# Dry hopping techniques



## Klosey (28/4/21)

I have tried various methods of dry hopping including during the time the yeast is working, after the yeast has finished etc. I recently came across an article written by Drew Beechum in Craft Beer and Brewing. He has changed the way he previously dry hopped. He suggests bringing the temperatures down to lager type temperature 3 to 4c after the yeast has finished working. Then dry hop for 2 days at those temperatures. He suggests by doing it this way it maximises the sought after fragrances linalool and it minimises the extraction green notes such as leafy vegetal and tannin flavours. Has anyone been down this track before? I am doing a Stone and Wood Pacific Ale Clone right now. The recipe recommends to dry hop for 2 days after fermentation has finished. So I am going to experiment and drop down to 3c before adding the Galaxy hops. Just have to be careful I don’t have any oxygen suck back.


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## JimmyMcFiddlesticks (28/4/21)

Would this increase the potential for hop creep?


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## duncbrewer (28/4/21)

My NZ pilsner recipe suggested cold hopping.
Came out okay


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## BKBrews (28/4/21)

I have been doing something similar (sort of) recently with good results.

I dry hop for 3 days (72 hours) prior to kegging, and do 24 hours at fermentation temp (e.g. 18c), followed by 48 hours at cold crash temp (e.g. 2c). In addition to this, I rouse the hops through the beer using CO2 blasted into the bottom of the tank, every 2 or so hours during the initial 24 hour period. I have been getting way better extraction using this method (I have a hazy session ale on voss that is at least 3 months old and still smells better than some I have done previously after less than a month - too bad that beer had hop burn).


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## Klosey (28/4/21)

JimmyMcFiddlesticks said:


> Would this increase the potential for hop creep?


Hi Jimmy. I do a diacetyl rest in both lagers and ales. If the yeast has finished eating all the sugars the chances of hop creep are far lessened. Let’s see what happens with this one lol


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## BKBrews (28/4/21)

Klosey said:


> Hi Jimmy. I do a diacetyl rest in both lagers and ales. If the yeast has finished eating all the sugars the chances of hop creep are far lessened. Let’s see what happens with this one lol



This is true in a sense, but I think the issue with hop creep is that there is an enzyme that can break sugars down into fermentable sugars, which then kicks off fermentation again. So regardless of attenuation, hop creep can be an issue.


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## duncbrewer (28/4/21)

Diastase enzyme in hops breaks down the big sugars into smaller ones that the yeast can then feast on. A prime cause of bottle bombs or overcarbonation if the hop matter isn't all eliminated prior to packaging.


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## Klosey (29/4/21)

BKBrews said:


> This is true in a sense, but I think the issue with hop creep is that there is an enzyme that can break sugars down into fermentable sugars, which then kicks off fermentation again. So regardless of attenuation, hop creep can be an issue.


I agree BK. To lessen the chances of hop creep is that my research has shown that hop creep is temperature dependant and if the finished beer is stored cold it will significantly reduce the enzyme and fermentation activity. I keg so storing cold is not a problem. After kegging I store at around -1c in my fermenting fridge until transferring to my pouring fridge at around 3c. Longer dry hopping time and higher temperatures result in more sugars. I haven’t had hop creep before but maybe because of diacetyl rests and storing cold has lessened this problem. Have never dry hopped at 3 or 4c but will give it ago after I do a diacetyl rest and because it is only for two days it is not a very long dry hopping time.


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## duncbrewer (29/4/21)

I've just done a weldwerks fitbits NEIPA clone ( a bit of a challenge ) and that uses enzyme to make it brut and then it needs back sweetening with a non fermentable. Don't think I need to worry about hop creep on this one as theres nothing left to feed the yeast with.


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## fifis101 (29/4/21)

Klosey said:


> I agree BK. To lessen the chances of hop creep is that my research has shown that hop creep is temperature dependant and if the finished beer is stored cold it will significantly reduce the enzyme and fermentation activity. I keg so storing cold is not a problem. After kegging I store at around -1c in my fermenting fridge until transferring to my pouring fridge at around 3c. Longer dry hopping time and higher temperatures result in more sugars. I haven’t had hop creep before but maybe because of diacetyl rests and storing cold has lessened this problem. Have never dry hopped at 3 or 4c but will give it ago after I do a diacetyl rest and because it is only for two days it is not a very dry hopping time.


