# Dry hopping 4-5 days in of fermentation



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

Hey guys I have a question to ask u all, to my understanding it is bad to take the lid off the fermenter while the yeast is active. Why do people dry hop at 4-5 days in of fermentation if the yeast is still active? I thought oxygen getting inside of your fermenter is bad.


----------



## sponge (4/8/15)

There'll be a layer of CO2 from fermentation to help protect the beer. There's a few breweries who still do open ferments.


----------



## The Judge (4/8/15)

You also want to do it while fermentation is still active, so that any oxygen that might get into the FV is consumed by the yeast. If fermentation is over and you dry hop by adding the FV then you're at risk of oxidation.


----------



## sponge (4/8/15)

If you're only throwing in some hops quickly and not sticking your head in or swirling the fermenter about, you're at a pretty low risk of oxidation.

I normally dry hop during CC, after fermentation has finished.

YMMV


----------



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

Cheers everyone I will give it a go tommorow coz it will b the 5th day of fermentation. How many grams of hops would u guys think would b appropriate after I have already dry hopped 30g of simcoe, 30g of citra and 30g of centennial in primary for a hoppy IPA? I heard its better in primary for 2 weeks than racking into secondary and getting a grassy taste. Cheers!


----------



## razz (4/8/15)

With regards to grams of hops for dry hopping, I use between 4-6 grams per litre in total.


----------



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

23 litre fermentation. It's a mates recipe and his IPA was bloody sensational and then I was reading why Brewers put more hops in after 4-5 days during fermentation


----------



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

? Cheers


----------



## technobabble66 (4/8/15)

The awesomeness of dry hopping out-weighs any concern of infection or oxidation.

In reality, infection is virtually unheard of from dry-hopping - just be quick with the lid off thing - and oxidation to the finished beer is not really altered by tipping in 10g+ of hops.

I personally would wait until the fermentation is finished - CO2 bubbles will "scrub out" the aromatic/volatile hops oils. The benefits from dry-hopping while fermentation is still active (i.e.: more CO2 will be formed) don't seem that relevant (i.e.: given that infection seems to be ~ not heard of).

Also, some extraction data suggests that the vast majority of hops oils are extracted within the first 2 days, and peaks by about day 2-4 (@ ~4°C, i think), especially for pellets. I know there's some good recipes out there that advocate dry-hopping over 2-3 weeks (e.g.: a great Pliny the Elder clone - v tasty!), but i prefer to go with scientific indicators generally.


----------



## Crusty (4/8/15)

As techno pointed out, it's best to dry hop after fermentation has finished.
As a general routine procedure, I ferment for 14 days & cold crash for 7 so if I was to dry hop, I do this at the end of day 12 at fermentation temperature, leave it for a couple of days then cold crash for 7 days. Dry hopping @1g/lt works nicely for me.


----------



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

Thank you for your feed back guys, now it makes more sense. After cold crashing do u guys get a grassy taste in your beer? I've done it racking into secondary and it was Grassy even leaving in my bottles for a month


----------



## Crusty (4/8/15)

brewtopbeer said:


> Thank you for your feed back guys, now it makes more sense. After cold crashing do u guys get a grassy taste in your beer? I've done it racking into secondary and it was Grassy even leaving in my bottles for a month


I think higher temps can be problematic for dry hopping & may lead to grassyness. I dry hopped a Golden Ale for 5 days at ambient temps before getting a temp controller & I got grassyness. When I only have the dry hops in for a couple of days @18deg followed by the 7 day cold crash, I've never struck it again.


----------



## razz (4/8/15)

I dry hop, between 15-10 degrees, 5-10 days.


----------



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

Cheers for your feed back guys it's much appreciated. The more questions I ask the more I learn. Thanks again and happy brewing


----------



## manticle (4/8/15)

Grassiness can be varietal dependent as well as amount, time and temperature.


----------



## Black n Tan (4/8/15)

brewtopbeer said:


> Cheers everyone I will give it a go tommorow coz it will b the 5th day of fermentation. How many grams of hops would u guys think would b appropriate after I have already dry hopped 30g of simcoe, 30g of citra and 30g of centennial in primary for a hoppy IPA? I heard its better in primary for 2 weeks than racking into secondary and getting a grassy taste. Cheers!


A lot of good advice above and of course varying ways of doing it. However I am curious by a few things in your comment above. This implies that you have already dry hopped with 90g of hops, yes or no? When did you add these hops? Do you want to dry hop the same batch twice (some do)? Are you contemplating using a secondary, if so why? 

Most tend to dry hop once fermentation is slowing or stopped to avoid blowing off all those beautiful but volatile oils. Some believe that by dry hopping before fermentation is complete that any oxygen introduced will be blown off. Others wait until fermentation is complete to avoid blowing off the volatile oils and by being careful you can avoid oxidising your beer. I do the later but have no problem with the former. In any case adding your dry hops at or near the end of fermentation makes good sense. I remember seeing a study that it only takes a max of 1-2 for the hoppy goodness to be extracted following dry hopping, so leaving it in for several days is probably unnecessary and leaving it in too long may contribute to grassiness.


----------



## brewtopbeer (4/8/15)

Yes I have dry hopped with 90g and I have dry hopped before I pitched my yeast in primary. I don't want to dry hop the same batch twice was just asking why Brewers dry hop 4-5 days in when the yeast is still active. No secondary!


----------



## Black n Tan (4/8/15)

Dry hopping before adding the yeast isn't ideal for the reasons I outlined above and there is a potential for introducing nasties with no alcohol to hold them in check. So next time dry hop at or near the end of fermentation. Of course you can dry hop this batch again if you think it is lacking hop flavour and/or aroma.


----------



## brewtopbeer (5/8/15)

No worries black n tan I will give it ago next time. Just thought I would try my mates recipe this time coz his beer came out beautiful in the end, even dry hopping straight from the start. Cheers for your feed back mate. Does make more sense dry hopping near the end of fermentation for flavour and aroma, practice makes perfect and thanks again!!


----------



## Chookers (24/12/15)

when you say 4-5 days does this mean you dry hop for 4-5 days or you put the hops in when its been fermenting for 4-5days?

I have some summer pellets 7.6% I want to dry hop the wheat beer I have planned for the new year. it will only be about 12L batch, I want to be able to taste that apricot they talk about in the description but I don't want it to over power the beer as I plan on putting 4L on fruit (raspberries most probably) as an experimental batch.

So how much pellets should I add for dry hopping and should I put it in after 4 days primary fermentation and how long do I leave them in..

I have tried to find this answer on this web site but all the answers I find are different, I suppose that's because everyone has their own taste and style.

I have never used Summer before, is it a good one? anyone know?


----------

