Best temps for hop utilization in secondary?

I brewed a nice IIPA the other day and have been fermenting it at around 63 degrees since last Monday. It is due to go into secondary under another oz of whole leaf citra around Monday. Now I have the choice to leave it upstairs where it is 63'ish, or put it in the basement which is more like 53 which would be better for clarity. Would the 10 degree difference effect how much lupulin gets extracted from the hops or is it moot?

Either temperature will work. From what I've read, the consensus seems to be that dry hopping at room temperature will result in more intense hop aroma and flavor. While dry hopping at colder temperatures is said to give a slightly more muted hop experience. Being that you brewed an IIPA, I'd probably dry hop at 63 degrees and cold crash after dry hopping, or after a few days at 63.

Hop oil extraction will happen much faster at room temperature. I'd leave it at room temp for 3-5 days (my preferred dry hop) and then cold crash at 32 for clarity.

Excellent! My dry hop time for this batch is 14 days so I'll leave it upstairs at 63 for a week and then move it downstairs for the second half. Get the maximum extraction upstairs and then let it cold crash downstairs for another week while still under the blanket of citra. Hopefully this stuff is as tasty as I expect it will be. Thanks for the good info!

Bottle? or Keg?

If the latter, dry hop in the keg. It produces the most powerful DH effect I've had.

I AM planning to keg 5 of the 6 gallons of this actually. I suspect you would only want to do this with a keg that was definitely going to be gone in less than a few weeks though right?

DerCribben said:

I AM planning to keg 5 of the 6 gallons of this actually. I suspect you would only want to do this with a keg that was definitely going to be gone in less than a few weeks though right?

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I think I've gone as long as 6 weeks (finished the keg then) w/o any grassiness or off flavors. I think it's a function of the low temp in the keg.

I just put my IIPA that's been sitting at roughly 64 for a week in secondary under an oz of citra into the basement where it's a nearly constant 52...one more week and its getting kegged and bottled.