Dry Hopping Pliny the Elder

[ultravista]

I plan on brewing MoreBeer's Pliny the Elder clone tomorrow. Their recipe calls for 3 ounces of Columbus, 1 ounce of Centennial, and 1 ounce of Simcoe dry hopped.

To cut-down on wort transfer and oxygen pickup post-fermentation, can I dry hop on top of the yeast cake after final gravity is reached without any material losses?

From what I've read, most recipe calls for 'secondary' dry hopping.

Your thoughts?

 

[masscarriers]

I've done it with great success so far, yeast activity is then quite low and aroma shouldn't be expelled. Hops will go down with the rest after some time (pellets that is, can't say for whole hops).

 

[Singletrack]

Vinnie says the yeast will steal hop aroma/flavor, so for this one, I would dry hop in the secondary. Then again, Vinnie says oxidized hops are awful. So, I dunno.

 

[ultravista]

masscarriers - did you do this with Pliny or another DIPA?

 

[masscarriers]

No it wasn't Pliny it was an all-Chinook dry hop IIRC.

 

[BigAlex]

I brewed the clone kit from Northern brewer about 6 weeks ago. I want ahead and followed the instructions exactly with dry hopping in secondary (I do all dry hopping in sec). It came out amazingly, not quite pliny, but a great hop forward IIPA nonetheless.

 

[tg123]

Thanks for asking this question ultra. I also brewed the same kit and was planning to dry hop in the primary. I guess I will be moving it to secondary now to dry hop.

 

[orangemen5]

I dry hop in the primary after crashing with gelatin. The beer is very clear without any yeast to strip aroma.
To me it's not worth the extra transfer or possible oxidation. Unless you purge your secondary of co2.
Whether a yeast cake sucks up aroma from dry hopping I'm not sure. I've always thought it was yeast in suspension.

 

[TimBrewz]

You can dry hop in primary as long as you give the yeast time to drop clear and don't re-suspend the yeast. Since the recipe calls for CA ale yeast, which does not drop clear very quickly, you can cold crash first to decrease exposure to yeast. I assume you are bottling this beer? If you are kegging, then dry hopping in the keg is the way to go. Good luck. Its a fun beer to brew!

 

[ultravista]

I plan on:

* Fermenting @ 68 F until complete
* Dropping to 40 F until clear
* Raising the temperature back to ambient (approximately 60-65 F)
* Dry hopping for 7-14 days at ambient
* Transfer to keg and add gas

I suspect dry hopping while the yeast is still active is different than dry hopping on a compacted yeast cake.

Limiting exposure to oxygen is my primary concern. Transferring once makes sense.

The MoreBeer recipe includes 2 ounces of whole leaf Cascade. I plan on using this somewhere in the dry hop process (while in the keg) should flavor and aroma fade considerably. I'm the only one drinking this beer; it will be in the keg for a few months

Dry hopping in the keg is an idea ...

 

[JJ900]

I did the NB extract version of this, which calls for 5oz of dry hopping and I didn't use a secondary. It was 26 days total in primary, 1st dry hop of 3.5oz was 10 days before bottling and 2nd dry hop of 1.5oz was 4 days before bottling. Aroma is really hanging in there. Though only 3.5 weeks in bottles so far so I can't say how it will age but its been fantastic.

 

[tg123]

You can dry hop in primary as long as you give the yeast time to drop clear and don't re-suspend the yeast. Since the recipe calls for CA ale yeast, which does not drop clear very quickly, you can cold crash first to decrease exposure to yeast. I assume you are bottling this beer? If you are kegging, then dry hopping in the keg is the way to go. Good luck. Its a fun beer to brew!

If you dryhop in the keg, are there any concerns with leaving it in there too long? My kegs last awhile because I'm usually the only one drinking and shouldn't drink that much according to SWMBO

 

[TimBrewz]

You can remove the dryhops from the keg at any time if you think that you are getting enough hop aroma or if the flavor is too much like sucking on a wet hop. I keep them tightly sealed in a hops bag and use a wire hanger modified into a hook to pull the bag out.

 

[tg123]

Oh my. that's probably one of the best hydro samples I've had so far, and I thought I messed up this batch when I didn't hit the target OG.
After 3.5 weeks in the primary, it's not completely clear and looks like there's a tiny bit of activity (yeast still moving around). SG is 1.021 using Safale US-05 so i'm sure it didn't fully attenuate. Anyway it's got good sweetness to it up front so I may just keg it as is. Can't wait to dryhop this and see how much better (or worse) this turns out.

Thanks for the tips on dryhopping in the keg TimBrewz.

 

[tg123]

Hmm. I left my beer on the counter for a couple of days and it looks like there's activity again. Just checked and the gravity dropped by 0.001. You guys think I should wait to let it settle out? I'm thinking it might be because my kitchen's a little warmer which may have kicked off the fermentation again. It's currently at 1.020.

I guess the other option is to rack it to the keg, dryhop, then add gelatin a few days later to drop out the yeast that's definitely still in suspension according to the color of the beer right now. Anyone have opinions on this specific kit?

Thanks


EDIT: Upon further inspection, I will wait a few more days even though it's been 4 weeks. The hyrdo sample I took out has a good amount of yeast settling on the bottom of the glass.