How Long Should You Dry Hop? 

Great to see a “statistically significant result!” Keep up the good work brulosophy!! Love these videos.

Great video again Martin! Thanks a lot! I've tried many ways to dryhop but ended up preferring the CO2 purge method. I am fermenting in the Grainfather conical fermenters and added a ball lock port on the button valve. Together with the - indeed great - duotight connectors of kegland, I am able to now shoot CO2 into the vessel from the bottom. So I dry hop after 7 days (a few points before FG) and then cold crash down to 10 degrees C at the same time. I purge CO2 a few times per day for max 3 days on a row. And this leads to a enough movement of the hops in the beer without oxidation. I must say - you need to let the CO2 out from the top port of the vessel. Which I also modified with t-clamp to ball lock adaptor with a blow of tube and kegland duotight fitting. I love this method so much since it's quick, easy and so far brought me the best results. What do you think of this method? And what do YOU prefer? Cheers from 🇳🇱 Maarten 👋🏻

it really is hard not to giggle at the hop bong, kegland 100% knew what they where doing when they named it :D

Great content! I think it would be great to extend upon this experiment by trying to add the dry hop during active fermentation/ high kräusen and leaving it in until kegged and one where it is added with short contact time.

To keep the entire fermentation process as simple as possible I have always put my dry hops in when pitching yeast and left it there until bottling / kegging. You've given me food for thought on waiting till fermentation is close to done and dry hopping for a couple of days only. Maybe once I've dialled in consistency and I'm happy with all other aspects.

I add dry hops when I reach the 50% mark of fermentation. I'm hoping the additional activity will drive off any oxygen that was introduced to the carboy. I take the Matt Brynildson/Firestone-Walker approach: 3 days. With this new theory about agitating and only dry hopping for one hour, maybe I'll add my hops earlier, but after a good kreusen layer forms and let the fermentation activity be the agitation. I will still leave in for 3 days. Thanks Martin.

I know homebrewers that successfully use a small membrane pump to freshly dry hop fully carbonated and lagered beer for serving. The membrane pump is connected to the beer-out post of the keg and pumps through a small cylinder containing the dry hops and a filter screen. The output of the cylinder goes back to the other post of the keg. Of course the whole pump system is purged with CO2 before use. I'm also considering to try this method, since it also seems to minimize the losses due to dry hopping.

It kind of makes sense that shorter dry hop times work just as well as longer dry hop times, especially with hop pellets being such small bits when they break apart in the beer. I wonder if there's a difference with whole cone hops? Like it would take longer to extract out hop compounds when the compounds have less surface area exposed to the beer? If I'm remembering correct, Russian River uses whole hop cones, so maybe that's why they use a longer dry hop time?

Nice summary. I'd like to see an exbeeriment with a beer with standard dry hop vs beer where all the dry hop amounts were added to whirlpool charge (so no dry hop but same total hops).

There has been plenty research done on that topic and most outcomes say, that dry hopping for a day or even some hours would be enough. Furthermore, the colder the faster you can extract certain fruity compounds as well and additionally limit hop creep. Therefore, I usually add my last dry hop 2-8h before bottling. The more fruity one wants his beer the shorter you should dry hop. At least your experiments have more or less the same outcome... ;-)

I sometimes dry hop in the keg.. works like a charm. Can sit in the keg for 5/6 weeks. No problem at all. The beers I had people crave over the most had hops in the keg. 🤷🏻‍♂️ First two days some hop burn but that fades in a few days. If I get hop burns I know it is great after a few days. I find it funny the preference is always around 50/50. Whether the observation is significant or not. Scientification of subjectivity. Gotta love it. Cheers 🍻

I usually keep hops for 3 days. However, I found a difference in taste when hops are landed from the top (like using hop bong) against hops purged from the bottom (like kegland fermzilla jar). Top-landed flavour is more constant in a batch.

For blond ale I dry hop once the SG has been stable for 2 days (Rapt Pill reading) I use pellets in a stainless steel mesh tea strainer. After 3 days of contact I chill to 6C which takes 2 days in the fermenter fridge. I then keg. Drink after about a month. No issues.

Thanks awesome helpful and handy conclusions..thanks for the video … cheers

This is great Martin! Would love to know how a test how it would turn out for dry hopping during high krausen until FG is met vs dry hopping at the end of fermentation for 3 to 5 days.

Martin, great video. I have found 3-5 days ideal for dry hopping. More and it tastes grassy, less and it has minimal nose. I drop my dry hops into the beer when the FG is approaching within 4-5 gravity points of done. I have the Fermzilla 3.0 with the Hopbong. , works as advertised.

Is this why some commercial breweries use a hop rocket so they can be done with the dry hop in a few hours or less on big fermenters making it more efficient?

I'd love to look at making your own extract so to speak. Like take a cup of distilled water at your hops and hit them with a blender for a min. Then strain the slurry into your keg. Stir it up and see how it tastes/compares.

