I’ve tried two different ways. I’ve cold crashed and dry hopped and ended up with some Diacetyl problems and have Dry hopped after reaching terminal gravity in primary and had good results.
I know the old saying is “do what works for you”
So what works for you?
I haven’t brewed a lot of dry hopped beers lately, but that was my biggest downside when moving from fermenting in buckets to fermenting in kegs. I generally dry hopped at the tail end of active fermentation then transferred after the hops dropped out. In a keg this ended up leading to a bunch of sludge getting sucked up and clogging the dip tube. I recently moved to a floating dip tube in my fermentation keg, but I haven’t done much dry hopping with it yet. I still plan on throwing the pellets in loose, then transferring the beer after they drop out.
When fermentation slows noticeably and Krausen begins to recede, I up the temperature to ~70 for 2 or 3 days. I then dump pellets in loose and crank the fermentation fridge down to 42 F. After 4 or 5 days, when the hops have settled out and the beer has dropped clear I keg.
I usually dry hop in the fermenter during active fermentation ~ 3 days before packaging.
I add the dry hops to the keg in a stainless filter such as at the link below. I leave the hops there until the keg is empty. I like the results I get. Denny has recently posted he gets better results dry hopping for a few days after cold crash while the beer is still at low temps. I want to try that but my method is so easy…
PS. My kegs are 2.5 gallons so they go quickly.
Beer Dry Hopper Filter,300 Micron Mesh Stainless Steel Hop Strainer Cartridge, Homebrew Hops Beer & Tea Kettle Brew Filter by Fashionclubs (18cm x 7cm) Amazon.com
Hey thanks, I dumped 2 ozs of lemon drop in my SMASH pale ale like I said after FG last night gonna crash it Sunday and keg on Tuesday
I wait for fermentation to finish, then cold crash for 3-5 days before dry hopping at 35F for 48 hours. I have tried many dry hop processes and that works better for me than anything else.
I may try this technique next, this winter has been all about the experiments
That was my thinking when I first tried it…an experiment. After 2 “experiments” it became my standard.
I do it 2 ways generally:
As a beer judge, I’ve seen lots of diacetyl issues in IPAs which appear to have been cold crashed, force carbonated and then bottled off the keg.
Now if you pick up diacetyl while dry hopping before it is chilled can you fix it by say krausening it? Or just another D-rest
Krausening would be better.
How do you add the hops, loose or in a bag?
Pellets, loose
Two days into dry hopping pulled little sample tastes nice and lemony little tinge of sweetness
In the fermenter, correct?
Yep
Thanks Denny!
What do you do to avoid suck back when you crash cool your fermenter?