How Long to Dry Hop?

[John Sand]

I've read different things: 5-7 days seems a recipe standard. But I think I read somewhere that 2-3 will extract all of the aroma. What do you do and why?

[Beer-lord]

Lately I've had great luck with splitting my dry hops between 7 days and 3 days and really like it. But, the most recent info shows that as little as 24 hours helps but I still think 3-5 days will get most people what they want.

[BigPapaG]

I usually go about 3 days...

At the temp that they are soaking, it seems the aromatic oils that I'm looking for are extracted well enough.

I have gone longer (even as long as one to two weeks) but I don't think I'm getting much more out of them.

Also, longer contact seems to risk some 'grassiness' becoming part of the profile.

I have also dry hopped for as short a time as one day, which worked ok, but I think it was a little too short of a time to be completely effective.

YMMV!

[Gott des Bieres]

I also like to use a hop tea at bottling or kegging.

[John Sand]

I tried hop tea early in my brewing journey, with mixed results. I'll keep it as a tool to correct mistakes, as before. I've only dry hopped one batch, poorly, I think. I have a Green Flash West Coast IPA clone fermenting now. I'll dry hop it next week.

[Kealia]

I go with 3-7 days, depending on my schedule. I can't say that my taste buds are good enough to tell the difference unless I tried the same batch side by side to compare.

[BlackDuck]

I'm usually in the 3 to 5 day range.

[MadBrewer]

Well, how long depends on amount of hops and temperature mainly. I do agree though, I generally go no longer than a week. I usually go about 5 days. I've ruined a nice big Pale Ale by dry hopping too much at too warm a temp and got some really intense green, vegetal character in both flavor and aroma. The beer judges noted a character similar to a wet hop beer. I didn't care for it one bit.

I also like to use a hop sac, beers that I haven't I believe there is just too much contact with the hops and can lead to more of that character I don't want. If I use a lot of hops I defenately use a sac and limit the contact time and keep temps under 70*. If I'm going to only dry hop a small amount I might not use a sac and I might go longer but still keeping temps under 70*. I usually just adjust depending on those factors.

[John Sand]

Thank you all for your replies.
MadB, I don't have a ferment chamber. Right now the brew is about 75'. Clone Brews recipe calls for .75oz total, Cascade, Columbus, Centennial. Can You Brew It calls for 2.5oz total, including Amarillo and Simcoe. Maybe I'll average them.

[MadBrewer]

What I really should have implied was that things just happen faster at warmer temps when you dry hop. They say the flavor and aroma is extracted faster, after that you are extracting the unwanted properties faster as well. So if you dry hop warmer, you might want to make it shorter. You can double dry hop as well, split up the amount you are going to use between two spate additions, a couple days apart. There's different things to try.

[John Sand]

Thanks, I'll let you all know what I do, and how well it works. But this is a bigger beer, it won't be ready for a couple of months.

[mashani]

What I really should have implied was that things just happen faster at warmer temps when you dry hop. They say the flavor and aroma is extracted faster, after that you are extracting the unwanted properties faster as well. So if you dry hop warmer, you might want to make it shorter. You can double dry hop as well, split up the amount you are going to use between two spate additions, a couple days apart. There's different things to try.

When it comes to anything extracted from hops, it's all about Time, Temperature, and PH. All 3 factors determine what will be extracted, and how much.