Dry-hopping Question

[meadman]

Do any of you out there do alot of dry-hopping of your beers?
My real question - is there methods of speeding up the dry hop absorption rate.
Right now we have a couple of brews that we dry hop a pound per barrel, and it seems to take around 2 1/2 weeks to really get the hop flavor out of that amount of hop.
Is there more efficient methods that have been used successfully?
Thanks.

[HubCity]

Could you please supply a bit more info on your current process. How and when are you adding the hops now? Are you using whole or pellets?

[meadman]

We are using pellets. After reaching terminal, and havesting/dumping yeast, we add pellets through top port of fermenter. The next day, we roust hops with co2 through bottom of cone, and repeat for 4 to 5 days, then it sits till we can taste the correct level of hop character. Dump hops, and transfer to brite.
The owner has suggested recirculating with pump, but I think that will just shred the hops that then will never settle out.
Thanks for the help.
tony

[DFoster]

Do any of you out there do alot of dry-hopping of your beers?
My real question - is there methods of speeding up the dry hop absorption rate.
Right now we have a couple of brews that we dry hop a pound per barrel, and it seems to take around 2 1/2 weeks to really get the hop flavor out of that amount of hop.
Is there more efficient methods that have been used successfully?
Thanks.

When you're a degree or so away from terminal, cool the fermenter about 10 degrees to drop the yeast, draw off as much yeast as you can. Drop the hops in with the tank ~60. Hold that temp for a week or so, crash cool for a couple of days to drop anything else out of suspension...then you're ready to move the beer. The warmer temps do great things to dry hopping and the overall hop aroma.

[Joe Brewer]

It's kind of a mystery. My first guess would have been that your hops were getting packed down in the cone and walled off by a layer of yeast, but it sounds like you're mixing things up pretty well. If it's a really big beer with lots of kettle hops perhaps the dry hops are being overwhelmed? Maybe the particular varieties you use just don't give up their flavors without heat? I dry hop one of our beers with Cascade at half your rate for 5-7 days and get a ton of hop character. Are you adding the hops before you chill the tank?

[Jaltwies]

Gang,
just posted a comment in another thread about aroma "volume" and dry hopping levels. I suspect (as we have seen with our brewers) a big part of the aroma is being lost during drying and processing since most hop processors are running hot and fast (140F minimum). You can't get more volume if the aroma isn't there to begin with. Drying temps and processing temps below 105F retain more oil fractions by weight than concentional processing...FYI.

[jfulton]

Hey Tony,

I had the pleasure of stopping by your brewpub there in Hamilton a few years ago when we were taking a summer vacation.

Do a forced sample to determine terminal gravity. Cool the tank around 6-8 deg F when you're within a few tenths to half Plato of TG. After ~24 hours, pull off all dropped solids, then hop as usual and turn the jackets off. I personally don't recirculate with a pump, but I really wouldn't worry about chopping up the pellets, since they're pretty much annihilated to begin with. Just be sure to deaerate the pump loop if you do this. When your hop character is where you want it, cool the tank gradually over several days, pulling the thick sediment daily.

[malty1]

We are using pellets. After reaching terminal, and havesting/dumping yeast, we add pellets through top port of fermenter. The next day, we roust hops with co2 through bottom of cone, and repeat for 4 to 5 days, then it sits till we can taste the correct level of hop character. Dump hops, and transfer to brite.
The owner has suggested recirculating with pump, but I think that will just shred the hops that then will never settle out.
Thanks for the help.
tony

When you are using C02 to roust the hops are you venting the tank? If so, you are probably losing a lot of aroma. I've never had to roust hops whether for a 1/2 bbl batch or 100 bbl. Dropping hops through the top of an FV is a tried and true method for many breweries. Interested as to what variety of hops you are using, the hop analysis, and the age of the hops?

[Jaltwies]

Since this is a dry hopping the glycoproteins will do a good job of solubizing the oil complex but temperature is the critical factor to hold them in solution.

I agree with Malty1...what is the condition of the hops you are using? BTW...don't trust the spec sheets for starting alphas. get your hops tested and demand oil content as well. Most distributors will look at you funny but you're the customer. Baffle them even more and ask for the oil fraction profile...

[Gael]

Gang,
just posted a comment in another thread about aroma "volume" and dry hopping levels. I suspect (as we have seen with our brewers) a big part of the aroma is being lost during drying and processing since most hop processors are running hot and fast (140F minimum). You can't get more volume if the aroma isn't there to begin with. Drying temps and processing temps below 105F retain more oil fractions by weight than concentional processing...FYI.

What do you think of pelleting, then? It sure seems like beating the hops half to death would also reduce the concentration of lupulin, reducing all the oils, not to mention the issues with the heat of processing driving off more aromas. Personally we only dry-hop with whole hops, and try to avoid using any pelleted hops at any point. Then again, we grow our own too...

[meadman]

Thanks to everyone for replying.
I am sure some of our issues have been with old hops, and yes, when rousting hops thru bottom port with co2, we do vent out the top.
No real problems, we were just trying to see if there were any other possible ways of speeding up the whole dry-hopping process.
I will try the warmer temp dry-hopping scenario, that sounds like it should help.
Cheers.

[Ted Briggs]

I would think rousing with Co2 would blow off more aroma than it would gain in recirculation. If you really want to mix it up I would use a pump- out the bottom and in the racking port with it pointed up. A variable speed pump would be best for going slow with minimum shear force.

[mmussen]

We never use CO2 to rouse hops at our brewery and using 1#/bbl the beer is usually only on hops for 3-5 days before we have the aroma we're looking for.

As others have said we drop the FV temp about 5oF and drain out all the yeast before dry hopping. We're also using pretty aggressive hops which probably speeds up our dry hop times.

I've heard of blowing hops into the racking arm (pointed up) out of a keg with 11/2" TC clamps using CO2 - that's supposed to cut a day or 2 off the total dry hop time but we don't do that here.

[drewseslu]

The method I prefer is to transfer the finished, crashed and yeast dumped beer into a second, cleaned, sanitized and co2 purged FV with the the pelletized hops already in there.
It takes 5-7 days for ideal extraction, based on sensory.