Time to Dry Hop

[Davy6Mac]

Can anybody give me a bit of advice, my 4th AG brew is a kit clone etc, it's currently been in the FV for 4 days and is still bubbling every 5 seconds from the blow off tube, the recipe states to dry hop after 4 days but it seems to soon with the amount of fermentation still going on, shall I wait a bit longer.
The hops I am adding are as follows:-
Mosaic 75g
Citra 55g
Cascade 25 g

 

[terrym]

You are right to question instructions. Fermentations can proceed differently so a one-size-fits-all doesn't always work as intended
Anyway I usually wait until the fermentation has finished, however long that is, so that the fermentation CO2 doesn't strip out the some of volatile oils being to infused into the beer by the dry hopping process.
Others may do it differently.

 

[Clint]

I'm with T.

 

[Davy6Mac]

Thanks for the information much appreciated, will keep checking FV, and as you say will add dry hops after the fermentation has finished

 

[Sidri]

Is there a 'time limit' on how long you should dry hop for?

I have a Wilkos Hoppy Copper Bitter going into the secondary tonight, and I will be adding 70g of cascade pellets. I usually leave it the secondary for a week, will a week be too long for dry hopping? Should I wait until the last 2-3 days?

 

[terrym]

Is there a 'time limit' on how long you should dry hop for?

I have a Wilkos Hoppy Copper Bitter going into the secondary tonight, and I will be adding 70g of cascade pellets. I usually leave it the secondary for a week, will a week be too long for dry hopping? Should I wait until the last 2-3 days?

I assume by going into secondary you mean you have racked off and its now in another FV somewhere round fermenting temperature.
There are as many opinions as to how long you should dry hop for as there are people who do it. Mine is 4-6 days with the last 2 days in a cold place to finish dropping the yeast and to help sink the hops. Then bottle assuming you are happy its done.

 

[Sidri]

Thanks terrym,

you assume correct - I might hold off for acouple of days and give it the final 5 days for dry hopping.

Are there any negatives to going past a week with dry hopping? Is there any risk of spoiling the beer from excessive time dry hopping?

 

[Edison]

I believe if you leave your beer on dry hops for too long you can begin extracting chlorophyll/grassy flavours.

I aim for 3-4 days loose pellet hops at 14c in the FV (conical) then rack somewhere to cold crash at 0c for a few days.

 

[matt76]

Scott Janish summarises a lot of research into this in "The New IPA" - assume indoor here:
http://scottjanish.com/a-case-for-short-and-cool-dry-hopping/
Basically it points to shorter, cooler dry hopping, i.e. cold crash and then dry hop - at the homebrew scale as little as 24 hours could be sufficient. I'm currently experimenting with this approach but no conclusions yet.

Even without this I'd have said dry hop once fermentation is complete - 3 days should be sufficient, 4 tops, you're unlikely to see much benefit beyond this.

I suppose an advantage of dry hopping during the cold crash is that you're not then leaving the beer on the hops for an additional 2-3 days.

 

[Edison]

I like the idea of that, but don't like cold crashing my FV as the change in temperature draws air and sanitier up my blow off tube (sounds painful).

 

[micklupulo]

I have a query on this topic if anyone can help please. I am doing an MJ American Pale Ale kit which has fermented down from 1040 to 1010 in 5 days. The instructions say dry hop at 1025 which I always intended to ignore anyway and my intention is to do this in a day or two if I gauge that fermentation is almost complete. I do not wish to leave the pellets in for more than 4 days and I do not use a bag but just chuck them in. I never rack to another vessel and bottle via the tap in the FV with a wand. Because the wort sample I just tested looks very yeast laden I am thinking of attempting a cold crash on the third and fourth days of dry hopping. I cannot move the FV but could put large cool packs under the FV which I could refreeze at intervals. My queries are 1 whether this exercise is likely to make much difference to clarity and 2 whether (as I have seen referred to on here) the change in temperature is likely to suck in air via the airlock. Thanks in advance!

