Dry Hop & Cold Crash

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
Messages
2,424
Reaction score
693
Location
Telford
From everything I've read, dry hopping is most effective at typical fermentation temps which is what I've always done. Recently I've been cold crashing for a little bit longer, typically 3 - 5 days, and I've done this after the dry hops have been in for 3 - 4 days. Should I be removing the dry hops prior to cold crashing? I've noticed no grassy flavours from leaving the hops in for a week or so but not sure if I've just got lucky so far.
 
I don't think nine days is excessive. After doing an xBmt on long (11 day) vs. short (2 day) dry hopping, Marshall Schott came to this conclusion:

The data supports the notion that dry hop length does indeed have an impact on beer, but there is no indication one way is better than the other, neither method produced a bad beer. I found it interesting only one person noted perceiving a “grassiness” in the long dry hop sample, a comment that came following completion of the survey and revelation of the nature of the xBmt. I couldn’t detect this in the slightest. I’m not all comfortable recommending people use my subjective impressions to make decisions, partially because I could have a ****ty palate, but it’s also highly likely dry hop character as a function of time is different for every hop, thus results from the hop bill I used may not translate to other beers. I guess what I’m saying is, try it out for yourself, determine your own preference, and don’t fret if you end up changing things up at some point.
 
Cheers, I think the best way will be to not worry about it and see how it goes, seems to have worked fairly well with the brews I've done it with so far.
 
Cheers, I think the best way will be to not worry about it and see how it goes, seems to have worked fairly well with the brews I've done it with so far.

its a to edged sword as you need to prime beer at a warmer temp afterwards any way. I gave my razorback only a week in 20-25c as I too was bit baffled by what the best temp was with dry hopping.
I couldn't cold crash so Im hoping I've helped preserve the aroma as much as I could

I misread ur question,
i think im always more reassured when the beer has hops inside for theyre bacteria fighting properties.
cant wait to start using my garage so i can cold crash. with the winter coming ill finally be able to achieve getting the yeast to drop out rather than room temp, then a couple of days in the fridge before downing/supping
 
I did my first dry hop a few months back with a Chinook IPA. I'd read somewhere (no idea where though, I'll see if I can dig it up) to cold crash before dry hopping. So I got it down to 3°C then put the hops in for 4 days. It was probably the best beer I've made, but the Chinook was 14.6%AA so maybe that method wouldn't work with a lower AA hop.
 
I read a vast amount of articles, books, papers etc when I first started brewing and I've recently started to try and summarise the main things I found out and link to the sources. I've just written something on how time, temperature, pellet vs whole hop affect dry-hopping here: https://inquisitivebrewer.co.uk/four-factors-to-get-the-best-from-dry-hopping-your-beer-8bc00fee85ff#.lgig48as2

It seems temperature has less effect than time or what form the hops are in, but dry-hopping warm definitely seems to have more impact... Some of the research I link to might be an interesting read.
 
It seems temperature has less effect than time or what form the hops are in, but dry-hopping warm definitely seems to have more impact... Some of the research I link to might be an interesting read.

I know a guy who brews commercially on a small scale with two 50 litre Braumeisters and he always dry hops about a day or so after fermentation has kicked off. He gets really hoppy beers and suggests this is the best use of dry hops, mid fermentation, for full flavour. He does make some nice hoppy,fruity beers!
 
Interesting - lots of "perceived wisdom" suggested the fermentation will also drive off the more volatile aroma compounds. Not sure if there's any actual evidence to support that though, might go and investigate... I guess if it's after the most vigorous fermentation it wouldn't have such a detrimental effect anyway, and might even help extraction if the hops are moving around a bit.
 
No, drop hopping for even up to 7 days is fine. I usually cold crash for 24-48 hrs and then keg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
From everything I've read, dry hopping is most effective at typical fermentation temps which is what I've always done. Recently I've been cold crashing for a little bit longer, typically 3 - 5 days, and I've done this after the dry hops have been in for 3 - 4 days. Should I be removing the dry hops prior to cold crashing? I've noticed no grassy flavours from leaving the hops in for a week or so but not sure if I've just got lucky so far.

I do the exact same,i have a Coopers Heritage Lager on just now with 1kg brew enhancer,500g ldme and 70 g of Mosaic hops,they have been in for three days,i have just reduced temp to four degrees, i am off to our caravan and will bottle in four or five days time,it works fime IMO and helps clear it up and drops the hops out of suspension.
 
Been thinking about this myself now outside temps are heading towards 1 or 2 degrees. Would it be better to cold crash for a week or two then warm it up to dry hop for a few days?

Just been reading the DIYDog pdf and they reckon 14C best for dry hopping so I'm going to give that a go on a recipe I've done a few times at room temperature for comparison.
 
Back
Top