Dryhopping Double IPA-Too Long?

[srbelow]

I brewed the midwest hophead double ipa kit about 2 weeks ago and followed their fermentation schedule. 7 days in the primary and 7-10 days in the secondary dryhopped. My question is that it's been in the secondary dryhopping for about 7 days now and i still have a lot of activity in the airlock. I've read that dryhopping your beer too long can cause off-flavors. I was considering maybe racking to a third fermenter to get the beer off of the hops and finish fermenting. Any thoughts?

 

[wonderbread23]

Its the 5-7 primary that's the issue. A big beer can take weeks for the initial ferment to end. You should have waited on dry hopping until the beer was finished fermenting. I would leave the beer where it is until the dry hops have been there for 2 weeks or so. At that point, I'd rack the beer if you're still having fermentation.

 

[Wyrmwood]

I brewed the midwest hophead double ipa kit about 2 weeks ago and followed their fermentation schedule. 5-7 days in the primary

The instructions say

Approximately 1-3 days after adding the yeast you should start to notice a healthy fermentation taking place. A head of foam (called krausen) will have formed and CO2 should be bubbling out of the airlock (half filled with water!) If your fermentation is over active and comes out of the fermenter, clean it up using a towel soaked in sanitizer. After 5-7 days of fermentation...

That's 1-3 + 5-7, or 6-10, however, after which the instructions say,

Use your hydrometer to tell you where your beer is at, it is your window into what is going on in the fermenter.

 

[srbelow]

thanks for the advice wonderbread23 this is my first beer

 

[Homebrewtastic]

The instructions they gave you were poor. It's generally not well advised to move your beer off of the yeast cake during visibly active fermentation. In fact there generally isn't need to rack your beer to secondary unless you plan on extended aging. Next time I would just leave it be for two weeks, then add dry hops, then bottle.

 

[davesrose]

That's 1-3 + 5-7, or 6-10, however, after which the instructions say,

Instead of saying "After 5-7 days of fermentation... ", the instructions should have just said After fermentation...Fermenation is done when your hydrometer reading approaches the intended final gravity, and your reading does not change within 3 days of sampling.

 

[hotbrew]

Don't worry too much about dry-hopping your beer for extended periods. Unless you let your beer dry hop for months, then there will be no off-flavors. I've put hops in a metal herb ball in my keg for over a month and I never tasted any off flavors.

I'd say let it sit another week in the secondary, check the gravity for 3 days in the row and if it hasn't changed... then you can bottle/keg it. The hops are already in there, so there is no point in worrying about taking them out. Just let it finish fermenting and rack it.

 

[buzzkill]

the hops will more than likey be coverd in the yeast goo and dragged down into the cake.