dry hopping temperature?

Crashing the carboy before, after, or at all is a personal preference. Some like to crash it before dry hopping to clarify the beer and to hopefully reduce yeast/hop flavor interactions. They also want the yeast to settle out so that when they rack to secondary (with the dry hops in secondary) there is less yeast in the beer for the hop oils to cling to and not end up in the final packaged beer. Others don't like to crash the beer before dry hopping (if at all) because they want yeast/hop flavor interactions and/or don't want to lose any hop resins that are stuck to the yeast still in suspension.

Dry hopping temperatures are generally btw 64F and 72F (hotter = faster extraction)

Dry hopping lengths are also a personal preference and generally range from 4 - 14 days. Some feel longer exposure to dry hops adds more vegetal flavors to the final product.

 

I frequently dryhop 2 kegs at the same time. One will get lagered immediately for drinking 1 to 2 months down the road. The other will stay at room temp for a week and then carbed in kegerator for 2 weeks before drinking.

IMHO, even IPAs benefit from some conditioning and are usually better > month after dryhopping once the yeast is thoroughly flocced and the hops have past their "awkward phase".

 

"IMHO, even IPAs benefit from some conditioning and are usually better > month after dryhopping once the yeast is thoroughly flocced and the hops have past their "awkward phase"." I share that opinion.

Cheers!

 

This is an interesting topic. According to the Hops book, there are potentially desirable flavor/aroma outcomes from yeast hop interactions, although at the time of publication, it sounded like science was behind in articulating the details. Prior to that, I heard concerns that if you dry hop before the yeast floc, aromatic hop oils will adhere to the cells of the yeast and will floc out of the beer. I wonder if there is reason to dry hop both before and after the yeast flocs.

 

Peter, I suppose I was not clear about my personal comment. The conditioning that I was referring to was bottle conditioning. After I bottle my IPAs are carbonated at around the two week mark but I let my beers condition further in the bottle another 2-3 additional weeks prior to drinking my homebrewed IPAs. I find that my bottle conditioned IPAs reach their peak of flavor about 4-5 weeks post bottling.

I hope that this clarification message is helpful to you.

Cheers!

Jack

 

Jack, I agree. IPAs seem to benefit in their taste from that extra period of conditioning.

 

I see what you mean. I'm guilty of misreading your post and misrepresenting its relevance to my idea of the moment. Sloppy.

FWIW, I appreciate your position on IPA conditioning. Perhaps some of the hop compounds that I can find more objectionable (e.g. catty) fade enough that I more deeply appreciate some of the compounds that I enjoy (floral)?

 

Vinnie dryhops while cold crashing, the idea behind it being that yeast scrubs out hop oils. He must be doing something right.
#hopwhisperer

 

So a guy known for making hoppy beers wants to scrub hop oils out of his beer? Does he not want these hop oils?

 

He dry hops once the yeast is removed via cold crashing.

Others dry hop when there are a few points of fermentation to go so that the yeast can bio transform some of the hop compounds into other desirable compounds.

 

Could you expand on bio transform/desirable compounds?

 

Maybe that confusing. Once his yeast drops he dryhops.

 

I personally dry hop every IPA I brew (about 2-3 batches per month) by putting hops in secondary and racking onto them from the primary, usually 5 days before kegging. I then cold crash 2 days before kegging and force carb for around 2 days before I tap the keg. I am personally a fan of the fresh/green taste of hops and find the flavors more appealing the fresher the beer is. I have not seen a marked difference in flavor and aroma between beers I've dry hopped before cold crash versus after cold crash. True the flavors change and morphs as time passes, but I enjoy experiencing that flavor change instead of aging an IPA to get past it.

 

I don't have time to do an extensive search at the moment, but this is the only technical paper I was able to quickly find on the topic..

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1567-1364.2003.tb00138.x/full

It doesn't make mention of the flavor consequences of such biotransformations, but (FWIW) I've heard others claim it can create enhanced stone fruit flavors...

 

So . . . who's the bigger Hop-Geek: You for posting that link or me for actually reading it?

 

I discussed dry hopping briefly with a brewer at Bell's and was given some interesting information that I do not commonly hear in regards to the topic. Two Hearted is dry hopped at a rather low temperature, it is done so to pull specific flavors out of the hop. At lower temps Bell's is able to pull more fruity/floral flavors from the Centennial whereas higher temperatures generally lead to more piny flavors. I do not know nearly enough to expand upon this idea but found this interesting.

 

Linaloil and citronel (SP for) both can increase in fermentation. Stan Hieronymus has written about this.

 

Considering I did both, I'd have to say.............. LOL