End of boil process

[Cain Harland]

I've had a couple of beers lately that I've been a little disappointed in what I've got out of the late hops and I know some people do things differently so I will describe what I do and if you do different I would like to hear how an why:

1. 10 min before flame out - start whirl pool to sterilize counter flow chiller
2. At flame out - add flame out hops, turn off Gass, turn on cold water
3. Sometimes at <70 degrees add whirlpool hops
4. At 30 degrees stop whirl pool (@ a guess boiling to 30c is about 20 min)
5. Leave 10 -30  min depending on patience 
6. Transfer to fermenter via chiller and airation pipe
7. Pitch yeast if ground water cold enough to get to pitching temp or refrigerate to pitching temp

[Sam DT]

Providing your primary fermentation is slowing down you should be good to go (if you put it in earlier the fermentation will scrub the aroma out and you'll be back to square one).

At the other end of the scale think about when you're planning on bottling / how long you'll leave the dry hop in for - too long a dry hop and you'll end up with some grassy veg flavours coming through, too short (sub 2 days) and you won't get much value. 5 - 7 days should be fine.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

I'll do it on 7 days and bottling 3 weeks from then.

[Sam DT]

When talking about dry hopping the number of days refers to the number of days in the fermenter (rather than days of total fermentation). Three weeks is a good length for fermentation - four's good too. 

From the above it looks like  you're planning on putting the dry hops in at 7th day of fermentation and leaving them in for another 21 days - is that right? (Four week 28 day fermentation).

If that is the case I'd add them at day 21, by that time most of the yeast will have dropped out of solution (not so much that it won't carbonate but less to drag hop flavour out with them) and that'll mean you're dry-hopping for 7 days all up. Some people claim that you don't get much benefit dry-hopping for longer than 3-4 days but after 7-10 days there is a definite risk of getting grassy - veg off flavours).

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Does that sound right to you about leaving it a total of 4 weeks, no secondary fermenter, just bottling after 4 weeks and leave in bottles for 2 weeks. This is what my recipe instructions call for. So I am anno h second brew might do an IPA my first one was an APA good mace to start for my first time ever!! Haha. Cheers

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

I got 36 brand new 500ml bottles, pretty excited about that! I need another 3 dozen, each time I do a batch and another fermenting barrel too.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Holy shit, I nearly did it today!!! So the 5-7 days means left of fermentation before bottling? Wow big thank you, I owe you a beer mate. Cheers u thought it meant 5-7 days from start.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

That's meant to be I not U sorry typing on my phone at work

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Ok so when there is say 5 days left of fermentation that could be s good time to dry hop too? Is that right? Then lucky I said something then today you saved my beer!

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Should my fermenter be in total darkness? It's in the garage in a reasonably dim lit with no direct sunlight. Or should I put a cover over it, or build a little dark shelter over it making it darker?

[Nathan]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Should+my+fermenter+be+in+total+darkness%3F

[Cain Harland]

I would be inclined to make it fairly dark, throw a blanket, tarp, cardboard box or what ever over it. Light is not good for beer, that's why beer bottles are brown. I don't have that issue, no lights getting into my stainless keg fermenter.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Thanks mate I found a large off cut of a roll of autex black too and have encircled my fermenter it was dark-ish before but it will be bloody dark now!! Stainless is the way to go, that's in my 1 year plan haha.