When do you dry hop?

[Maffew]

So I've read a few different takes on when to dry hop and I'm interested to know what people's opinions are? First couple of times I did it towards end of ferment. Forgot to this time so I threw them in after I'd started cold crash. Wondering what differences people have noticed?

 

[Crusty]

I've tried several different ways & times but I find dry hopping for 2 days before cold crashing @1g/lt works really well.
I then leave it be for the 7 day cold crash @1°C.

 

[willbrewry]

I dry hop after a week

 

[rude]

I've never dry hopped but have thrown them in the keg & that was nice :icon_drool2:

 

[pist]

I dry hop once FG has been reached. Usually there will still be some co2 coming out of solution, so opening the fermenter at that stage is fairly low risk I believe.
I leave for no more than 3 days if at ambient, or a week if cold crashing. As for amount, its pretty much to taste. Last pale ale I did had 100g of simcoe, cascade, citra and Amarillo. Had a lovely pronounced citrusy/piney/grapefruit aroma and flavour to it. Let's just say that one didn't last long at all

 

[kaiserben]

I primary for 9 days.
Then add dry hops and leave for 3 days (I've started moving the beer to secondary before adding dry hops and getting great results).
Then cold crash.
Then bottle.

 

[S.E]

[SIZE=11pt]Dry hopping was traditionally done in the cask a handful of flowers were added and left in. These days it seems more commonly done in the fermenter and usually removed before kegging. [/SIZE]

 

[Crusty]

To add to my post, I've found that dry hopping for any longer than 3 days @ferment temps resulted in some grassyness.
No such problems at cold crashing temp of 1deg° even when left in there for a week.

 

[S.E]

To add to my post, I've found that dry hopping for any longer than 3 days @ferment temps resulted in some grassyness.
No such problems at cold crashing temp of 1deg° even when left in there for a week.

In the UK I dry hopped with EKG flowers in a plastic keg and never had any grassiness even at room temp. I had no temp control then so had to ferment and serve at ambient. The flowers stayed in till the keg was finished.

I’ve dry hopped with EKG pellets in cask and cube here and it usually resulted in grassiness stored at 12c so I have given up.

Plugs were designed to fit through the shive hole in casks.

 

[real_beer]

I haven't dry hopped since I was a kid, but I do remember it was always when it hadn't been raining for a while and the puddles had dried up.

You might find this link useful for some IPA recipes:
http://destroy.net/brewing/IPA-2012-handout.pdf

 

[GNU]

I dry hop 5 days from bottling, normally 25-40g

 

[yankinoz]

2 days before bottling.

 

[Gigantorus]

My brews are in the fermenter for 2 weeks (14 days). I will generally dry-hop for the last 5 to 7 days. I don't use a fridge to control temperature - I simply use a dark room in the basement of my home. So far this has worked well for me.

My key learnings on dry-hopping (2 years home brewing now) are:

- Don't dry-hop until fermentation has truly finished (need to check gravity to truly know this) - as the expelling of Co2 will take the hop aroma with it (waste).
- When dropping your hop sock into the brew be real careful and gently lower it (don't drop and slash) - you don't want to aerating the brew at this stage.
- The more hops you use in the dry-hop the more cloudy the brew will become.
- When dry-hopping, make sure ALL items coming in contact with the brew (except the hops themselves) are properly sanitised. You do not want to infect the brew.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[Brooa]

I generally dry hop to a maturation cube (after fermentation has ceased), at roughly 1deg for 7 days, 5 if I'm desperate. So far great results. But currently, just as an experiment, I've dry hopped with 60g cascade & 30g nelson, straight into the fermenter on day 5.

 

[Digitalsea]

I dry hop at roughly 1.5g per litre about 3 days before bottling. I always make sure fermentation has finished though at risk of halting the entire process and losing a brew.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I only dry hop into the keg nowadays. Works a treat, no grassiness at all, awesome aroma, seems to boost the hop flavour as well. I leave them in until the keg blows.

Usually 2g/litre for APAs and up to 4g/l for IPAs, but often whatever I feel like at the time.

 

[mofox1]

Going to dry hop a 'mercan brown now and chuck it in for CC. Ferment has finished, although usually I dry hop before this happens. Sometimes life gets in the way of brewing plans. Or vice versa.

 

[stewy]

I dry hop at minimum 2g/L, usually around day 7.. Cold crash around day 12

 

[Beamer]

I normally dry hop after 5 days (or FG is reached) then rack into a secondary after 3 days and crash chill for four days then keg. I only got into this habit after dry hopping for 7 days with a big hit of galaxy and the result was grassy grassy grassy. Not very pleasant at all, but then again it didnt go to waste.

 

[kalbarluke]

If I dry hop with my keg I use flowers in a hop bag. If I dry hop in the fermenter it is with pellets (1g/L) straight into fermenter about 2 days before cold chilling.