Dry Hop Gone Bad

[LJvermonster]

Hi everyone!

For the life of me I cannot get a dry hop to work out. Every time I dry hop, day one and two after kegging the beer smells and tastes amazing! I mean, a 10 out of 10. Then after a couple days the beer loses its aroma and starts tasting not so great.

I have confirmed the beer turns bad because of the dry hop stage. As a test, the last 3 batches I brewed I didn't dry hop and the beers came out awesome. Lacked a little aroma but the flavor was amazing.

I ferment in a bucket with a spigot and when I try dry hopping I add them after fermentation and I leave them in for 4-6 days. I dryhop in a stainless mesh cylinder which i sanitze and add pellets. I know I could try adding them at day 3 in fermentation to have the yeast eat whatever left over oxygen there may be but would this really make a huge difference?

Should dry hopping in this way affect my beers so dramatically?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[day_trippr]

Somehow or another oxygen is at the root of your problem...

 

[The_Bishop]

Possibly a flaw with how you keg?

 

[tjosborne]

I have this same problem. I'm gonna follow this thread.

 

[LJvermonster]

Possibly a flaw with how you keg?

My process is, I sanitize the keg with starsan and close the system, run all the liquid through the tap.

After it's done I lower the psi on the CO2 tank and keep it running.

I hook a sanitized tube to the primary with a spigot, run the first bit off into a jug, then get a gravity sample. Then I run the beer into the keg.

Like I said in the original post, Everytime I don't dry hop the beers have been great. Very frustrating.

 

[Smellyglove]

Do you open the keg for transfer? If you do, don't. Check out closed loop transfers. Dry hop taste and aroma is the first to go out the window.

And besides. You need to turn that keg upside down and back before serving. The first two days any keg tastes over the top, that's because your draining all the good stuff at once settled at the bottom. Treat it like a hefe unless you dont want those polyphenols and boost of taste. To "normalize" it let it sit for two days, drink a few glasses which will be juicy, after that it will be normalized, meaning the taste and aroma will not change much unless you introduced oxygen into the keg.

 

[LJvermonster]

I do open the keg for transfer. How would I close transfer with a bucket/spigot?

Also, should it really matter? The old way of doing this was rack from primary into a carboy secondary. Rack that into a bottling bucket. Then from bottling bucket into bottles. Going straight from Primary w/ spigot directly to keg removes a lot of O2 exposure.

And like I said before, all beers lately where I haven't dry hopped and gone straight from primary to keg have been fantastic.

 

[Sbe2]

I do open the keg for transfer. How would I close transfer with a bucket/spigot?

Also, should it really matter? The old way of doing this was rack from primary into a carboy secondary. Rack that into a bottling bucket. Then from bottling bucket into bottles. Going straight from Primary w/ spigot directly to keg removes a lot of O2 exposure.

And like I said before, all beers lately where I haven't dry hopped and gone straight from primary to keg have been fantastic.

When do you normally dry hop?

There may not be enough yeast activity to scavenge the oxygen you have introduced during your dry hop.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

when you drain to the keg, do you run a hose all the way to the bottom to prevent splashing? Do you purge dead space of O2 with CO2 prior to force carbing?

 

[Smellyglove]

I do open the keg for transfer. How would I close transfer with a bucket/spigot?

Also, should it really matter? The old way of doing this was rack from primary into a carboy secondary. Rack that into a bottling bucket. Then from bottling bucket into bottles. Going straight from Primary w/ spigot directly to keg removes a lot of O2 exposure.

And like I said before, all beers lately where I haven't dry hopped and gone straight from primary to keg have been fantastic.

If you don't want to waste starsan you need two kegs for one filling. Fill the keg which is expecting beer with starsan, fill it to the max. Use a jumper-hose between beer out and beer out on both kegs. Push starsan out of the keg which will be billed with beer into an empty keg, using gas, and the second keg need to have the pressure relief valve open or the star san will not flow.

When the transfer is complete you will have one keg filled with starsan, which is the keg you will use the next time you will fill a keg and do the same procedure again. The other keg is now empty but full of co2, and under pressure. Then you connect spigot from fermentor to beer out on the keg, and gas out from the keg into the hole where your airlock sits on the fermentor.
Closed loop.

Make sure to vent out some of the co2 from the keg before connecting the ball locks, as you want to connect the hoses at the fermentor first, and click on both ball locks at the same time on to the keg, or else something will pop with pressure inside the keg.

Dry hopped beers are very fragile. The hops as I said is the first to go.out the window. The more hops the more can be ruined. So if you did beers without dryhops the difference between a given amount of induced oxygen is much smaller than a dryhopped beer with the same amount of oxygen induced, since the reference is different. Dryhopped ones have a freshness not dryhopped ones do not have. It does not take much oxygen to ruin the freshness of a dryhopped beer.