This is what I was led to believe also. Primary ferment, diacetyl rest, then if you cold crash the yeast is going to be unresponsive to the hop addition. My last brew I did a 2 day diacetyl rest while at the same time added my hops. The 2 day cold crash then kegged. It was a bit too bitter for me so I will give try adding the hops only during the cold crash next time.


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## hopnotic (29/4/21)

I read the same article mentioned by the OP. I have a DIPA in primary right now. I might split my dry hop half/half at high krauzen and during cold crash. Will report back.


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## Klosey (29/4/21)

fifis101 said:


> This is what I was led to believe also. Primary ferment, diacetyl rest, then if you cold crash the yeast is going to be unresponsive to the hop addition. My last brew I did a 2 day diacetyl rest while at the same time added my hops. The 2 day cold crash then kegged. It was a bit too bitter for me so I will give try adding the hops only during the cold crash next time.


Hi Fifis, What temps do you cold crash. Any problems cold crashing in the fermenter before kegging. I normally cold crash in my keg after transferring from the fermenter at -1c. This time I am going to dry hop at 3c after the diacetyl rest in my fermenter then transfer to my keg. This Stone and Wood Pale Pacific Pale ale is brewing at 18.5 c and I will ramp it up to 22.5 during the diacetyl rest for 3 days depending on hydrometer readings before dropping it down to the 3c mark for 2 days. Never done it this way before. Might have to block the airlock with some cotton wool dipped In sterilised water to lessen any oxygen intake.


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## Klosey (29/4/21)

BKBrews said:


> I have been doing something similar (sort of) recently with good results.
> 
> I dry hop for 3 days (72 hours) prior to kegging, and do 24 hours at fermentation temp (e.g. 18c), followed by 48 hours at cold crash temp (e.g. 2c). In addition to this, I rouse the hops through the beer using CO2 blasted into the bottom of the tank, every 2 or so hours during the initial 24 hour period. I have been getting way better extraction using this method (I have a hazy session ale on voss that is at least 3 months old and still smells better than some I have done previously after less than a month - too bad that beer had hop burn).


Hi BK. What did you put the hop burn down to? Too many hops in the dry hopping process?


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## fifis101 (29/4/21)

Klosey said:


> Hi Fifis, What temps do you cold crash. Any problems cold crashing in the fermenter before kegging. I normally cold crash in my keg after transferring from the fermenter at -1c. This time I am going to dry hop at 3c after the diacetyl rest in my fermenter then transfer to my keg. This Stone and Wood Pale Pacific Pale ale is brewing at 18.5 c and I will ramp it up to 22.5 during the diacetyl rest for 3 days depending on hydrometer readings before dropping it down to the 3c mark for 2 days. Never done it this way before. Might have to block the airlock with some cotton wool dipped In sterilised water to lessen any oxygen intake.


I have been cold crashign down to 2degC. I'm brewing under pressure, so if there's plenty of presser in the fermenter before the cold crash then there's still positive pressure by the time it gets down to temp. If you are just using a regular fermenter then a trick I have seen before is to hook a balloon full of CO2 to your air lock (empty water out first), then when the temp goes down the baloon will shrink and stop any air getting sucked in.


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## BKBrews (29/4/21)

Klosey said:


> Hi BK. What did you put the hop burn down to? Too many hops in the dry hopping process?



was actually my first time using voss kveik, and I reckon it was a mix of the dry hop being too big, as well as the temp being too high. I think if I were to try again I would drop the temp to 18c after full attenuation and then dry hop and cold crash as normal. At the time I also read that aussie hops are susceptible to it, and I used a generous amount of enigma, vic secret, and galaxy (seriously - it smells so good).


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## ballantynedewolf (29/4/21)

I've been reading about hop creep because I'm getting increasing carbonation in older bottles and this lack of stability bothers me.
I'm unsure what the thresholds are though. I tend to only lightly or not at all dry hop, but I make (or try to!) lower alcohol beers with lots of body, and I don't take much steps to clear my beer. I tend to put kettle trub in the fermenter and don't often cold crash before bottling.
Am I a candidate for hop creep?
Could I have other issues eg bottles not clean enough?


