Barrel now or later?

[user 18576]

Morn' all,

I am in the process of making Brewdog IPA from the replica range of kits.
After fermenting in the bucket for 2 weeks at a steady 20 - 21c I added the large amount of supplied dry hops,
Trouble is the beer is still bubbling past the airlock on the bucket although not much - bubbles perhaps once every 2 minutes. But the dry hops have now been in 7 days which I understand to be the reasonable maximum
time before possible 'grassy' flavours start creeping in.
Whilst appreciating that I dry hopped too soon would it be best to leave it a few more days or barrel (not bottle)
it now even though it hasn't totally finished fermenting?
Yesterday the gravity was about 1010.

Paul

 

[terrym]

As you have gathered it's not good practice to package beer before the primary has finished. The arguments for dry hopping for longer than 7 days due to the onset of 'grassy' flavours is far less strong however, some people say it makes no difference, within reason. And the another factor to bear in mind is not to rely on an airlock to indicate whether a fermentation has finished or not, better use the SG reading.
All that said it looks like your primary has finished or very nearly finished, so I would take another SG reading later today and if its still 1.010 you can package. If not leave it for another day or two then try again. And if you have chucked your hops directly into the FV rather than in a bag and are satisfied the SG has bottomed out it may help to drop the hops and yeast if you put your FV in the coldest place you have for another day or two before you eventually package.

 

[user 18576]

Thanks for the reply terrym.
I did add the hops directly to the FV, It's that time of the year when starting to get cold in the garage so I'll
move it in there for the last day or two, after I'm happy the SG has bottomed out.

Paul.

P.S. It's starting to get cold in the house as well but the wife's polite requests to turn the central heating on have fallen on my deaf ears. (so far)!