Dry Hopping with Krausen

[eandersen]

My question is basically whether I will have any large detrimental effects if I dry hop while Krausen is still present. I brewed one week ago today, and the yeast absolutely breasted through my wort, it went from 1.060 to my FG of 1.012 in about 5 days. There was airlock activity for about a half day after that but at is point it's completely stopped. I had planned on taking another gravity reading today (which I will be doing after work) to make sure it's really done and then popping my dry hops in there for 5-7 days, racking to keg, and cold conditioning/"slow method" carbine over a couple weeks.
Basically, even though there is still some remaining Krausen, am I safe to dry hop since my FG has been reached?

 

[wildactbrewer]

I wouldn't see any issue with it. If you use a secondary, I know most folks like to dry hop after racking to a secondary. But I don't think this is necessary given you have already reached your target FG.

Krausens are weird animals in that sometimes they show up and then go away, sometimes it will form and stay forever, and then again sometimes it won't form at all. What style of beer are you brewing? What variety of hop?

 

[Nuggethead]

How much krausen is present. It may be difficult to get the hops into the beer if it is floating on krausen. I always let the krausen settle out completely.

 

[carvetop]

I've had the same thing happen a week after brewing IPAs with Safale US-05. FWIW, my procedure is as follows:
1) Wait a few more days to allow the krausen and beer to clear naturally.
2) Cold crash for 24 hrs to help drop any yeast that remain in suspension.
3) Bring back up to temp and dry hop for the allotted time period.
I'm sure you'll get some other tips on here but that method seems to work for me and could work for you if you have the time.

 

[eandersen]

I may try that cold crash trick. 24 hour cold crash in the garage should do the trick with these temperatures.

It's an IPA I'm brewing. Dry hops are .5 oz Simcoe and 1 oz Citra

 

[IvanBrew]

I struggled getting the flavors and aromas I wanted with dry hopping until I stumbled across this article: http://handsonbrewing.com/brewers-reference/process/dry-hopping-the-proper-way/

Common thinking is to wait until there is little to no airlock activity before dry hopping because the escaping CO2 will carry off the very thing you're trying to add.

The linked article refutes that, suggesting that dry hops should be added immediately after high krausen, while there's still considerable yeast activity. The claim is that healthy yeast activity will clean up a lot of the undesirable flavors sometimes associated with dry-hopping, like grassy notes.

I sure can't claim it's universal, but I can tell you that I MUCH prefer the flavor and aroma of my dry-hopped beers since starting to use this method.

 

[thisisbeer]

Not to be completely opposite. But I prefer to cold crash and drop what I can from suspension then add dry hops. I get extremely strong aroma this way. I spent some time wondering how commercial brewers get so much hop aroma in there beer. Then I stumbled on a YouTube video of some local Texas breweries discussing it. One that I remember was Jeffery Suffings at Jester King. That was also there prefered method for dry hopping. I haven't tried the other method mentioned. But this has given me a ton of aroma.

 

[duboman]

I wait until the krausen drops and the beer begins to clear, IME the hop oils and aromas are dragged down along with the settling yeast and krausen if done too soon. I also find that my best dry hopped beers are done at room temp but know others that like to do it colder, YMMV....