Dry hopping and Yeast Harvesting

[Kbrotherman]

I'm a newbie on the verge of brewing my first 15 BBL batch with a plan for 2 weeks of dry hopping.

Here's the deal: I want to dry hop at fermentation temperature and without yeast around. The delimma is I want to crash cool before harvesting the yeast, but I don't want to dry hop cold. Would you please share with me what works best? I've seen most here agree with harvest after cooling and most agree to dry hop at fermentation temp..so how to achieve both?

Should I:
-ferment, harvest, dry hop and then cool (2 weeks with yeast under beer) or
-ferment, crash cool, harvest and then dry hop cold or
-some combination I'm overlooking?

Your help is very much appreciated. I've learned so much from this site in silence and I'm eager to gain some expereince to try to give back in the future
-Kevin

[tariq khan]

dry hopping and yeast harvesting

I've never dry hopped at ferm temp...I've always dry hopped after cooling, (Ie in cellar tank or in cask)...with good results....I usually harvest yeast after crash cooling (couple of days or so)....works for me

Tariq

[BeersmithMT]

I know this might not be the answer you're looking for...

We dry hop at the end of fermentation at temperature for 2-3 days. We then cool the beer, and pull off all yeast/hops prior to transfer. We do not harvest yeast whatsoever from a dry-hopped beer. We do sometimes dry hop in conditioning (at 38F), however the flavor/aroma impact from dry hopping at fermentation temp is much greater. The only two ways I can see to achieve your goals are to warm the beer back up (which I advise not to), or wait for yeast to settle out warm, then harvest, then dry hop. We alternate brewing beers that are going to get dry-hopped, so we always have yeast available from another batch. Hope that helps.

[BrewerTL]

We kind of compromise.

After F.G., we cool 7*F per day to 51*F. After the ale has been at 51* for 24 hours, we harvest our yeast. We then purge whatever yeast we haven't harvested. Next, we use an "inline" dry hopping process using a filter housing. This is a must for us because we bung our tanks and use 100% natural carbonation. We then leave the beer at 51* for a few days before cooling on down to 36*F. We try to leave the beer alone at this temp for at least a week before racking to our servers. We don't filter this beer.

[Jephro]

Do you have a Yeast Brink?? Clean keg? Corny Keg? Just harvest your before you DH, if you are harvesting day 4-6 you should have plenty of healthy yeast on a 15 BBL cone without having to crash it first.

I DH around day 4-5, just before terminal. I feel i get a better extraction when:
a. beer is warmer
b. still some fermentation to help rouse those hops that may settle out

You really just need to get to know your yeast and how it settles in your tank. Harvesting too early can cause a bit of a problem if you are only getting those first to settle early floc'ers potentially pushing up your TG or not consuming all the diacetyl. 5 days is prime IMO, i like to make sure i blow the dead/early floc'ers off the cone before harvesting.

BTW I would not recommend leaving beer on the (ale) yeast for 2 weeks, you may end up with some funky autolyzed yeast taste (old bologna as i call it).

[grassrootsvt]

Yeast Strain

Honestly, depending upon the yeast strain, sometimes all you have to do is begin to cool in order to drop the yeast. For example, if you are fermenting at 20 C [68F], you could cool to 15 or 16 C [60 F] after diacetyl rest and harvest yeast... sometimes even a little higher. Depending upon the yeast strain, some change in temperature is just enough to accelerate flocculation. At this point, the temperature may still be high enough for you to gain the advantage of slightly warmer dry hopping temperatures....

[Jim Lieb]

Yeast Harvesting

I usually cooled the beer and then pulled yeast before dry hopping. I found out on my tanks from JV Northwest that if you tried to harvest after dry hopping in hop bags that it b prevented the yeast from settleing out to the bottom of the fermentor andmade yeast harvesting almost impossible.

Jim

[Laughing Dog]

dry-hopping

I agree with grassrootsvt, we ferment at 68 F and cool to 60F after a rest, harvest then dry-hop at that temp for 7 days and have a wonderful aroma. from the dry-hopping.

Laughing dog

[northparkerik]

Dry hopping

My method for dry hopping is as follows:

I use Cal yeast from white labs for my ales. It ususally ferments out in 4-5 days. I allow it to rest for an additional day at fermentation temp(68). I then drop the temp to 50 degrees for 24 hours and harvest the yeast for another fermentation.Then I dump the rest throughout the next 24 hours to make sure that most of the yeast is gone( I believe that yeast presence diminishes the effect of dry hopping). Then I dry hop(pellets at a rate of 1/4 to 1 pound per barrel) the beer in fementer through the pressure relief valve opening and allow to rest for at least one week at that time I chill to 35 F and filter within a couple of days. If I really want crazy hop aromatics I bubble CO2 through the bottom valve on the fermenter to get the hops back into suspension on day three of dry hopping.

[BigWilley]

Like others have stated, your yeast may very well drop out enough to harvest without cooling or with minimal cooling. Using WLP001 I can harvest on the 4th or 5th day without cooling. Then dryhop. I find that 50F is plenty warm for a good dryhop aroma so you could crash to 50 ish and be fine. The warmer you hop the less time needed. If you dont need to harvest from that batch then you can dryhop at the very end of active fermentation and get great results quickly. Just be careful when adding the hops that you dont get a hoppy beer geyser coming out the PRV port.

[Kbrotherman]

Thanks for all the insight and advice. Sounds like a lot of variations work well.

Update: I fermented the Wyeast 1272 at 72F for five days and then cooled a few degrees to 68F before harvesting the yeast for the next beer. LOTS of creamy yeast transferred cone to cone! The next beer, a Pale Ale fermented out in 2 days! So, I'm dry hopping still at fermentation temp, just a little lower. Added my hops yesterday...Any thoughts on how to get those hops up off the cone periodically? CO2 injection from below?

Thanks again!
Kevin

[Jephro]

I have used the Co2 from the bottom of the cone a few times. If you do this make sure that there is no autolyzed yeast in the cone that your going to stir up. IMO its not necessary to rouse the hops off the cone, i feel the alcohol does a fine job extracting the oils w/o it, but i know there are many who will disagree with that opinion.

[pbutlert]

The convection action when cooling fermenters works well also.

[jason.koehler]

Any thoughts on how to get those hops up off the cone periodically? CO2 injection from below?

Thanks again!
Kevin

If you're using nylon bags for your dry hopping, just tie them onto something inside the fermenter so they're suspended from the bottom of the cone. You're not dry hopping in your primary are you? That would of course keep you from doing this...