[fmader]

over hopped last few pints.

No such thing! That's like saying the last bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch of the box is over cinnamonized! lol

[Jeff M]

over hopped last few pints.

No such thing! That's like saying the last bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch of the box is over cinnamonized! lol

While i am of your religion Fmader, i have to disagree. i had a batch of Pliny the elder that sat on dryhops for an extra week or 2, it is most definitely overhopped.

[Pi]

Some guys wait until fermentation is completely over.  My guess is that the timing there doesn't matter much.

Having a little fermenting going on helps carry away oxygen trapped in the hops (yes, there's o2 even in pellets). too much fermentation carries away flavor/aroma defeating the purpose of dry hopping. i put my hops in the primaryfor a week or so and rack to another carboy for a day or so if I'm kegging, so I dont suck any hops up the dip tube.

[flbrewer]

After much debate and assistance, I've decided to simply dump in the hop pellets into primary very close to when fermentation is done (actually the recipe states to do this after 5-7 days). At the same time, I am going to (attempt) to cold crash my 6 gallon carboy. Will cold crashing impact the time that I should have the hops in there before bottling? The recipe calls for aging 7-10 days before bottling. Shouldn't be an issue, but since I'm using a cold water/ice bath, 10 days of this may be annoying.
How cold should the temp be?

[morticaixavier]

After much debate and assistance, I've decided to simply dump in the hop pellets into primary very close to when fermentation is done (actually the recipe states to do this after 5-7 days). At the same time, I am going to (attempt) to cold crash my 6 gallon carboy. Will cold crashing impact the time that I should have the hops in there before bottling? The recipe calls for aging 7-10 days before bottling. Shouldn't be an issue, but since I'm using a cold water/ice bath, 10 days of this may be annoying.
How cold should the temp be?

7 days is fine. get it as cold as you can.

[flbrewer]

What if it's not done fermenting when I cold crash for a week? I'm guessing I'll need to take a reading.


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[morticaixavier]

What if it's not done fermenting when I cold crash for a week? I'm guessing I'll need to take a reading.


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never do anything until you've determined through serial readings AND taste that the fermentation is really done.

[Joe Sr.]

My experience is that my beer is best left undisturbed.  Adding dry hops to the primary would be my preference (one less racking - so a lower likelihood of contamination).  Sometimes, however, reasons exist for using a secondary (where harvesting yeast from the primary, fruit is added, extended aging, spicing, or a true secondary fermentation of some other additive).

In the past two weeks I've done a couple things I haven't done in ages. I added fruit, I dry-hopped, and I used a secondary.

I dropped the fruit right into the primary since I wasn't planning to harvest the yeast.  Never really thought about transferring.

I transferred to a secondary before dry hopping, but mostly because I was splitting the batch and wanted it in smaller fermenters.  In order to minimize O2 exposure, I put a carboy cap on the smaller carboys and flushed them with CO2 through a racking tube, pushing the air out the other hole in the carboy cap.  I then hooked the transfer line to the racking tube and fed the beer straight to the bottom of the new carboy with no splashing.

[coastsidemike]

It's been my experience that dry hopping in the primary will give you a reduced aroma vs dry hopping in a secondary or keg.  I've read from many sources that the yeast cells absorb many of the volatile hop oils you want in the aroma from your dry hop addition.  I've even heard of breweries actually filtering their beer prior to the dry hop to get better hop aromas.

I've heard there's a threshold temp (like 50 degrees) for cold crashing where the yeast will drop out and the hop oils remain.  Is there a way of measuring for hop oils beyond taste?

[flbrewer]

Bumping this to clarify...my beer has been in primary for 2 weeks. I'm going to dump the hops straight into the primary while cold crashing. Does this sound right?

[duboman]

Bumping this to clarify...my beer has been in primary for 2 weeks. I'm going to dump the hops straight into the primary while cold crashing. Does this sound right?

Personally I like to dry hop for 5-7 days once the beer has dropped clear, then I toss in the hops. After the 5-7 days I then cold crash for 2-3 days. IME the aroma and flavor is better when dry hopping at ambient temp (60F).

[flbrewer]

Bumping this to clarify...my beer has been in primary for 2 weeks. I'm going to dump the hops straight into the primary while cold crashing. Does this sound right?

Personally I like to dry hop for 5-7 days once the beer has dropped clear, then I toss in the hops. After the 5-7 days I then cold crash for 2-3 days. IME the aroma and flavor is better when dry hopping at ambient temp (60F).

So you cold crash to clear before hops and then again to drop the hops?


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[dkfick]

That's what I do... Though I use a bag or stainer for my dry hops so I don't really to a 2nd crash to get the hops out...I usually just make it cold after the dry hop to carbonate and server the beer.

I agree that removing as much yeast as possible before the dry hop addition will give you the best hop aromas from your dry hops.

[flbrewer]

Will cold crashing even drop hops?


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[dkfick]

Seems to in my experience.  I have dry hopped without a bag/container before and cold crashing was the only way I could get them to drop out to rack (they were pellets).