Centennial might have added another variable to the test. This hop variety has a very high enzyme ratio, causing hop creep and impacting the FG. So the longer dry hop might have turned out with a lower FG, skewing the triangle test.

Yes, I shake the 30l all rounders 3 to 4 times a day, basically get the beer spinning around and let it settle.

I dry hop at high krausen and then again once it falls for three days. I use hop bags for each shot so I can pull the old hops out when I drop the new ones in. Works great for my setup and its quite simple to do.

Great video! But I do think you missed an opportunity to test 24hours, as there are voices out there saying that the pellets (due to having their cell walls destroyed and having their enzymes ready avaiable) doesn't need more than 12 hours contact time (while 3-5days is more for hop cones). I haven't tested this myself and still have my dry-hop on a 3days schedule.

I have small corny kegs that I can use for small dry hop experiments. I add dry hop and purge the keg. Then just add the beer and I can get the fresh dry hop next day.

Great info ! Thank you Martin ! Have you experimented the effect of biotransformation when adding hops at the fermenter together with the yeast and how this compares to standard 3-4 days conventional dry hopping?

I used to keep normal hops in the fermenter approximately 2-3 days. Now I mainly use cryo hops for dry hopping.

you guys and your songs are hilarious!

I slow cold crash to 12c then dry hop for 2 days of contact time while I continue slowly cold crashing.

Timely video! I have a Zymurgy magazine Pliny the Elder clone in my fermenter as I write this. I’m going with the 12-14 day dry hop schedule per the recipe but will try it differently next time. 🍻

I always dry hop for 3 days, any longer and it starts to lose the dankness I want. I have tried with just a day then cold crashing for 2 days, but i felt it wasn't as nosey as I'd like it, so back to 3 days dh and 2 days crash

I’m brewing a NEIPA tomorrow. Going to try this.

I have ruined a few beers by dry hopping for too long, leaving a grassy astringent flavour. After thinking back about the whole brew and fermentation, the only thing I could pin the flavour on was the length of dry hopping

Great stuff Martin, I'd be interested in an experiment regarding temperature on the dry hop. I've heard dry hop hot, semi cold crash or dry hop after cold crash. I'd be interested to know the best practices.

If you can dry hop in 1 hour when agitating the beer. I wonder how long until someone finds a way to put an agitator in a fermenter or one you can attach and and use a pump. That's a whole weeks worth of fermenters that now you can bottle and brew more. I can see large scale breweries quickly adopting this method as beer sitting in fermenters isn't making them any money.

Longer dry hops also lead to a higher extraction of Polyphenols, which is not really wanted in your beer at this stage. We also need to consider that the point when we are adding the dry hops plays a major role. When fermentation is still active, the bitterness contribution of the Polyphenols is reduced. Active yeast will also give you more fruity aroma because more of the Mycren get carried out of the beer via the yeasts co2 production. On hot site additions the Mycren get boiled off.

Dry hop in keg at 15°C for 3 days. I just leave them in the keg until the it finishes, which is a few months later. Never had grassy flavours. Temperature is the key to a good dry hop

I have only done dry hop at 3-5 days and a second with some beers. You have me thinking though an stepping outside the box and trying some other durations.

Vinnie himself said that 24 hours is their goal. Recirculating for 24 hours then Sedimentation and away with the hops

I think a flaw with the first experiment and maybe a little with the second was that the long hop was added on day 3 and the second on day 11. Those are such different times in the fermentation process. What about different levels of biotransformation? That experiment needs to be done with hops added on the same day but taken away at different days.

I dry hop at room temperature. I tried 2, 3, 4 and 5 days multiple time. 2 days was underwhelming, kinda a waste of hops. Not sure I could distinguish 3 to 5 days even with the same recipe.

I'd be interested in Denny Conn's method of two days after cold crasing

What about bio transformation?

Lol tell me ai didnt make that little hop jingle.

I wonder if 1 hour without agitation would also be indistinguishable from the standard 3-5 days...

Cut to me violently swiring my fermenter 😂😂

Tasting with only one participant, no matter how many times, can't be viewed as reliable data. Sensory panels do not work that way, and a solo participant can be blind to certain attributes. It'd also be more useful to conduct the dry hops for these trials when the beers have reached FG - the scrubbing affect of a mid ferment dry hop (ie 3 days in) versus dry hopping at terminal (ie 7 days in) would certainly impact the aroma and flavour of the two beers. Would like to see Brulosophy step their game up in terms of experiment design - you guys have been doing this for a while now. Isolate, control and emphasize variable difference outcomes!

1hr cold dry hop at cold crash temp after cold crash smells amazing to me. Trick is to drop out the yeast first otherwise it drags down oils like a fining agent.

"How Long Should You Dry Hop" you should not! Save your time, money, avoid infection & oxydation and do a good late/flame out/hopstand hopping

Kegland… dont bother with the rapt pill, absolute garbage. The O-rings and tubing are fine.