dry hopping at end of Primary?

[Phil_L]

ok, so the new pro-kit that I am brewing on, we have open stainless ex-dairy tanks.

I am thinking of dry hopping an american IPA, Blind Pig esque number, but as I have no sealable tanks for dryhopping, I am wondering if I can just dry hop at the end, when I have turned the chiller on, and can hold for say 2-4 days at 16'c, then I have to run down to 6'c or less, to rack to cask.

I really don't want to dry hop in cask, it's a bitch to clean 40 casks full of hops.

suggestions, do's or dont?

[nahthan]

You'd be better off for the sake of the dry hop if you could leave it sit at 16C for 2-3 days before crashing it out, but I suspect it will still work really well even if you have to continue crashing. And since you're transferring off shortly thereafter you won't really have to have too much concern about picking up grassy notes since it won't be sitting on the dry hop all that long. Certainly beats having to clean out a bunch of empty casks later, and you will have less hop tannin haze (which might be an issue for the most puritanical Real Ale drinkers out there?). The only downside might be that you won't get very good utilization of the dry hop, but that might not be such a bad thing when you're just trying out an idea the first time.