIPAs that have been popping up over here recently. I'm really happy with it!

I don't think it will hang around long:drink: but I'm not planning on leaving it to mature either. I did end up giving it much more of a stir to get the hops submerged than I would have liked. I'm worried it may end up going stale over time.

 

[McMullan]

I wouldn't worry about it either. Some brewers actually dry hop at the vigorous primary stage, believe it or not. Their logic is the mixing of the wort by active yeast increases hop oil extraction significantly while the amount driven off by high CO2 production is much lower. You can add hops at any stage in the brewing process, from mash to bottle. There's no wrong way of doing :thumb: