How long do you dry hop for?

[AndyRN]

I have read widely varying times for this. One study showed that after 24 hours we start losing volatile oils but could be as short as 8 hours. Other people think 2 weeks is optimal.

 

[BrewDoc1518]

There are a lot of threads about this, it varies a lot based on experiences. I dry hop for 7 days at the least, haven't had any grassy flavors yet. I feel like the times I did less than 7 days I didn't get what I wanted out of it. My two cents though.

 

[schematix]

I've dry hopped anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks.

I've had good success across the spectrum but more recently i've been going with shorter. Sometimes it just comes down to my work schedule so if i'm gone M-F i might dry hop on Sunday night, and keg on Saturday morning.

I rarely go over a week anymore.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

There's a lot of varying opinion on the topic. Generally, I would think dry hopping for about a week in secondary would be enough.

 

[beergolf]

I do about 4 - 5 days. I saw a video with John Kimmich form Headdy Topper fame and he claims that 4 days is optimal. I tried it and it works great.

 

[Yooper]

I generally go 3-5 days, but sometimes life gets in the way and it's a bit longer. My "sweet spot" is still in that 5 day window, but longer has worked out just fine as well.

 

[drainbamage]

I do 5-7 days.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Usually 5-7 days here as well.

 

[Spartan300man]

A follow up, do you wait until after the most vigorous part of the fermentation is over? Is there a need to transfer to a secondary when doing this? My IPA is bubbling furiously, and I planned to transfer from bucket to carboy, but I have leaf hops and a hop bag and the narrow bottle neck has me worried.

 

[Vamptrump]

5-7 days is what I traditionally do.

That being said, my recent IPA had issues and required another 2 weeks before I was ready to bottle, meaning my dry-hopping was really 3 weeks. I couldn't even tell the difference in aromas, to the point where I had people telling me how much of a punch in the face hop aroma they got when opening a bottle after 5 weeks from the initial dry hop.

I wouldn't be super concerned about the time that much. Granted there are exceptions, obviously aromas will fall.

As for when to do it. You want your vigorous fermentation to be complete. The reason for dry hopping is to replace the hop aromas lost during the fermentation. The CO2 byproduct of fermentation does a really good job of washing delicate aromas and flavors away from the beer.

 

[drainbamage]

A follow up, do you wait until after the most vigorous part of the fermentation is over? Is there a need to transfer to a secondary when doing this? My IPA is bubbling furiously, and I planned to transfer from bucket to carboy, but I have leaf hops and a hop bag and the narrow bottle neck has me worried.

Yes, wait until vigorous fermentation is complete. If you add too early, the CO2 outgassing will blow off the volatiles and negate the purpose of the dry-hops. I usually wait until 3 weeks, but for most average gravity beers, you could get away with 2 weeks, maybe even 1-1/2 if you were really in a time crunch.

 

[Takuie]

5 for me if the hop is high aa%. 7 for pretty much anything else.

I did a small split batch study with my APA a while back. Hopped half for 5 days, hopped the other for 7. Honestly could not taste the difference, but I'm not a huge hop head either. The only difference is it seemed the 5 day dry hop kept the hoppy flavor a little longer than the 7. I would have thought it would have been the other way around. Only did this experiment once tho.

 

[Peruvian802]

4-5 days.

 

[Spartan300man]

What is the consensus of racking over to a secondary before dry hopping? My guess Is that I will have a thick layer of hops trub in my bucket, not to mention there was a lot of dust in my BIAB from the double mill I did with 10 lbs of 2-row.

 

[Vamptrump]

What is the consensus of racking over to a secondary before dry hopping? My guess Is that I will have a thick layer of hops trub in my bucket, not to mention there was a lot of dust in my BIAB from the double mill I did with 10 lbs of 2-row.

If you have no interest in saving the yeast cake. Then just do dry hopping in the primary and don't worry about racking to secondary. To prevent repeating another thread, I will share this recent thread I was in discussing secondary. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=532826

 

[Hello]

I dry hop for 5 days now. I didn't detect any real benefit from dry hopping for 7 days over 5 days, so I went with 5.

 

[Natdavis777]

Ive gone as low as 2-3 days, upwards to two weeks. Ive found I like the 5 day window the best. If it gets extended a day or two becuase of work, Im not too worried about it.

 

[m00ps]

FWIW, I once dry hopped a DIPA for 4 months and it was great. I need to re-create that whole accident
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=525036

 

[Vamptrump]

FWIW, I once dry hopped a DIPA for 4 months and it was great. I need to re-create that whole accident
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=525036

I'm thinking recreation of that accident wouldn't be advised. How about we just recreate the 4-month dry hop instead.

 

[Spartan300man]

FWIW, I once dry hopped a DIPA for 4 months and it was great. I need to re-create that whole accident
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=525036

What a story....glad you are back to brewing again......the one thing that bothers me about it, though, "Your neighbors "dumped it"....yeah, I bet they did.....just like I poured out that glass of IPA, "After straining it through my kidneys, first!"