Adding sugar while dry hopping in primary

[grainman]

I just brewed an OG 1.063 ipa that I meant to dry hop in the primary at the end of fermentation so the yeast could help scrub out some of the o2 from the whole cascade hops. However I waited a little over 2 weeks before doing it, so I don't know if there was enough yeast activity to remove any added o2 from the hops. The thing is my FG was 1.014...a little higher than I was hoping for, so I added a 1/4 cup of table sugar and 4 oz of whole cascade hops at the same time into the primary hoping to get my FG down a little more while at the same time creating a little yeast activity to scrub out o2 from the dry hops. I'm not sure now if I helped it or not . Did I totally f this up? or do you think this will be a good thing?
Yeast used was 1056. Thanks

[Bugeater]

To start out with, adding the sugar late as you did will not lower the FG. You will still have the same amount of unfermentable sugars in the beer after fermentation is complete. Sugar will only lower the FG when used instead of some of the malt.

The effect of the O2 contained in the hops is negligible. Have you ever noticed any oxidation due to the addition of dry hops? I never have, and I think you will find few folks that have. Theoretically, you are correct in wanting to do something to get the O2 out of there, but I think you are trying to solve a problem that you probably don't have.

Adding the sugar probably won't hurt anything. All it will do is raise the %abv of the beer a slight amount without really eating up enough O2 to make a difference.

Wayne

[brewinhard]

Sounds like you were looking to minimize any oxygen introduced during dry hopping which is a good thing. Since you missed the window to add the dry hops to the primary when it was still slightly fermenting, I see why you added the sugar as well. In addition to pushing out some extra oxygen that you might have introduced when adding the hops, you might have also scrubbed out some precious dry hop aroma as well.

I wouldn't worry too much as it sounds like you are going to have delicious beer awaiting your thirsty body!

[grainman]

Thanks for the help fellas.... I had a feeling it would be ok , but at the same time was hoping it would end up as something I could use as a recurring technique... But I think as was said I most likely won't notice a difference.

[calpyro]

Thanks for the help fellas.... I had a feeling it would be ok , but at the same time was hoping it would end up as something I could use as a recurring technique... But I think as was said I most likely won't notice a difference.

I have adopted this exact practice of adding sugar during dry-hop (in a Corney Keg) for the exact reason that you have. My hoppy beers had a short life span before the hop flavors degraded and I eliminated all other sources of O2 into my finished beer except for the O2 in the dry-hop addition ( I use whole hops only). The practice is similar to "Cask Conditioning" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ale#Real_ale

My experience is that encouraging a renewed fermentation following an addition of a small amount of sugar, has been very effective at prolonging the shelf life of my hoppy beers. I have performed a side-by-side experiment in splitting a ten-gallon batch at dry-hop time and the beer given the sugar at dry hop lasted longer and tasted much brighter than the beer without sugar starting at around three weeks. At two months, the difference was very dramatic with the non-sugared beer having a "cardboard" taste.

The process is to add 1/4 cup of sugar, boiled in a cup of water to the hops to a Corney keg equipped with a Surescreenhttp://www.northernbrewer.com ... creen.html for a week or so, crash chill and transfer it to another keg for final storage.

I do notice a bit more yeast in the final keg, but given a week or so of lagering the yeast gets sucked up with the first pint and the beer is bright and hoppy.

My suggestion is for you to further explore this as a technique and perhaps dry a side-by-side experiment for yourself. My experience has been very positive and I feel that this technique has contributed to a significant improvement in my beer. I also describe my beer as "Cask Conditioned Real Ale" when entering it in competitions.

[grainman]

Thanks for the help fellas.... I had a feeling it would be ok , but at the same time was hoping it would end up as something I could use as a recurring technique... But I think as was said I most likely won't notice a difference.

I have adopted this exact practice of adding sugar during dry-hop (in a Corney Keg) for the exact reason that you have. My hoppy beers had a short life span before the hop flavors degraded and I eliminated all other sources of O2 into my finished beer except for the O2 in the dry-hop addition ( I use whole hops only). The practice is similar to "Cask Conditioning" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ale#Real_ale

My experience is that encouraging a renewed fermentation following an addition of a small amount of sugar, has been very effective at prolonging the shelf life of my hoppy beers. I have performed a side-by-side experiment in splitting a ten-gallon batch at dry-hop time and the beer given the sugar at dry hop lasted longer and tasted much brighter than the beer without sugar starting at around three weeks. At two months, the difference was very dramatic with the non-sugared beer having a "cardboard" taste.

The process is to add 1/4 cup of sugar, boiled in a cup of water to the hops to a Corney keg equipped with a Surescreenhttp://www.northernbrewer.com ... creen.html for a week or so, crash chill and transfer it to another keg for final storage.

I do notice a bit more yeast in the final keg, but given a week or so of lagering the yeast gets sucked up with the first pint and the beer is bright and hoppy.

My suggestion is for you to further explore this as a technique and perhaps dry a side-by-side experiment for yourself. My experience has been very positive and I feel that this technique has contributed to a significant improvement in my beer. I also describe my beer as "Cask Conditioned Real Ale" when entering it in competitions.

Cool! I didn't know I was cas conditioning my beer. All I was looking to do was fix something I thought went wrong. Did you notice any difference in taste between the two beers initially before any oxidation could take place?

[calpyro]

Initially I liked the beer that did not have the added priming sugar. It had less of a yeasty flavor. The "Cask conditioned" had a more raw-green taste. However, when that settled out with the yeast in the final "bright" keg, they tasted around the same. However, it wasn't long until the familiar flavor of oxidized old-hoppy beer came to the non-cask conditioned beer.
The difference was so profound that I ended up dumping the non-cask conditioned keg. Since then, all of my beers have had a dose of sugar. I'm hooked and probably won't go back anytime soon.

[Cliff]

Dry hopping is best done when the ferment is done just a couple days before racking. Restarting the ferment will cause the volatile flavor compounds from the hops to be swept out of the brew by the CO2. When I dry hop I do it a couple days before racking off and bottling. Doing it sooner risks all manner of grassy flavors. If one likes the flavor of grass then, I suppose it's great.

Of course one might be going for that flavor (whatever it was) that one might have gotten on a ocean voyage on a wooden sailing ship where they hopped the beer continuously to stamp down on infections. I sort of suspect that whatever their beer tasted like (& I bet it was grassy), it had to have been a far, far cry from the carefully crafted ales one brews in the more controlled milieu of the hobby brewery.