When to dry hop IPA

[slowdave]

I'm after some advice please.

I normally leave my FV for 2 weeks to ferment and clean up.
However, if I want to add dry hops on days 3/4 of the fermentation then this would mean leaving the hops in for 10 days.

Will this be ok or should I change my timings?
or should I keg after 7/8 days?
or add dry hops later?

The brew is MM Verdant Light bulb clone which has 120g of dry hops.
I'm going to ferment in my allrounder in a fermentation fridge and plan to include the dry hops in the allrounder in a hop bag kept out of the way until needed by magnets.

 

[DocAnna]

I'm going to be a typical and say... it depends
If you are going for a biotransformation dry hop then hopping relatively early at 48 hrs -72 hrs post pitching would be ideal, however in most cases you are looking to dry hop late. Based on my reading and experience so far I've moved the dry hop later and later, till now aim for 48-72 hours before taking the beer off the hops or reaching cold crash temperature and the hops are out of suspension. Ideally dry hop when the beer is a bit cooler than fermentation temperature 15-16 deg to minimise volatile oil loss and minimise the risks of oxidation.

This very late hopping though is more important for heavily dry hopped beers like an APA/NEIPA. For an IPA there's more leeway as the amount of hops is going to be typically lower. Assuming a 19-21 litre batch, your 120g dry hop is on the upper level of dry hopping so personally I'd start to chill the beer at 8 to 10 days, then at 15-16 deg dry hop, and cool to reach as close to 0 as you can get over then next 2 to 3 days. That then gives you some breathing time to plan your kegging/bottling since at that temperature it's going to cold condition and be stable. If you don't have a brewfridge to drop the temperature then even cooling it in a garage for the last 2 to 3 days then racking it off the hops and yeast would work.

Anna

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve left hops in for 10 days without issue.

However, I wouldn’t add hops at 3 days personally. There’s no universal agreement on dry hopping so there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing, but my take…

Dry hopping is to add flavour through bio transformation, and/or to add aroma through essential oils. For the former you’d be better adding hops on the first day of fermentation because it’s the first three days or so, while fermentation is most vigorous, that bio transformation takes place. For the latter you want to dry hop late in the fermentation so there’s less CO2 bubbling and scrubbing away all that aroma. Also, it only takes a day or two to extract the essential oils, beyond that you get very little further improvement.

 

[chillipickle]

They will be fine, i add hops on day 2 some times if i do a double dry hop.If you are using verdant ipa yeast it can finish in 5 days but still have krausen.