What’s the concensus for dry hopping and raising fermentation temperature once fermentation is complete? I pitched at 64 10 days ago and my gravity has stabilized for a few days now. I want to raise the temp to about 70 to hopefully drop a few more points but I also want to dry hop for a week before kegging. Should I raise the temp and dry hop at the same time, or dry hop for a week then raise the temp? Or, does the relationship between the two not matter?
I prefer to dry hop at ~70 for a week or so before dropping to storage temp. So I’d ramp up the temperature, add the hops and let it ride for a week.
The warmer the beer, the faster the dry hop extraction. If you are not planning on re-using the yeast, then warm it up a little bit and throw the dry hops in.
If you have the time, crash the yeast out then ramp the temp back up to dry hop. It’ll help you keep the aroma/flavor you’re looking for from the dry hop addition. Is your SG where you expected it to be or if not how far off?
Even a 10 degree temp drop for a few days will crash a lot of yeast. This will keep the yeast from dragging some of teh aroma compounds down with them when they do crash. So if you can, crash temp, then warm back up a little and dry hop. As long as you are in the 60-70 degree range you will be fine. Others report great success at cold temp dry hopping. You’ll need to find out what works best for you but if you can wait 3-5 days extra to drop some yeast you will be better for it. I have even gone so far as to fine first, than dry hop.
+1. I fined with gelatin first and then dry hopped on my last IPA. I think I’ll start doing it this way from now on. After fining the beer was crystal clear even after using a lot of late hops, then I dry hopped @ 65F - the aroma was both excellent and definitely lasted longer than other methods. I’m sold on getting the beer clear, then dry hopping.
Not to hijack but this thread raises a question I had:
I have my common fermenting now with wlp810 at 57. I was going to raise to 63 as it slows to finish and then lager it for a few weeks.
I also dry hop this beer with 2.5 oz of northern brewer for 5 days before packaging.
This is the first time I am planning on lagering it since I can now and was wondering if I should raise the temp prior or just dry hop it at the lager temp?
fWIW I know I don’t have to lager this yeast but wanted to give it a try and compare it with my previous batches that weren’t.
Personally, I would lager it to get it nice and clear for however long you wanted, let it warm and then dry hop.
Hey get off my post! Lol.
I’m in no rush, so I think cold crashing, then warming back up, then dry hopping is the way to go. At that point I’ll be around 20 days of fermentation. Given there’s 10.5 oz of hops in the carboy, I think that’s enough time to obtain good flavors and a nice clean IPA without any grassiness appearing. Appreciate the tips.
thanks, that’s kind of my thought but wanted to see if there were others experiences with this
I agree. I started noticing kind of unpleasant interactions between dry hops and the yeast in the beer, so I like to remove as much yeast as possible before dry hopping.