Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Recirculating when dry hopping

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Recirculating when dry hopping

    I've recirculated our IPA with a pump a few times while dry hopping. Once I did it for 24 hours during a 5 day period of dry hopping. Not sure it made a Difference in the flavor. This time I recirculated with a pump for 72 hours during a 5 day period. The beer is still crashing so I have not sampled yet.

    Is anyone else using a pump to recirculate and if so for how long?

    Thanks for any input.
    Scott Swygert
    Founder - Honky Tonk Brewing Co.

  • #2
    We try to never have a pump touch the beer once it goes into the fermenter.

    Have you tried hooking up CO2 to a TC fitting and blowing the hops back into solution instead of running it through a pump?

    Comment


    • #3
      I usually circulate for 7-8 hours under some CO2 pressure, pulling from the racking arm and pumping into the cone, this prevents clogging. We used to do it the other way but the pump kept clogging resulting in wasted hops and beer.

      Comment


      • #4
        Here is a link to a Thesis done by a student at Oregon State in 2012. I changed the way we dry hop after reading it and then trialling different recirculation durations and comparing to our standard dry hopping of 5-7 days. We now add dry hops and recirculate for 24hrs, dump hops and crash. The perceived hop aromas / flavors are better and last longer (i.e. shelf life) than any other technique we have used previously. There are of course risks involved but for us the results and the reduction in time make it worth it.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by krichard View Post
          Here is a link to a Thesis done by a student at Oregon State in 2012. I changed the way we dry hop after reading it and then trialling different recirculation durations and comparing to our standard dry hopping of 5-7 days. We now add dry hops and recirculate for 24hrs, dump hops and crash. The perceived hop aromas / flavors are better and last longer (i.e. shelf life) than any other technique we have used previously. There are of course risks involved but for us the results and the reduction in time make it worth it.

          http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xm...lfe_thesis.pdf
          Hi krichard,
          Always loved that Wolfe thesis. Considering using this method on a new build. How have u fared with clarity and haze issues, are u centrifuging post dryhop?
          Niall

          Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by dubfitz View Post
            Hi krichard,
            Always loved that Wolfe thesis. Considering using this method on a new build. How have u fared with clarity and haze issues, are u centrifuging post dryhop?
            Niall

            Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk
            Hi Niall, we have faired exceptionally well with clarity. We don't filter or fine or centrifuge and our dry hopped beers are clear as can be. We use US-05 for most of those beers and it clears very well in a short amount of time. Our process is 24hr recirc, 24hr cold crash to 30F, xfer to brite and settle for 24hrs and carbonate then package.

            Comment


            • #7
              We've tried it once after reading the thesis above and the results definitely at least seemed positive. The time savings were there as expected, but we aren't at the point where an extra day or two would consistently screw up our production schedule yet, so my thought is to keep it in our back pocket as a "when needed" kind of tool.

              The only reasons it isn't a SOP for us is: 1) We're almost always short-handed labor wise 2) We currently only have one floor pump and 3) We can't afford a DO meter yet, and even though I trust our process it's still nice to get confirmation in the form of data before making any drastic changes.

              Comment


              • #8
                Over kill on recirculating hops

                Thanks so much for everyone's input.

                This batch seems to have lost some of the hop aroma...perhaps due to over kill on recirculation. Our fermenter is not under pressure so we may have scrubbed? some aroma. I had another very experienced brewer tell me that 6 hours is his standard.
                Scott Swygert
                Founder - Honky Tonk Brewing Co.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hey, could anyone recommend a pump for recirculating hops in a FV. from my understanding, with standard centrifugal pumps you run the risk of oxidation?

                  Cheers

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hey, could anyone recommend a pump for recirculating hops in a FV. from my understanding, with standard centrifugal pumps you run the risk of oxidation?
                    You always run the risk of oxidation whenever you're moving beer, but a properly maintained centrifugal pump should not significantly increase that risk assuming your processes are ok.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      We, too, have taken into consideration the results of the Wolfe tests. I've also tried implementing processes I've read of other brewers, namely Vinny of Russian River. For our latest IPA we split the dry hop charge in 2, hit it with CO2 thru the bottom port of the fermentor a few hours after the first charge. Then again the next day, a few times here and there (super scientific, I know). Used higher psi and opened/closed quickly to get big bursts of gas and bigger bubbles/more mixing. Hit it with the second dry hop charge the following day and repeat rousing the day after that. Day after that the fermentor is set to crash. We haven't yet run it into the brite but it smells damn good out of the fermentor so far. We tried using a pump on some previous batches but for one reason or another got some oxidation problems. Mostly with poor connections on the hoses. We had camlocks with aluminum fittings that were badly pitted by caustic cleaning cycles and I'm positive that was our issue, everything since then has been changed to tri-clamp. With the CO2 rousing we haven't had such issues so we haven't gone back to pumping to recirc. We have had much better hop aroma on batches we did the rousing compared to no rousing, as Wolfe's tests suggested. And we have cut the total dryhop time as well, from 2 weeks + down to a week. Haven't tried longer times just yet.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by krichard View Post
                        Here is a link to a Thesis done by a student at Oregon State in 2012. I changed the way we dry hop after reading it and then trialling different recirculation durations and comparing to our standard dry hopping of 5-7 days. We now add dry hops and recirculate for 24hrs, dump hops and crash. The perceived hop aromas / flavors are better and last longer (i.e. shelf life) than any other technique we have used previously. There are of course risks involved but for us the results and the reduction in time make it worth it.

                        http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xm...lfe_thesis.pdf
                        From this article, we came up with 4 day recirc - each recirc is 45 min/day of a 255 bbl tank. We dry hop using a dry hop tank and use that same tank to recirc.
                        Peter Cronin
                        Senior Quality Analyst
                        AleSmith Brewing Company

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by krichard View Post
                          Here is a link to a Thesis done by a student at Oregon State in 2012. I changed the way we dry hop after reading it and then trialling different recirculation durations and comparing to our standard dry hopping of 5-7 days. We now add dry hops and recirculate for 24hrs, dump hops and crash. The perceived hop aromas / flavors are better and last longer (i.e. shelf life) than any other technique we have used previously. There are of course risks involved but for us the results and the reduction in time make it worth it.

                          http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xm...lfe_thesis.pdf
                          Do you connect pump as in Wolfe thesis picture - take beer from racking port and push beer back to bottom discharge port?

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X