Ferment hopping

[NateBrews]

Has anyone tried doing staged dry hopping while he ferment is going on? For example, wait a day for the thing to get going and then start hopping it with some amount daily/every other day until things are done? Maybe a final dose when things are all finished up. I have never tried it and it is something that is general not spoken of ( at least that I have found).

[DrWill]

Has anyone tried doing staged dry hopping while he ferment is going on? For example, wait a day for the thing to get going and then start hopping it with some amount daily/every other day until things are done? Maybe a final dose when things are all finished up. I have never tried it and it is something that is general not spoken of ( at least that I have found).

I have very little to go on except my own gut so this should be taken with a big grain of salt. I would guess that this is not a common practise primarily because adding hops is going to contribute pretty much no bitterness (no isomerisation) and the volatile aroma components that you'd get from a dry hop are mostly going to get blown off. Of course, you could always give it a try and see what happens.

[brewinhard]

I typically add my dry hop additions as the fermentation is slowing down. This helps to scrub out any oxygen introduced when adding the hops, but also as Doc stated above, can scrub out excessive amounts of precious hop aroma too. I usually add a bit more dry hops to compensate for this though.

I would think that if you are dry hopping during the major part of fermentation that you would pretty much be wasting your hops due to CO2 scrubbing out your desired aroma. With that being said, I have not done it, so I do not know for sure.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that yeast interact with hop oils/acids and can transform them into both desireable and undesirable compounds you may or may not want in the finished beer. If you are adding the hops during the time the yeast are most active and in suspension then you may not get the most out of your hops.

[NateBrews]

I guess that the thing I am considering is the transformation that the yeast can provide (as you pointed out) and what different kinda if results I might get based on adding them at different points in the ferment process. I don't think I would want to add them right at the beginning because I want the growth phase to go without hindrance, but I wonder if I could get intesting and desirable. For sure, that could go the other way and make things at I don't like as well.

I have done the hopping as the ferment is just finishing ( 1P left to go ) and those results are fine. I have also hopped after gelatin clearing, so is would be exploring the spot that I haven't done it and there is little literature on.

[brewinhard]

Nate,

Did you remember if you preferred the dry hopping at the tail end of fermentation vs. dry hopping AFTER gelatin?

[NateBrews]

I thought the post gelatin dry hop had more of a raw hop pellet flavor, for lack of a better term. I'm not sure that I liked one or the other more, but they were different.

[Charlie]

It's best to let the brew mostly finish, and rack it off the yeast before dry hopping. The reason is that yeast cells absorb the hop flavor and aroma, so it doesn't end up in the finished product. The hop products are detrimental to the yeast as well, so hopping before fermentatin is mostly complete is a lose/lose proposition.

I usually rack and dry hop at 10 days for ales.

Charlie

[Kbar]

+1

I typically add my dry hop additions as the fermentation is slowing down. This helps to scrub out any oxygen introduced when adding the hops, but also as Doc stated above, can scrub out excessive amounts of precious hop aroma too. I usually add a bit more dry hops to compensate for this though.

I would think that if you are dry hopping during the major part of fermentation that you would pretty much be wasting your hops due to CO2 scrubbing out your desired aroma. With that being said, I have not done it, so I do not know for sure.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that yeast interact with hop oils/acids and can transform them into both desireable and undesirable compounds you may or may not want in the finished beer. If you are adding the hops during the time the yeast are most active and in suspension then you may not get the most out of your hops.