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Dry hop timing

michaelderrick

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Hi all,
Am currently fermenting a Coopers XPA which is:
Primary is 3 days (which is going nicely.)
Secondary is 11 days.
Condition for 30 days.
The recipe calls for dry hops at 0 days.
Q - Are they added at kegging (conditioning) rather than during the ferment?
 
I'm assuming this is a kit? I haven't made beer from a kit since 1997 and from the looks of what you posted the instructions haven't changed since then.

3 days for primary fermentation sounds far too short. 7 to 10 days is about right for an average gravity ale. However I hate to put specific numbers on any beer. In short, the beer is done when the beer is done no matter how many days the brewer thinks it should take. Certain beers using certain yeasts may be done in 3 days. Others may take 30 days.

Next is the the mention of a secondary. Use of a secondary has pretty much been discredited as a useful step. Except for special circumstances use of a secondary can be a means for introducing oxygen into your beer which will lead to off flavors. (Oxygen at the beginning of fermentation is beneficial... after fermentation it is not).

The addition of your dry hops at 0 days means at packaging time.

What I would do is ferment until the beer has finished fermenting. Ballpark figure... 7 to 10 days. If you want to know for sure and have a way to draw samples without opening the fermenter and risking the introduction of O2 then you can take gravity readings. When the gravity has neared the estimated FG and stays at that point for 2 or 3 days in a row then you can safely assume fermentation has finished.

At this point I would skip the secondary step and do one of two things. 1) I keg so I put my dry hops right in the keg using a stainless steel mesh dry hopper. 2) If bottling I suppose you could add the dry hops to the fermenter just before your bottling steps.
 
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