Specific Dry Hop Question

[spencer]

I’ll start by saying that I tried to find the answer to this question by searching for “dry hop” on this page, but neither word was 4 characters in length, so I didn’t get any love.

That said, I am trying to make the “Double Dry Hopped Damned Caliche IPA” on the recipe page, but I have a question about the dry hopping. The recipe calls to dry hop for 4 days with Cascade and with Amarillo for the next 4 days. My questions:

1. When do I dry hop? Primary or secondary fermentation? I have only dry-hopped once, and I added the hops when I racked from primary to secondary and let them sit for several weeks, but that doesn’t make it the correct method.
2. Should I put the hops in a hop bag and then retrieve the Cascade and then replace it with a clean bag of Amarillo, or should I rack when I change the hops? If I rack to change, then should I, say for example, put the Cascade in during the secondary for 4 days, then rack again to a third carboy for the Amarillo for 4 days, then rack again into a fourth carboy to let the beer age a little?

I guess this all comes down to the timing of how and when I introduce the hops in the carboys. I’ll include the whole recipe at the bottom of my post. Any interpretation (including from the author) would be great. Brewing tomorrow afternoon… Can you say, “IBU?”


Double Dry Hopped Damned Caliche IPA

Malt
8lbs light DME
1lb Marris Otter pale 2 row
1/4lb Crystal 10L
1/4lb Honey malt
1/4lb Munich

Hops (all whole leaf)
1oz Warrior @ 90 min
1oz Chinook @ 45 min
1oz Centennial @ 10 min
1oz Cascade @ 5 min
1oz Columbus @ flame out
dry hopped w/ 1oz Columbus & 1oz Cascade for 4 days
dry hopped w/ 2oz Amarillo for the next 4 days

[BrewDog]

Spencer-

Honestly, if it was me, I'd throw all 4 oz in to the secondary loose, then either rack to tertiary after 4-7 days or just keg after 2 weeks and let it age for a few weeks.
I don't see the advantage of multiple dry hopping steps.

However, if you want to 'go by the book'-
Either hop bags or racking will work, but it is up to you and your equipment.

It may be difficult to extract the bags through a carboy hole.
Racking multiple times will cause losses you wouln't experience if you hadn't racked, so plan your post boil volume accordingly.

And there's nothing wrong with your method in #1 of dry hopping into secondary and leaving them there, either. It will just take a bit of time for any grassiness to wear off.

One other thing-

I think it might give you a slightly smoother beer (even with slightly higher bitterness) if you swap the 1 oz Columbus dry hop with the 1 oz Chinook at 45.

Chinook is a wonderful aroma hop and it is a good bittering hop but is a little harsher as a bittering hop than Columbus. Columbus is great at both. Both are close to Cascade aroma wise. You will be pretty much duplicating Cascade aroma wise with either hop, so I'd say for this recipe that dry hopping with the Chinook and bittering with the Columbus uses each to their strengths. Just my 2c.

HTH-

[dparsons]

I agree with BrewDog. I don't know why you would need to pull hops out of 2ndary - and it is 2ndary that you hop in. If I were to only want 4 days I'd just add my hops at 4 days to bottling.

[spencer]

Sound great guys - thanks very much for your help. I'm gland I'm not the only one that couldn't figure out the advertised dry-hopping process. I'm going to take the advice from both of you and just drop the 4oz of goodness in the secondary at the same time.

I think dparsons is on to something with the suggestion of dry hopping the last 4 days in the carboy. That seems like a clean & easy way to go. Do I risk any quality when I go that route? Specifically when it comes to clearness (or lack of excessive cloudiness)? I ask because my last dry-hopped beer was a little green – at least at first. I used pellets without a hop bag, which explains a lot, but I’ve learned from that experience. It seems like if I introduce the dry-hop in the secondary right away & then transfer to a tertiary for a few weeks before kegging, I might end up with less sediment in the beer. I have a combination of whole-leaf, plugs, and pellets for today’s brew, so the plan is to bag all the pellets & let everything else go loose, both during the boil and in the carboy. (any additional advice on that comment???)

I’m also going to take BrewDog’s advice about swapping the Columbus dry hop with the Chinook @ 45. I’m not sophisticated enough to pick-up on what BrewDog said on my own, but “smoother beer with slightly higher bitterness” makes perfect sense to me.