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## MHB (29/4/21)

If you are adding hot break to your fermenter you clearly don’t give a fork about stability.
There are very good reasons for keeping hot break in the kettle. A bit of light reading.
Mark


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## ballantynedewolf (29/4/21)

Thanks for your advice.


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## duncbrewer (29/4/21)

ballantynedewolf said:


> I've been reading about hop creep because I'm getting increasing carbonation in older bottles and this lack of stability bothers me.
> I'm unsure what the thresholds are though. I tend to only lightly or not at all dry hop, but I make (or try to!) lower alcohol beers with lots of body,
> Could I have other issues eg bottles not clean enough?


I note you are trying to make low alcohol and lots of body. If there are still fermentable sugars left at the time of bottling even if ferment is going to occur very slowly you will overcarbonate in the bottle. If you are making say 0.5 % beers then you are really vulnerable to a wild yeast getting in and starting to chew down on those " body " sugars.

I think look at the sugars you've got in the bottle as the cause rather than any you might make with dry hopping and diastase enzyme ( especially as you aren't doing much dry hopping ).

Could consider pasteurising your beer if making a very low alcohol beer.
If you mean session beers say 3-4 percent which are overcarbed make sure ferment is really finished and use a priming calculator found on brewers friend so you don't add too much sugar at the bottling phase.


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## Doctormcbrewdle (30/4/21)

Warmer dry hopping for me has always been better. I get far more dank flavours than cold. Cold I can sometimes not even detect any dry hop at all.

Only time I've had hop burn was just recently dry hopping in a keg where I'd ground up the hop pellets didn't use a hop spider and tried shaking vigorously then had a blocked output six times in a row. That was something I'll only do once.. the beer is now two months old, still hazy as heck, hoppy as all hell but in a bad way. Keg's probably half empty but I'm still getting tiny particles in every beer that end up sitting bottom of the glass


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## ballantynedewolf (30/4/21)

duncbrewer said:


> I note you are trying to make low alcohol and lots of body. If there are still fermentable sugars left at the time of bottling even if ferment is going to occur very slowly you will overcarbonate in the bottle. If you are making say 0.5 % beers then you are really vulnerable to a wild yeast getting in and starting to chew down on those " body " sugars.
> 
> I think look at the sugars you've got in the bottle as the cause rather than any you might make with dry hopping and diastase enzyme ( especially as you aren't doing much dry hopping ).
> 
> ...


I mean 3-4% - low for a fan of the Belgians!
Is three steady FGs on 3 consecutive days enough, or should I spread those readings out more?


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## Klosey (1/5/21)

ballantynedewolf said:


> I mean 3-4% - low for a fan of the Belgians!
> Is three steady FGs on 3 consecutive days enough, or should I spread those readings out more?


I reckon 3 steady fg. on 3 consecutive days should work well. If you find on the 3rd day it has dropped slightly I would ramp up the temperature slightly check the fg the next day to see if there was any more movement in the fg.


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## Klosey (3/5/21)

Well one of the biggest fears I had dropping the temperature back to 3 to 4c after the diacetyl rest was oxygen suck back via the airlock. Have some sterilised cotton wool balls ready to block the airlock. But then it occurred to me that oxygen is going to enter the fermenter anyway when I remove the lid to add the hops to dry hop. I really want to try the dry hop at 3 or 4 degrees to experiment but I wonder whether it would make much difference if I dry hopped at 10 to 12c? Or am I just overthinking this


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## fifis101 (4/5/21)

You can set up a hop bag on the inside of your fermenter that's held to the under side fo the lid by a magnet. Then when you're ready to hop, simply remove the magent off the ouside of the lid and you've done an enclosed dry hop.


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## Klosey (4/5/21)

fifis101 said:


> You can set up a hop bag on the inside of your fermenter that's held to the under side fo the lid by a magnet. Then when you're ready to hop, simply remove the magent off the ouside of the lid and you've done an enclosed dry hop.


Thanks Fifis. Never thought of that. The magnet would have to attach to some metal on the hop bag? Would that comprise the sterility?


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## fifis101 (4/5/21)

Either that or have a thin plastic flap/strip permanently fixed to the inside of the lid on one end & with a magnet attached to the other end. Then removing the outer magnet releases one end of the flap & the hop bag. That way the inner magnet won't have to go in your beer.


