Do you dry hop in the fermenter before of after cold crashing? I’ve always gone before, but I am not sure that that is the preferred method.
I’ve started trying to remove as much yeast as possible before dry hopping. After reading about the interaction between hops and yeast, I identified some off flavors I was getting as being related to that. I started getting the beer off the yeast before dry hopping and I think I’m getting better results.
Hmm…that’s kinda like doing a secondary just for the dry hops. I was hoping to skip a step like that. And still, do you dry hop warm or cold?
I just cold crash the primary than transfer it to the keg. Once the temp gets back to ambient, I add the hops in the keg. I can prevent oxygen once it gets to the keg as opposed to a secondary.
I don’t secondary per se, I rack clear beer @ 3 weeks in primary into a purged keg, dry hop there for a week @ room temp, then chill. +1 to all of what Denny said - I spent years dry hopping in primary after krausen fell. I like this method better.
Yeah, you’re right. But I found the results so improved that I decided it was worth the hassle of a secondary, or at least kegging it out of the primary and dry hopping in the keg. I’d say that most of the time, I keg dry hop, which means cold. When I use an actual secondary for dry hopping, I do it at room temp. I haven’t found a major difference between the two.
Thanks Denny. Now…Do you serve from the dry hopped keg or transfer again to put on line?
I serve from the dry hopped keg. Sometimes the hops are in there for 2-3 months, but I’ve never had the problems that are sometimes reported from leaving dry hops in for a long time.
I’ve heard of people having problems with pellet hops plugging the dip tube when dry hopping with in kegs. Are those of you dry hopping in kegs using whole or pellet hops? Is there a way to reliably dry hop with pellets in kegs?
I use a nylon grain bag. it’s very fine mesh and I have had no problem with pellets leaking anything but deliciousness out of them
+1
I’ve noticed an issue with diminished dry hop character when there’s a lot of yeast in suspension. With flocculant strains, though, I just do a three-day room temperature rest (59-77°F depending on the season), then dry hop at room temperature for 3-4 days and cold crash for 3-4 days before kegging.
I’ve gone back to doing a secondary and then dry hopping then cold crashing. I seem to be getting better results, too.
I was doing dry hops in primary at around 60% fermentation which made sense that the leftover viable yeast would benefit from the oxygen in the hops, therefore reducing any unwanted oxidation.
Like the others I seem to think the extra step is worth it. I will sometimes add hops to a bag in the keg and have had great results no matter how long they stay there.
Cold crash and use a hop bag (closed shut and an adittional Ziptie, just in case) in the keg at ambient temps. I also use sanitized whiskey rocks to sink the bag. I shake the keg every so often so the hops move around to prevent the hops from sitting/clumping at the bottom. Additionally, there’s a lid at more beer that has a hook on the bottom of the lid in order to help with dry hopping (ie - hop bag comes off with the lid and you just have to replace the lid and force carb). Here’s that lid: http://morebeer.com/products/cornelius-keg-lid-welded-tab.html or if you’re handy and can weld!
I use stainless tea balls filled 1/3 to halfway with pellet hops and dropped into the keg. I keep my kegs at about 55F and dry hop for maybe a week to two weeks. I don’t dry hop often, but after tasting a couple bottles last night (one dry hopped, one not) I’ll be dry hopping a little more I think.
The last dry hopped beer I made was Charlie Papzian’s Claude of Neptune. It is great and uses Crystal hops (2.9% aa), so I just “tea-balled” them and racked onto them in the keg. You can always suspend a hop bag or tea ball with light monofilament fishing line to allow the hops to be suspended above the beer at a point when the beer level drops…supposedly with the thin line you get no leaks. Of course you can always do a keg to keg transfer after a few days, if you are concerned with contact time.
I’ve always suspended the teaballs with dental floss. I buy the flat style of floss and it usually seals pretty well. No mint-waxed floss for this application.
i have always found using plumbers pipe tape (teflon) to be best - it flattens out enough to cause no issue with the gasket.
I use a dryhop basket like the one pictured here midway down the page:
http://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php
but I consider it a luxury toy over a nylon dryhop bag or paint strainer bag. it doesn’t perform any better but its shiny 
I always dry hop in the keg using surescreens at the end of the dip tube. I used to not use pellet hops because they clogged the screen but as time went on, I discovered that I could get away with using pellets as long as I had at least two ounces of whole hops in the keg with them. I rack from the primary fermenter onto the dry hops in the keg and let them sit at ambient for two weeks before I chill. I haven’t done any spurments of frigerating them right away, It’s just what I do and it works for me,