Dry Hop Creep in Beer Explained - True Brew Beer Kit Instructions

At its most basic, dry hop creep is the continuing fermentation in the bottle or keg beyond the completion and distribution of the beer. The phrase "dry hop creep" was created since it mostly happens in beers that use a lot of dry hopping. Dry hop creep is characterized by excessive bottle and keg carbonation, excessive beer attenuation, and frequently diacetyl (buttered popcorn flavor) as an off flavor in the final beer. Given that these beers still include live yeast cells, it might be an issue for bottled beer that has not been pasteurized or filtered.

Over the course of 30 to 45 days, fermentation in the final beer can cause a 1-2 Plato reduction in gravity and a 5% increase in carbonation. For commercial brews, this might be a severe problem.

Dry Hop Creep Research

Craft brewers producing IPAs with heavy dry hopping have been aware of stability problems, such as the diacetyl off taste, for a number of years. However, researchers couldn't fully explain the issue until 2018. A study from Oregon State University was published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. Caolan Vaughan also gave talks at Brewcon 2018 in Sydney and the Oregon Beer Summit. Buy Truebrew beer kits now!

Also from Oregon State University is the graph up top. As you can see, the hop creeps often begin a few days after adding dry hops and will continue to ferment slowly for up to 45 days. Additionally, the amount of diacetyl in the final beer significantly increases (orange line).

What Can Be Done About Dry Hop Creep?

Professional and home brewers may both use a variety of methods to lessen the effects of dry hop creep:

• Filter or Pasteurize the Finished Beer – The only real option to inhibit hop creep is to filter or pasteurize the product, taking live yeast out of the mix and stopping future fermentation.

• Reduce Dry Hop Levels – Move a few dry hops to the whirlpool before fermentation, so they don't interfere with the enzymes.

• Cold Store your Beer – Hop creep is temperature-dependent. Therefore, it will be substantially less active if the final beer is kept cool during storage. However, once the beer has left the brewery, it is sometimes difficult to guarantee this.

• Design “Creep” into the Recipe/Process – Some brewers purposefully under-attenuate and under-carbonate their beers in the knowledge that finished bottles or kegs would experience hop creep. Although it won't always address diacetyl problems, this can assist with over-carbonated or over-attenuated beers. It might be challenging to estimate the amount of "creep," though.

• Dry Hop Earlier – Some brewers feel that dry hopping closer to fermentation will give the hop enzymes and yeast time to work before the beer is packed, lessening the severity of the hop creep problem, even though little research has been done on the subject.

• Use Sulfites/Sulfates to Reduce Yeast Activity - You can think about adding potassium metabisulfite (and potentially potassium sorbate) to kegs to prevent additional fermentation, although it is not a possibility for naturally conditioned bottles. In the wine/mead industry, these chemicals are frequently used as preservatives to prevent further fermentation.

Use Enzymes to stop possible fermentation – Some enzymes can be added to inhibit VDKs that are active during hop creep and also inhibit diacetyl. These are called ADLC (Alpha Acetolactate Decarboxylase) enzymes.

Please visit the website of Go Brew It and find the best True Brew Beer Kit Instructions available online. Get it now and brew your own beer by yourself in the comfort of your own home.