Dry Hopping Fired it Up

[waddsworth]

So I have a 1.086 DIPA pitched on 1/1/2012. I racked it to secondary on 1/19 and dry hopped it tonight with 1 oz. Amarillo and 1 oz. Simcoe. Minutes after dumping the hops in the beer started going crazy. The hop particles and even whole pellets were flying around in the beer like a full-on primary fermentation. Then the hop krausen rose up and started working through the airlock. WTF?

Anyone see this before?

 

[pabloj13]

Hop particles providing nucleation sites for CO2 bubbles to come out of solution. That's all.

 

[houndsbreath]

I've noticed similar activity after racking onto pellet hops for dry hopping. My gravity was 1.011 before racking onto hops.
What was your gravity before racking?
Pelletized hops or whole leaf?

 

[pabloj13]

I've noticed similar activity after racking onto pellet hops for dry hopping. My gravity was 1.011 before racking onto hops.
What was your gravity before racking?
Pelletized hops or whole leaf?

It has nothing to do with the gravity. It's just CO2.

 

[fixitoscar]

Hop particles providing nucleation sites for CO2 bubbles to come out of solution. That's all.

exactly. You don't realize it but there is co2 in your beer after a ferment. even if its not under pressure. the hops provide a way for it to leave the solution.

 

[waddsworth]

OK, thanks guys! Is there anything I can do to avoid this? Like, if I just add, say, 1/2 oz at first will that knock all of the co2 out of solution?

 

[pabloj13]

OK, thanks guys! Is there anything I can do to avoid this? Like, if I just add, say, 1/2 oz at first will that knock all of the co2 out of solution?

I would think adding them slowly over the course of a few minutes would help. Less nucleation sites = less violent release of gas.

 

[Dennisusa]

I agree that dry hopping provides nucleation sites to stimulate CO2 out-gassing, but at the risk of swimming against the current,, I suspect that the increased wort agitation might slow flocculation and improve attenuation. No data to back this up, but no one disagreeing with me seems to either. I started a related thread yesterday, but so far am being shot down in flames. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/high-attenuation-374570/

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Nothing you can do to avoid it. It's a normal occurance. Just make sure you have a little headspace if you dry hop in a carboy so you don't get blow off. Other than that, don't worry about it. Add all the hops you want.

 

[kanzimonson]

You can give the carboy a good swirl 10min before adding the dry hops. This will agitate the CO2 out of solution. It's not really a problem if the CO2 is materializing unless it's pushing the hops out of the carboy.