Help with dry hoping Black IPA

[rjm1313]

My second batch just went into the fermentor. It's a Kyler's Cascadian Black IPA recipe. The homebrew store's recipe calls for adding 1 oz cascade and 1 oz centennial dry hops to be added after the first 3 days or so of active fermentation.

The guy at my homebrew store said to wait for the krauzen to settle a bit from the top, then add the dry hops. The recipe then says to wait approximately 5 days -- or until the hydrometer readings are no longer changing -- then transfer to a secondary for another week or so. (I'm using an ale pail)

Since I've never dry hopped before -- or used a secondary -- does this seem like a fairly standard recipe? The recipe I was given is actually quite hard for a beginner to understand, so just want to make sure I'm getting all this right. Don't want to waste 5 gallons of beer!

Thanks for your help.

 

[freisste]

First of all, no need to worry. The odds of screwing up a beer AFTER it goes into the fermenter (aside from oxidizing or introducing infection, which you are unlikely to do) is pretty hard.

You can use a secondary if you want. A carboy is better than a pail because it limits headspace. If you don't want to secondary, dry hop in the primary. Plenty of people have had good luck with both scenarios.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

I would say to WAIT on the dry hops and add them 3-7 days before you plan to bottle or keg. You don't want them in too early as a lot of that delicious aroma will bubble out your airlock, and you don't want them to sit in the beer too long or you may get grassy, vegetal flavors.

I advise fermenting at least two weeks and then adding the hops.

 

[yso191]

Yeah, there are some trade-offs re: dry-hopping. The idea with tossing the pellets in as primary fermentation is subsiding is that the yeast will use up any oxygen that is introduced along with the pellets. Adding them after primary as mentioned is to avoid losing aroma.

For me, the compromise is to add more hops in the last stages of active fermentation to compensate for lost goodies, then leave them there for 4-5 days while the yeast clean up the by-products of fermentation. Then I go straight to bottle or keg. This should work if you have done a good job of pitching the right amount of healthy yeast, oxygenate your wort well, etc.. Remember though that most of the oils are extracted from your hops in the first hours they are in your beer.

 

[Beer-lord]

I would say to WAIT on the dry hops and add them 3-7 days before you plan to bottle or keg. You don't want them in too early as a lot of that delicious aroma will bubble out your airlock, and you don't want them to sit in the beer too long or you may get grassy, vegetal flavors.

I advise fermenting at least two weeks and then adding the hops.

+1
I try to go 5-7 days before bottling or kegging and I dry hop a lot. This works for me.
Too soon or during fermentation and I find that even the small amount of hop oils released could affect active fermentation. I ferment 3 weeks and add my dry hops the last week.