 

[Edison]

I’ve never considered dry hopping at a precise SG, I generally wait for the blow off to stop bubbling, give it a day or two and take a reading, give it another day or two and confirm it has hit FG with an identical reading, try and drop to 14c (the temperature Brewdog apparently dry hop at) throw the pellets in and then rack to BBT 3 days later.

If you’re bottling I suspect clarity shouldn’t be an issue, when you serve there should have been enough time for the yeast to drop down to the bottom of the bottle and stay there. If it is very murky in FV though you could end up with a lot of yeast in the bottle, more time in the FV should help and I cant see chilling the FV doing any harm!

My concern with chilling the FV to ~0C is because of my blow off arrangement. It has the potential to draw in a litre of StarSan into the beer. I would be interested to know if anyone has worked out the volume change in a FV being chilled. If you have an airlock and it’s not overfilled it ’shouldn’t‘ draw in a significant amount of sanitiser (some people use vodka just in case) and the amount of air drawn in ‘may not’ be an issue, but I don’t like chancing it!

Don’t worry about leaving the beer on the yeast too long, IMO you shouldn’t get any off flavours fro this for at least a month or two, if not longer. You can, however, get ‘grassy’ off flavours by leaving it on dry hops for more than a week.

 

[micklupulo]

Thanks. I was not concerned about getting the wort off the yeast but want to reduce the quantity of yeast reaching the bottle. I use cooled boiled water in the airlock so it would not be the end of the world if some got sucked in though air could be more of a problem. However if I do what you describe and only chill to about 14° which will be easier anyway there will be less change in pressure and less chance of anything being sucked in.

 

[Edison]

Yeah, at 14c I see a rise in the sanitiser in my blow off tube but I can cope with it. I can pinch/fold the tube, fill the bottle of sanitiser with CO2 and raise the erelease the negative pressure filling the tube back with CO2 (more or less).

Time and cool should help drop more yeast out. Hitting FG is my cue to dry hop and then rack off 3 days later.

 

[ChrisT685]

Hi all! I'm just approaching 1010 on my Young's AIPA kit and will dry hop shortly..... This is my first kit with dry hops.

Is it worth racking into another FV before hopping or not? I'm guessing the answer is a personal choice one but really interested to see what everyone else does. Thanks in advance !

 

[Ale House Rock]

Hi all! I'm just approaching 1010 on my Young's AIPA kit and will dry hop shortly..... This is my first kit with dry hops.

Is it worth racking into another FV before hopping or not? I'm guessing the answer is a personal choice one but really interested to see what everyone else does. Thanks in advance !

Personally, i would dry hop into primary FV then rack prior to bottling.

 

[Keruso]

Hi all! I'm just approaching 1010 on my Young's AIPA kit and will dry hop shortly..... This is my first kit with dry hops.

Is it worth racking into another FV before hopping or not? I'm guessing the answer is a personal choice one but really interested to see what everyone else does. Thanks in advance !

I put the dry hops in the primary FV at the end of fermentation for two days, one of which is cold crashing. I then used to siphon into another bucket before bottling. There’s a long debate on whether it’s necessary for a secondary fermentation, I’ve never bothered.

 

[Edison]

I dry hop with loose pellets into the primary when fermentation has finished and yeast has been reclaimed from the bottom valve of my conical fermenter. They sit on the top briefly then compliantly sink to the bottom after a few days. I usually dry hop at 14c and get very roughly 1l of trub per 100g of dry hops. I then rack from the raised racking port above the trub level to a BBT (modified corny) for cold crashing at 0c for a week or until I have a serving keg available.

 

[Edison]

Thats a good read @matt76 I'm about to try this. Cold crashing to 4c in the FV then I'll dry hop 30g Fuggles for 48hrs.

I have Wyeast London III pitched which I want to harvest. I'm hoping as its "true top cropping" this will convince it to drop out so I can collect from the bottom dump valve prior to dry hopping.