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## duncbrewer (4/5/21)

Sorry for late reply hadn't been watching the thread by default for some reason.

I regularly use the magnet and hop bag trick. Trying to dry hop thru the collection vessel in FSaurus is hopeless .
I put a normal magnet into a vac seal bag. Then attach that into a " pocket " in the hop bag ( this helps to reduce the dangle and means magnet can be against wall with no hops inbetween) , then use a rare earth magnet salvaged from hard disk drives on the outside. 
This way you can slide the hops in and use it to swish it around and also raise it out of the beer when the time is up. 
Normal magnets inside and out not strong enough for a big hop batch. You must make sure that the hops stay out of the beer / krausen otherwise they can soak up and get heavy and you have an early dry hop ( learnt from experience) and hence changed to stronger magnets . Though I suppose if really clever and you want to hop around high krausen automatically then don't worry.


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## duncbrewer (4/5/21)

REgarding the suck back connecting to a large " wine bag " filled with CO2 you harvested during the ferment is a more reliable method than cotton wool which will not stop gas particles. ie attach tube to top of bubbler, other end of tube attached to wine bag and you make your own reservoir. When full seal wine bag and go back to bubbling into the atmosphere, reconnect it all when ferment finished and you are going to cold crash but no liquid in the bubbler this time. !!


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## yankinoz (5/5/21)

fifis101 said:


> You can set up a hop bag on the inside of your fermenter that's held to the under side fo the lid by a magnet. Then when you're ready to hop, simply remove the magent off the ouside of the lid and you've done an enclosed dry hop.



Wish I''d though of that ten years ago.


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## MHB (5/5/21)

A magnetic stir-bar works pretty well. They are Teflon coated so can be sterilised in anything. I wouldn’t put one of the nice shiny metal magnets into a brew they are mostly Nickel plated and in a acidic wort/ferment you can get some Nickel going into solution - pretty nasty toxic heavy metal for both people and yeast.

Mark


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## duncbrewer (6/5/21)

@MHB
as above "normal magnet into a vac seal bag" to protect magnet, brew and you.


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## MHB (6/5/21)

That works to. Helps if you have a vac sealer.
Little PTFE coated stir bars are pretty cheap these days and Teflon is so tough you could boil it in caustic, heat sterilise, soak in alcohol... I like bullet proof options
Mark


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## duncbrewer (6/5/21)

What I really need is to teflon coat a bigger magnet but think that's moving beyond homebrew.


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## /// (5/6/21)

Waste of time cold. Vdk pass then in. For more utility and if using a tank with ports bubble with 5 psi daily for a few mins, you would be amazed at how many float or sink.


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## Tomoc1989 (2/8/21)

Not sure if i have right place for this question.
Ive done couple batches using dry hopping now, i just take cap off throw hops in and purge with c02. Then re pressure uni tank/kegmentor to 8psi. 
testing the beer have great hop aroma but once kegged seem to loose alot of the aroma im after. 
i dry hop two days before cold crashing to 1*c for 18-24hrs then keg by closed transfer. 
is the cold crash causing the loss of aroma?


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## Doctormcbrewdle (2/8/21)

Tomoc1989 said:


> Not sure if i have right place for this question.
> Ive done couple batches using dry hopping now, i just take cap off throw hops in and purge with c02. Then re pressure uni tank/kegmentor to 8psi.
> testing the beer have great hop aroma but once kegged seem to loose alot of the aroma im after.
> i dry hop two days before cold crashing to 1*c for 18-24hrs then keg by closed transfer.
> is the cold crash causing the loss of aroma?



It will actually be the active yeast biotransforming the hop compounds into fermentables.

For MASSIVE, fresh aromatics be sure to dry hop after finning all yeast from the beer

All the best


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## Tomoc1989 (2/8/21)

Thanks for reply.
Ive tried chilling to 13-15*c and then dry hopping but had same effect in different batch. thought that would have made a difference but didnt. Still had a nice beer though. 
ill look into fining yeast once fermentation is over for next batch.


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## Doctormcbrewdle (3/8/21)

Have a read up on "hop creep" here when you get a chance and all the best for your next brew The Surprising Science Of Dry Hopping | Lessons From Tom Shellhammer


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