Is it ok to dry hop for 2 1/2 weeks?

[bootlegnjack]

It's only my 4th brew and starting to experiment with hops, been liking some store bought IPA's. I'm using cascade in a Coopers lager, I dry hopped 35g cascade after it had been in the fermenter for 4 days, I also did a 20 min and 5 min boil with about 15 grams each in a wort mixture.

I've been reading that 3 weeks in the fermenter is ideal but I think I also recall reading that dry hopping for too long can be bad? Should I let it go the full 3 weeks or bottle it up in a few days after having dry hopped about a week?

 

[jrodder]

I usually don't go more than 7 days. I had a dryhop in my last keg, ended up being in there for a month. You could *really* taste the grassy vegetal flavors at that point.

 

[ph0ngwh0ng]

I guess that's one of the things you'll have to try for yourself...

"Some brewers feel that if the hops are in the beer for more than a few weeks, the beer develops a “grassy” flavor. Personally, I’ve never experienced it, despite leaving hops in my kegs for as long as six weeks."

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/569-dry-hopping-techniques

 

[masskrug]

Where did you read 3 weeks of dry hopping is ideal? You shouldn't be dry hopping while the yeast are still active.

I wait 2 weeks for the yeast to do their job and then I dry hop for a week. Three weeks of dry hopping will get you some grassy flavors. Recently I've heard that one day is long enough.

Short Term Dry Hop Aroma Extraction experiments were performed in shaken flaks and showed that the maxium concentration of mycrene and linanol is already reached after 240 minutes. This supports the idea that aroma extraction in dry hopping happens much faster than brewers think. Although it is mentioned that temperature can play an important role and that extraction at lower temperatures is expected to be slower. In general more hop oils were extracted from pellets compared to whole flowers of the same batch of hops. This is contributed to the fact that in pellet processing the hop material, including lupulin glands, is crushed.

http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2012/12/12/interesting-paper-on-dry-hopping/

 

[bootlegnjack]

Where did you read 3 weeks of dry hopping is ideal? You shouldn't be dry hopping while the yeast are still active.

I wait 2 weeks for the yeast to do their job and then I dry hop for a week. Three weeks of dry hopping will get you some grassy flavors. Recently I've heard that one day is long enough.

Short Term Dry Hop Aroma Extraction experiments were performed in shaken flaks and showed that the maxium concentration of mycrene and linanol is already reached after 240 minutes. This supports the idea that aroma extraction in dry hopping happens much faster than brewers think. Although it is mentioned that temperature can play an important role and that extraction at lower temperatures is expected to be slower. In general more hop oils were extracted from pellets compared to whole flowers of the same batch of hops. This is contributed to the fact that in pellet processing the hop material, including lupulin glands, is crushed.

http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2012/12/12/interesting-paper-on-dry-hopping/

Thanks for this, I meant fermenting for 3 weeks not dry hopping for 3 weeks. I figured because I dry hopped it after 4 days if I left it for the full 3 weeks it would need to be hopped for 2.5 weeks in total. thanks for the info.

 

[unionrdr]

The problem you've introduced by dry hopping after only 4 days fermentation is the fact that the yeast still in suspension will get coated by the hop oils. When they go to the bottom,the hop oils coating them do too. That's why we wait until the beer's at FG & clearing to dry hop for 7-10 days. Any longer & those grassy flavors can result.

 

[dnslater]

I just did a Pliny clone which called for 2 separate dry hops insertions. Because of a vacation I did the first stage of the dry hop was in the beer for 2 weeks or so, and the second for 4-5 days. Beer is awesome with no Grassy taste.

 

[Zoidberg]

I've dry hopped for 2 weeks before with no ill effects. You should just bottle after 2 weeks total in primary. That's 10 days in primary which is perfectly normal, more than I usually do though u less DIPA. Just make sure your hydrometer readings stay consistent a few days before bottling. Don't Ely on a calendar.

 

[ph0ngwh0ng]

Where did you read 3 weeks of dry hopping is ideal? You shouldn't be dry hopping while the yeast are still active.

I wait 2 weeks for the yeast to do their job and then I dry hop for a week. Three weeks of dry hopping will get you some grassy flavors. Recently I've heard that one day is long enough.

Short Term Dry Hop Aroma Extraction experiments were performed in shaken flaks and showed that the maxium concentration of mycrene and linanol is already reached after 240 minutes. This supports the idea that aroma extraction in dry hopping happens much faster than brewers think. Although it is mentioned that temperature can play an important role and that extraction at lower temperatures is expected to be slower. In general more hop oils were extracted from pellets compared to whole flowers of the same batch of hops. This is contributed to the fact that in pellet processing the hop material, including lupulin glands, is crushed.

http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2012/12/12/interesting-paper-on-dry-hopping/

Wow. Thesis beats BYO anytime. Henceforth, I'm dry hopping 2 days max.

Back to OP. As others have pointed out, fermentation should be over before dry hopping. Let the beer sit in primary, or transfer in secondary if you like, but the idea is to dry hop a couple of days before bottling.

Good luck and welcome in the hobby btw!

 

[BigJack]

Wow. Thesis beats BYO anytime. Henceforth, I'm dry hopping 2 days max.

Back to OP. As others have pointed out, fermentation should be over before dry hopping. Let the beer sit in primary, or transfer in secondary if you like, but the idea is to dry hop a couple of days before bottling.

Good luck and welcome in the hobby btw!

After reading that, I'm thinking that my new schedule will be to dry hop two days before bottling/kegging and to cold crash 12 hours before.

Also, did you see in the article where hop aroma gets caught in the cap liner?

I was judging an APA competition for my homebrew club and I sniffed the cap of one of the entries- lots of hop aroma. But when I put my nose over the glass, not so much.

If you think about it, using unlined caps for hoppy beers makes sense. IPAs and APAs should be consumed young anyway. Save the lined caps for things that need more aging.

 

[unionrdr]

Interesting observation. Never thought to try that,since I use the o2 barrier caps.

 

[bootlegnjack]

I just did a Pliny clone which called for 2 separate dry hops insertions. Because of a vacation I did the first stage of the dry hop was in the beer for 2 weeks or so, and the second for 4-5 days. Beer is awesome with no Grassy taste.

Firstly, what a great forum this is, always lots of friendly advice.

Secondly after reading that study I'm going to do a secondary shorter dry hop addition but its been good to read that a few people aren't having that grassy flavor after a long dry hop. I'll try it out and see how it goes for me.