Hello Everybody, I have dry hopped in the keg ~6x and am familiar with most practices .ie, hops in a bag with marbles and tied to dental floss. I then put the keg straight into the fridge and start force carbing. It's taking about 10 days for the dry hops IPA's to start to shine. Is that normal? Should I dry hop for a week at room temp and then force carb. I've read some things about dry hopping works better at room temperature. Anyway, any tips are much appreciated. Thanks Everybody
Yup! Below is from an article on the HomebrewTalk website: "4 – Utilize warmer temperatures The warmer the beer temperature at dry hopping, the more aroma you will extract from the hops. In For The Love of Hops, author Stan Hieronymus reported the following dry hop temperatures for commercial breweries: Stone at 62F, Lagunitas at 70F, New Belgium at 54F, and Sierra Nevada at 68F. Even lager breweries, such as Jack’s Abby, raise beer temperature to 55F during dry hopping. For me, I find it easiest to dry hop at ambient fermentation temperatures (66-68F)." Cheers!
Typically the oils from the hops will saturate your beer a little quicker at an intermediate temperature, something like low to mid-60s is a pretty good spot. Usually 4-6 days will get the job done. Plus, this is an easy temp on the beer. DH'ing at serving temp will probably work, but plan on a few extra days. I don't start force carbing until the hops are pulled . . . seems like the beer is tastier quicker if I take my time.
I would say it depends on when you want to drink your hoppy beer...for an old school IPA I usually dry hop when kegging at room temp and if waiting for the beer to condition/lager for 6-8 weeks it goes straight into the lagerator at ~40*F. For NEIPAs and other more spineless malt bills, I'll keep at room temp for a couple days before lagering. Fwiw, if lagering for 6-8 weeks, I won't even use marbles/etc for the hop bag.
