Dry Hopping Fermenter

[Deebo]

I finally have a fermenting fridge up and running and have a pale ale that is finished fermenting that I chucked 20g of loose cascade pellets into and am cooling it down now to drop out the yeast etc.

I probably wont get a chance to keg it untill next week, is there any problem with leaving hops in the beer for a week or so? (I remember someone saying they could go acrid if left in the beer for a while?).
Also in the same vein, can hops thrown into a hop sock in the keg go acrid after some ammount of time?

I know hops used to sit in beer for long sea journeys but who knows what the beer back then used to taste like..

 

[keifer33]

I haven't experienced any issues with leaving the hops on the fermenter for extended periods and allows them to settle out more. I have just dry hopped a few beers recent with 2g/L and drank one last night and the aroma is definitely not acrid and that was approximately 11 days with the dry hops in there as I was a bit lazy kegging.

Here is an excerpt from How to Brew that has a bit more info in it.

Dry Hopping
Hops can also be added to the fermenter for increased hop aroma in the final beer. This is called "dry hopping" and is best done late in the fermentation cycle. If the hops are added to the fermenter while it is still actively bubbling, then a lot of the hop aroma will be carried away by the carbon dioxide. It is better to add the hops (usually about a half ounce per 5 gallons) after bubbling has slowed or stopped and the beer is going through the conditioning phase prior to bottling. The best way to utilize dry hopping is to put the hops in a secondary fermenter, after the beer has been racked away from the trub and can sit a couple of weeks before bottling, allowing the volatile oils to diffuse into the beer. Many homebrewers put the hops in a nylon mesh bag - a Hop Bag, to facilitate removing the hops before bottling. Dry hopping is appropriate for many pale ale and lager styles.

When you are dry hopping there is no reason to worry about adding unboiled hops to the fermenter. Infection from the hops just doesn't happen.

 

[manticle]

My experience suggests some hops are more likely to give grassy/vegetal notes than others. I regularly dry hop while cold conditioning for about a week with some hops (US and UK mainly, also styrians) with no ill effects.

 

[QldKev]

My experience suggests some hops are more likely to give grassy/vegetal notes than others. I regularly dry hop while cold conditioning for about a week with some hops (US and UK mainly, also styrians) with no ill effects.

Agreed here, most hops are OK
Would not do it with Saaz, but Cascade will be 100% ok

QldKev

 

[krusty_oz]

I've got a keg of real ale that has a tea ball of Cascade that has been there for months, no off flavours.

 

[Kai]

Depends mainly on how much you're adding to dry-hop and whether the beer is warm or cold. I agree that with generous dry-hopping you can start to notice some vegetal notes if the hops are left too long, and I think that 'too long' can be less than a week in some circumstances.

Some other rules of thumb as I see them:

- If you dry-hop warm you get faster flavour infusion, including off-flavours. 2-3 days is ample, I don't like more than a week
- If you dry-hop into a ferment still on the yeast, the yeast will suck up a lot of the hoppy goodness
- If you dry-hop cold and relatively yeast free, the flavour will take a lot longer to infuse but the hops can stay in there a lot longer

Personally I like to dry hop near the end of primary fermentation, adding a little extra for the yeast tax, then racking to secondary for cold-conditioning a few days later giving the hops an opportunity to settle out with the yeast in the primary. Then I can forget about the beer until I have time to bottle it. But that's just what works for me.

 

[unionrdr]

Over here,we typically dry hop for 1 week,but no more than 10 days. Then you can start getting grassy notes. But one week will not give off flavors while dry hopping. I do it frequently. They need to sit more than 2-3 days to get pronounced aroma,which is what you'll mainly get when dry hopping. Although I have noticed some small increase in perceived flavor as well. Just a small amount.

 

[1974Alby]

Agreed here, most hops are OK
Would not do it with Saaz, but Cascade will be 100% ok

QldKev

whats the problem with Saaz? I recently transferred saaz pellets from a flame-out addition to the fermenter and the result was undrinkably grassy...tasted like I had hopped with lawn clippings :blink: ...I have put them away and am hopeful it may melow with age???? :unsure:

 

[manticle]

whats the problem with Saaz?

the result was undrinkably grassy...tasted like I had hopped with lawn clippings :blink: :unsure:

Answered your own question. I won't suggest that you can't dry hop with saaz - I'm sure someone has successfully. However my experience has been similar to yours - way too grassy.

 

[Bribie G]

Some German beers have that Grassy twang to my taste, for example Kaiserdom - could be the hop sextract they use to finish the beer but I didn't really understand what people meant by "grassy" until I had a couple of litres of KD