As stated before, time is definately a factor with dry hopping, due to the volatile nature of aromatics.
I believe there is one point that has not been mentioned; that of carbonating beer that is dry hopped.
How do you carbonate your beer? The reason I ask is that some breweries use inline pinpoint carbonation which is efficient and prevents losing aromatics. If you don't have inline pinpoint carbonation there are other methods you can use that I have found successful.
I would add dry hops (pellets) to the fermenter after fermentation is complete. So, the hops would be in contact with the beer during a diacetyl rest at your regular fermentation temp for 48 hours. After the rest, set the fermenter at a lagering temp (33 -35) and condition.
Since you do not filter, I would recommend using some type of finings during conditioning (Crosby and Bakers "Clearfine" works well). Before transferring, remove as much of the settled dry hops from the bottom of the cone.
Now for the critical carbonation and transfer part. While transferring the beer, do it very slowly to avoid foaming. Once the transfer is complete, do not vent the bright tank during carbonation, let the CO2 saturate via head pressure. Blowing down the bright tank will only release aromatics, much more quickly than you might think.
Cheers,
Aaron Brodniak
I believe there is one point that has not been mentioned; that of carbonating beer that is dry hopped.
How do you carbonate your beer? The reason I ask is that some breweries use inline pinpoint carbonation which is efficient and prevents losing aromatics. If you don't have inline pinpoint carbonation there are other methods you can use that I have found successful.
I would add dry hops (pellets) to the fermenter after fermentation is complete. So, the hops would be in contact with the beer during a diacetyl rest at your regular fermentation temp for 48 hours. After the rest, set the fermenter at a lagering temp (33 -35) and condition.
Since you do not filter, I would recommend using some type of finings during conditioning (Crosby and Bakers "Clearfine" works well). Before transferring, remove as much of the settled dry hops from the bottom of the cone.
Now for the critical carbonation and transfer part. While transferring the beer, do it very slowly to avoid foaming. Once the transfer is complete, do not vent the bright tank during carbonation, let the CO2 saturate via head pressure. Blowing down the bright tank will only release aromatics, much more quickly than you might think.
Cheers,
Aaron Brodniak
Comment