Dry hop and cold crash

[Cosmo2450]

Am I doing it wrong by dry hopping and then cold crashing instantly for 3-4 days? Or should I be dry hopping before cold crashing? 

[Shamus O'Sean]

9 hours ago, Cosmo2450 said:

Am I doing it wrong by dry hopping and then cold crashing instantly for 3-4 days? Or should I be dry hopping before cold crashing? 

Pretty sure it would work.  Not sure what effect you would get, compared to other dry hopping methods, if any at all.

[Cosmo2450]

5 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Pretty sure it would work.  Not sure what effect you would get, compared to other dry hopping methods, if any at all.

There’s nothing wrong with my beers and that’s how I’ve been doing it since I got a fridge set up, but I just wanted to make sure I’m not wasting my time and hops. 

[Fergy1987]

Yep thats how I dry hop. I cant be bothered trying to work out how to dig them out of the fermenter before cold crash. 

I just cold crash for 4-5 days instead of the usual 7 just to prevent the hops being in for "too long" - and that hits the weekend where I would bottle.

 

 

[Aussiekraut]

18 hours ago, Fergy1987 said:

Yep thats how I dry hop. I cant be bothered trying to work out how to dig them out of the fermenter before cold crash. 

I just cold crash for 4-5 days instead of the usual 7 just to prevent the hops being in for "too long" - and that hits the weekend where I would bottle.

I usually dry hop on day 4 until Fermentation finishes, then open the lid, pick the bag out with sanitised hands and squeeze the goodness out of it. Then cold crash for usually around 5 days. I have been known to leave the bag in during cold crash but then it drops to the bottom and I have to fish it out of the slurry. Too messy.

[Cosmo2450]

On 10/20/2020 at 9:10 AM, Aussiekraut said:

I usually dry hop on day 4 until Fermentation finishes, then open the lid, pick the bag out with sanitised hands and squeeze the goodness out of it. Then cold crash for usually around 5 days. I have been known to leave the bag in during cold crash but then it drops to the bottom and I have to fish it out of the slurry. Too messy.

ah i should of clarified that I jut dry hop commando, so theres no retrieving the hops...

[Aussiekraut]

10 minutes ago, Cosmo2450 said:

ah i should of clarified that I jut dry hop commando, so theres no retrieving the hops...

Done that once and got hop matter into the bottles. Nice head to start with but after a while, the bottles turned into beer volcanoes when opened.

 

[Cosmo2450]

6 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Done that once and got hop matter into the bottles. Nice head to start with but after a while, the bottles turned into beer volcanoes when opened.

 

Just have to drink them quicker. Don't really have that drama with kegs, but saying that, the first 4-5 beers have floaty hops in them, nothing off putting tho.

[jamiek86]

On 10/20/2020 at 9:10 AM, Aussiekraut said:

I usually dry hop on day 4 until Fermentation finishes, then open the lid, pick the bag out with sanitised hands and squeeze the goodness out of it. Then cold crash for usually around 5 days. I have been known to leave the bag in during cold crash but then it drops to the bottom and I have to fish it out of the slurry. Too messy.

have you ever cold crashed for only 3 or 4 days and found much difference to 5 or 7. my brew with Nottingham seems clear after only 2 days cold crashing and wondering if will get any better if leave another 3. the only example I have of a 5 day cc wont be ready to drink for at least another week or 2

[Aussiekraut]

1 hour ago, jamiek86 said:

have you ever cold crashed for only 3 or 4 days and found much difference to 5 or 7. my brew with Nottingham seems clear after only 2 days cold crashing and wondering if will get any better if leave another 3. the only example I have of a 5 day cc wont be ready to drink for at least another week or 2

Yeah, when the beer isn't finished in time, it can happen to be just 3 days but still clears up nicely. 

 

[iBooz2]

On 10/20/2020 at 9:10 AM, Aussiekraut said:

I usually dry hop on day 4 until Fermentation finishes, then open the lid, pick the bag out with sanitised hands and squeeze the goodness out of it. Then cold crash for usually around 5 days. I have been known to leave the bag in during cold crash but then it drops to the bottom and I have to fish it out of the slurry. Too messy.

In the past I too have used sanitised hands to fish out a dry hop bag.  But knowing that it would be virtually impossible to sanitise one’s hands, have changed my technique in order to lessen the risks.  Now I use a pair of sanitised stainless-steel tongs which are only used for my beer brewing.  I also have one of those K-Mart or Big-W coffee plungers, again only used in my beer brewing which is thoroughly sanitised.  Fish out hop bag with the SS tongs and drop it into the coffee plunger, plunge down to extract the last of the hoppy goodness and pour juice back into the FV.

I then take the hop sock out of the plunger and snip the tie string off one end of the hop sock bag and empty the spent hops into the compost bin.  Wash clean the hop sock and after a good boil hang to dry.  It will get sanitised before using again in next dry hop.  The hop sock used are from KL and are cut into ½ or ¼ depending on the grams of hops and tied off each end with kitchen twine.

If I dry hop in the Fermzilla then its just done commando style through the gas port and the batch cold crashed for 1 week.  All the hop matter settles well and truly after a good cold crash.

Cheers - AL

[Aussiekraut]

18 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

In the past I too have used sanitised hands to fish out a dry hop bag.  But knowing that it would be virtually impossible to sanitise one’s hands, have changed my technique in order to lessen the risks.  Now I use a pair of sanitised stainless-steel tongs which are only used for my beer brewing.  I also have one of those K-Mart or Big-W coffee plungers, again only used in my beer brewing which is thoroughly sanitised.  Fish out hop bag with the SS tongs and drop it into the coffee plunger, plunge down to extract the last of the hoppy goodness and pour juice back into the FV.

I then take the hop sock out of the plunger and snip the tie string off one end of the hop sock bag and empty the spent hops into the compost bin.  Wash clean the hop sock and after a good boil hang to dry.  It will get sanitised before using again in next dry hop.  The hop sock used are from KL and are cut into ½ or ¼ depending on the grams of hops and tied off each end with kitchen twine.

If I dry hop in the Fermzilla then its just done commando style through the gas port and the batch cold crashed for 1 week.  All the hop matter settles well and truly after a good cold crash.

Cheers - AL

The plunger sounds like a plan actually. Yeah, getting the hands sanitised isn't completely possible but it is risk minimisation  

Yeah I know, cold crashing drops all the hop matter out but as they say, a burnt kid avoids the fire. I had a nice Irish Red kit from MJ. It was a lovely brew but I did a command hop and some hop matter happened to make into some bottles. That is, let's call it suboptimal. The beer pours well and there is good head on it and then the head grows and grows and yeah. In the end, there is no liquid, just froth. So no more commando hopping for me, thank you very much  I use hop bags for dry hopping. They get cleaned out, soaked in Sodium Percarb when I soak a fermenter, hung up to dry and sanitised before use. Some have been used 10 times and there is no end in sight. I usually buy a 10 pack on eBay for a 5er or so.

[iBooz2]

@Aussiekraut All Good AK.  You just made me wake up to something - soaking the hop socks in perc.  God damn it I do that when I make my ginger beer religiously (and I keep them separate due to the different yeasts involved) so why the hell don't I do it with my normal beer routine instead of boiling them.  Dunno, the answer was in plain sight but could not see the forest for the trees.  Geez!

Cheers - AL