Oxygen is like cancer to every beer, especially hopped ones. This.might seem like I'm beeing dramatic, but I'm serious. Eliminate oxygen as good as you can uptake at EVERY STAGE during your process from dough in to packaging. If say about 90 percent is weighed post fementation. HSA is if you want to step it up from post fementation levels.

 

[JohnConnor]

Sounds like you are dry hopping a couple days after kegging? So you're filling your keg, then opening it back up and putting your mesh tub filled with hops in?

 

[LJvermonster]

Sounds like you are dry hopping a couple days after kegging? So you're filling your keg, then opening it back up and putting your mesh tub filled with hops in?

Hi John, sorry for the confusion. I dry hop in the primary using a mesh tube. When i transfer from primary to keg, the hops stay in the primary.

 

[helibrewer]

Hi John, sorry for the confusion. I dry hop in the primary using a mesh tube. When i transfer from primary to keg, the hops stay in the primary.

Ah...if you are opening a bucket to add the DH's I think that is your problem with oxygen. I DH in my keg with a mesh tube, much easier to purge that headspace....also, no need to DH past 48 hours

 

[LJvermonster]

Ah...if you are opening a bucket to add the DH's I think that is your problem with oxygen. I DH in my keg with a mesh tube, much easier to purge that headspace....also, no need to DH past 48 hours

So what do you do? Put the mesh tube in your serving keg and transfer the beer? When you say no need to dryhop past 48 hrs do you mean, after 2 days you get all the aroma you need? And then do you release the keg pressure and remove the DH or do you just leave it in?

Thanks!

 

[helibrewer]

So what do you do? Put the mesh tube in your serving keg and transfer the beer? When you say no need to dryhop past 48 hrs do you mean, after 2 days you get all the aroma you need? And then do you release the keg pressure and remove the DH or do you just leave it in?

Thanks!

Yes, I DH in the serving keg. I open the keg and remove the DH's after 2 days, then close and purge. This also allows me to do multiple dry hops in succession...Pliny the younger takes 4 separate DH's and you need to remove each one prior to the next, mesh tube makes it quick and easy.

 

[LJvermonster]

Yes, I DH in the serving keg. I open the keg and remove the DH's after 2 days, then close and purge. This also allows me to do multiple dry hops in succession...Pliny the younger takes 4 separate DH's and you need to remove each one prior to the next, mesh tube makes it quick and easy.

I will give this a try. Time to let SWMBO know I'm brewing this weekend so i can try a new process. She'll be thrilled!

 

[RPh_Guy]

....Oxygen is like cancer to every beer....

My beers have cancer

 

[JohnConnor]

I would try dry hopping commando in your bucket. I'm sure those hops and mesh will hold a decent amount of O2 w/o being able to purge your bucket.

 

[LJvermonster]

I would try dry hopping commando in your bucket. I'm sure those hops and mesh will hold a decent amount of O2 w/o being able to purge your bucket.

If I dryhopped in my serving keg, does this issue go away?

 

[JohnConnor]

If I dryhopped in my serving keg, does this issue go away?

As long as you purge the keg. But don't go too crazy, you don't want to blow out all that nice aroma .

I ferment in big mouth bubblers with a spigot. On day 3, I dry hop commando. Let it sit until day 10 to 12. Then I put a charge of 3 ounces or so in a bag, hang it with dental floss from the posts, seal up the keg, purge and fill through the out post. No issues with O2 at all.

 

[Br3w4u]

I do open the keg for transfer. How would I close transfer with a bucket/spigot?

Also, should it really matter? The old way of doing this was rack from primary into a carboy secondary. Rack that into a bottling bucket. Then from bottling bucket into bottles. Going straight from Primary w/ spigot directly to keg removes a lot of O2 exposure.

And like I said before, all beers lately where I haven't dry hopped and gone straight from primary to keg have been fantastic.

Fill your keg with star San. Turn on your co2 ( 2-10 psi however much you want to waste ) push all the star San out of the keg through a cobra tap. I fill a bucket with it to save for later. When the keg is empty connect the out line to your hose that comes off of the spigot of your bucket and just let gravity do the rest. You have to open the pressure release valve to get it to go. This way your keg is purged of oxygen and you are using the dip tube in the keg to fill from the bottom up. When you are done just disconnect the fill line and carbonate the keg.

 

[Br3w4u]

Also adding hops to the keg with the hop sock hanging from dental floss does work but it gives a lot of green flavor that I personally dislike and I feel like it covers up the better flavors that you get from the dry hopping. That's only my opinion though.