OK, so today is the day for my dry hopping. This particular beer has been in the fermenter for about 2 weeks at about 70 to 71 degrees. It appears done so my thought is dry hop today and bottle Friday. My question is, after reading some posts about a “soft crash” during dry hop, would it be advisable to maybe drop the temp to about 65 or so for the next few days and dry hop at that temp? There is quite a bit of dry hops this time, about 5 ounces, so my thought of maybe dropping the temp to get more of the flavor out of them seems like it could be a good idea. Thoughts?
Ask 5 homebrewers how to dry hop (or anything else really), you’ll get 10 different answers. I dry hop during the last few points of fermentation and leave them in until closed xfer. Some complete fermentation, cool, then dry hop a short time. …and on and on…
One day, you’ll wake up and there won’t be anymore time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Don’t wait. Do it now.
Brew Bama is right. Lots of ways to dry hop. I do not think 5 degrees of crash will do much though.
Agreed. I’ve dry hopped hundreds of batches. 48 hours at 40F works better than anything else I’ve tried. Dropping temp to 65 will do nothing.
I’ll vouch for this. I’m enjoying a Two Hearted IPA clone I dry hoped 3.5oz. of centennial for 4 days at 65° (basement temp.) and not much aroma to speak of! Very disappointed. I’ll try the 48 hr @ 40° plan next time!
I quit adding aroma and “flavor” hops during/after boil
And dry hop exclusively (primarily use US citrus hop varieties) by adding to the keg. That entails conditioning for a week at basement temps then into the fridge 45F -49F until the keg is gone. I get tons more hop aroma and flavor this way. For me at least fermentation scrubs away the hop aroma and flavors