Dry Hopping & Oxidation

[Malted Mick]

Seeking advice on my process for dry hopping in a primary fermenter. I wait until the krausen and activity drops right off. This is generally around the four day mark. I pressure ferment in a PET Allrounder at 20c. With the current brew an ESB OG 1.059 it had fallen to 1.014 with no krausen on day 4. By depressureing the krausen forms again and I add hops through one of the ports on the lid, 60 gms of Jester in this instance. I use a modified funnel and it take less than a minute. Pressure builds up very quickly again from the addition of the hops. I expect that oxygen exposure to the beer would be minimal for two reasons. The krausen shields the beer and outgassing would very quickly purge out the oxygen in the head space. The other option would be to dry hop in a purged keg and pressure transfer. I have a KISS approach to brewing and try to make it efficent without two much double handling and unessacary steps in the process but still want to make better beers!

 

[kadmium]

In my opinion it is far more than adequate. Yes oxygen exposure does diminish beers, but opening a small port to pour in some hops is minuscule.

I brewed some massive hop forward NEIPAs opening the whole lid and pouring in (prior to getting the gen 3 upgrade with dry hop port) and none of them had signs of oxygenation. And some of those were hopped at around 20g/l (400g of dry hops) so yeah, you probably could rig something up but like you, I am happy to be at the 95% end of the spectrum, and stay towards KISS. There is a point of diminishing returns and I think trying to purge all oxygen for dry hopping is one of them. In my opinion.

 

[Malted Mick]

Thanks KAD for the ressurance I have a bit more confidence in my process now. Next beer is going to be a NEIPA, my first!

 

[kadmium]

Nice one! What's your recipe? I'm always looking to tweak my recipes!

I think the critical points for NEIPAs are oxygen free transfer, purged kegs and drinking earlier rather than later. I found most of my NEIPAs came best around the 2 week mark, lasted till about the 6 week mark and then tapered off slowly.

 

[Malted Mick]

I have a Beersmith file from a cloud search. Will try and attach it. Did'nt work. Here's a cut and paste. Might use Big O oats from Gladfield instead of the flaked oats. Plus I will keg it and first time trying a liquid yeast.

4.60 kg​	Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)​	Grain​	1​	82.1 %​	3.00 L​
1.00 kg​	Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC)​	Grain​	2​	17.9 %​	0.65 L​
10.00 g​	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min​	Hop​	3​	15.1 IBUs​	-​
25.00 g​	Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min​	Hop​	4​	16.8 IBUs​	-​
35.00 g​	Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min​	Hop​	5​	15.8 IBUs​	-​
30.00 g​	Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min​	Hop​	6​	16.2 IBUs​	-​
30.00 g​	Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min​	Hop​	7​	18.9 IBUs​	-​
1.0 pkg​	East Coast Ale (White Labs #WLP008) [35.49 ml]​	Yeast​	8​	-​	-​
60.00 g​	Citra [12.00 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 5.0 Days​	Hop​	9​	0.0 IBUs​	-​
30.00 g​	Centennial [10.00 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 5.0 Days​	Hop​	10​	0.0 IBUs​	-​
30.00 g​	Galaxy [14.00 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 5.0 Days​	Hop​	11​	0.0 IBUs​	-​

 

[BrewLizard]

Have you considered the magnet method? Dry hops go in at the start, suspended in a hop sock with a bagged or vacuum-sealed, sanitised neodymium magnet, with its counterpart on the outside.

By the time the hops thaw, fermentation has taken off and the place is soon purged of oxygen. There's then no need to open your fermenter at all, and it doesn't matter if you want to dry hop at low, medium, high, post- or I-can't-believe-it's-not krausen.

Closed transfers from the time wort becomes beer until it's in your glass.

 

[kadmium]

Hop socks work too, I usually do two dry hops and just hop naked straight into fermenter.

There really isn't much of a down side to @BrewLizard way of doing it, just maybe dip the socks in starsan before putting into fermenter.

I should probably do that as well, I might try it next time.

 

[Malted Mick]

Like the idea of the neodymiun magnet, another step removed! Maybe you can get a coated one or just use a food grade epoxy resin to coat it. I will look into it!

 

[BrewLizard]

That's why I like having a vacuum sealer. I sealed mine in a tiny pouch of plastic, which lets me soak the pouch in starsan, rather than worry about the magnet/coating reacting. One alternative might be a stir bar on the inside with either another stir bar or a neodynium magnet on the outside. Just test that it's strong enough before brew day, lol.

I also recommend boiling the hop sock for a few mins. Apparently fibre bags don't sanitise particularly well.

 

[yankinoz]

In my opinion it is far more than adequate. Yes oxygen exposure does diminish beers, but opening a small port to pour in some hops is minuscule.

I brewed some massive hop forward NEIPAs opening the whole lid and pouring in (prior to getting the gen 3 upgrade with dry hop port) and none of them had signs of oxygenation. And some of those were hopped at around 20g/l (400g of dry hops) so yeah, you probably could rig something up but like you, I am happy to be at the 95% end of the spectrum, and stay towards KISS. There is a point of diminishing returns and I think trying to purge all oxygen for dry hopping is one of them. In my opinion.

Based on "I'm happy with my results" logic, I'll second all the above. I've dropped pellets through the airlock opening. My NEIPAs (always Mosaic + some combination of Galaxy, Sabro and Hallertau Blanc at <10g/L) have as much of the desired aroma as many commercial examples. Then again, I've never done a side-by-side. Long ago I started avoiding Centennial and especially Citra in NEIPAS and never looked back.

 

[kadmium]

Long ago I started avoiding Centennial and especially Citra in NEIPAS and never looked back.

Heretic!!!!

Haha nah, I'm a big fan of Galaxy! I do use Citra but also like experimenting with others. Azaca, Simcoe, El Dorado, Bru-1 etc