Question about hop creep

[tyrub42]

I've been dry hopping 80 percent of my beers since I started brewing and never noticed the negative effects of hop creep. However, it is common for my beers to shed an additional 1-3 points after dry hopping. I always just attributed this to the end of fermentation, but now it seems like it may have been from the enzymes from the dry hops all along .

My question is whether my dry hop method is the reason why I haven't experienced diacetyl problems or overcarbonation in bottles. I dry hop in primary, anywhere from 3-8 days after yeast pitch, and before bottling, I raise the temperature gradually to 72f (22c) for a few days for a diacetyl rest and to make sure fermentation is complete.

Would this be enough to counter the problems associated with hop creep? Or have I just gotten lucky? (Or is it just not very common)?

Thanks!
Tyler

 

[ncbrewer]

I've read everything I can find about hop creep but really can't find specifics. I'd love to find "If you do X, you'll be safe", but no luck. I'll be watching this thread to see if anybody has answers/specifics.

 

[tyrub42]

I've read everything I can find about hop creep but really can't find specifics. I'd love to find "If you do X, you'll be safe", but no luck. I'll be watching this thread to see if anybody has answers/specifics.

Same here. Have you experienced any major issues with it personally (diacetyl, bottle bombs, etc)?

 

[eric19312]

Count me in as curious. It sounds like your technique is what is recommended. Post dry hop diacetyl rest.

 

[Taket_al_Tauro]

My process seems similar to yours, although I’ll let it sit longer in primary before dry hopping and then bottling (generally 3-4 weeks, even for hoppy beers). So far, I did not experience any problems with diacetyl and/or overcarbonation either. Once I thought I had some diacetyl at bottling, but that went away completely after just one week of bottle conditioning. Probably the bottle conditioning process is effective at cleaning up diacetyl (I read that somewhere too). As for overcarbonation issues, no idea, maybe the bulk of that small, additional fermentation triggered by the dry hop additions is already over by the time you bottle a few days later, so that the amount of CO2 produced in the bottle due to residual hop creep would be pretty negligible (I am wildly speculating here).