Dry Hoping For Pressure Fermenting - At What Stage??

[Nob]

Hi All,

I am just getting into Pressure Fermenting.

Recently I put a brew down using one of the Wort Kits from All Inn Brewing.
I wanted to Dry Hop but wasn’t sure at what stage to place the Hops in.

The procedure I used was to place the wort into a Fermenter (Snub Nose) and Yeast and allow it to pressurise itself. I had a Spunding Vale attached to the Gas side and kept it at around 20 PSI @ 15C for 4 days.

After the 4 days I bought the temperature up to around 20C to rest. This was another 4 days before I then bought it down to 2C to clean it all up. Gas was introduced at the point where it began to rest.

I use a Day Count and a visual to work out when approximately fermentation has stopped.

The main driver for this is that I am a shift worker, working 12 hours a day, so by the time I get home, it’s well into the night and where I have everything stored is downstairs where there is verry little lighting, so I work around so that the 4th day will be my first Off-Shift, which I hope that makes sense.

OK, based on all that, at what point can I introduce the Hops??

Keep in mind that I have a 19L Keg to transfer to if needed.

Pete

 

[kadmium]

Hey mate. Not to be a pedantic brewer, but that's sort of how I be. Hahaha.

The best schedule I have found is to add while there is still fermentation or off gassing happening.

I too use a snub nose and I love it.

I personally have found that hops added at 1.020 SG and then once fermentation had completed are the best if doing a double hop.

If you're looking into a single hop, you can just go at 1.020 SG or, if you're a visual kind of person then once high krausen has passed, and is falling hop then.

Then you should have about 4 days before crashing etc.

For instance I have a Hazy IPA down with Citra, BRU-1 and Galaxy hops. I hopped yesterday at 1.020 and its about to finish up probably tonight, so I will hop it in the morning. Then crash it Friday arvo for transfer Sunday morning.

 

[Nob]

Yea Kadmium, the Snub Nose and the like just make the process soo much easier. I think being able to pressurise and keep the CO2 on top makes a huge difference.
This is the first brew I have ever made pressurised, where it don't last like HomeBrew, it actually Tates like it's the real deal..... bloody amazing.

Thanks for the detail. What I am planning on the next brew is to boil the Hops in a cup for around 15 minutes then just toss that into the fermenter, without tossing in the Tea-Bag.

What's ya thoughts?

Pete

 

[kadmium]

To be honest, hop tea is very different to dry hopping. Hop tea will give you bitterness, and some aroma and flavour.

To get the most, just add them in commando. Thats what I do.

 

[Nob]

OK, so I guess I will need to retrieve what ever I put them in after a few days?
If that's the case, that increases the risk of introducing Oxygen at a crucial point - do I have that right??
Which I can purge out I guess.

 

[kadmium]

Hey man.

I just throw them in and let em be. I only dryhop within 7 days of packaging so I'm not worried about hop creep. Also, the snub helps compact them and you draw from the top so I don't worry about transferring them.

Here's my fermenter currently.

I also prebag my hops on brew day so it makes it easier to dry hop. I use a tilt so I go off gravity, but same principals apply.

 

[Christy]

Hello
I've been experimenting with pressure fermenting for a while. I use 2 methods:

1. 19Lt keg with 25mm taken off the dip tube
2. 19Lt keg with the dip tube cut down to 25mm and a floating ball dip tube

For the first I connect the fermenting keg to the serving keg, gas to dip tube, then a spunding valve on the gas on the server. I can purge the serving keg this way.
I've been using kits made up to the 18Lt mark with reduced fermentable sugar added. The first time I did it I used too much anti-foam agent and it suppressed all the hop flavours, I dry hopped that brew in the serving keg after I transferred it and discovered my mistake.
The latest method I'm trying is:

1. Kit into keg (1 or 2)
2. Fermentable (dextrose for lagers and light ales otherwise LDM)
3. 6 Lts warm water
4. Top up to the 18 Lt mark
5. Add yeast starter
6. Add 3 drops of anti-foam agent
7. Add soaked hop tea bag (using mosaic at the moment)
8. Close, connect up the gas transfer hose and set the spunding valve at 12psi

It generally starts producing gas within 6 hours. I leave it alone for 4 days then transfer if I'm using no. 1, crash chill in the fridge and tap it. No disasters so far and I'm getting pretty good beer.
c.

Coopers Dark Ale, Coopers BE 2, kit yeast, made up to 18Lts, 5 days fermentation, crash chill 2 days, transfer and pour.

 

[kadmium]

4 days is, in my opinion, far too quick to be transferring off the yeast. Also, not to be 'that person' but I personally don't like the idea of the antifoaming solutions and eating them. Most are a silicon based oil of some sort to disrupt surface tension, but there's all sorts of (potential) additives and I'm just not a huge fan of ingesting it. Consider just using a gaspost into beerline into a bucket of sanitiser and having it blow off if you intend on not pressurising. If you are pressure fermenting in a keg, what's the point of the antifoam? It will have nowhere to go, and if under sufficient pressure (15PSI or so) should produce a very limited krausen. I suppose it could go out the spunding valve, but you can make a cheap PET bottle and Carb Cap T PIECE protector for cheap.

If you transfer off the yeast after 4 days, you haven't even given it a chance to finish fermentation before you transfer out 90% of the yeast, which will either stall out your fermentation or not leave it sufficient time for a Diacetyl rest. I would be fermenting a minimum of 5 days warm before cold crashing, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Kezzbot]

ive found minimum 7 days pressure ferment. 10 days optimum. 5 days would work but im sure the yeast is still working.