Dry hopping a lager in secondary

Question

I've just moved my first lager into a secondary bucket, it had been in primary for about 3 weeks. Currently sitting in the keezer at about 10c.

The recipe I'm following calls for the addition of about 300g of hops for dry hopping. I was just wondering what might the best way of going about this would be.

I know you shouldn't dry hop for too long to you avoid a grassy / plant-y taste. Would this still be the case if I turned the temp down to less than 5c? I don't want to wait longer than I need to but also don't want a crappy beer.

What would be the best balance to strike between duration / temperature to get a decent effect from the dry hopping recommended in the recipe?

Thanks

Answer 1

I would simply dry hop before I started the lagering process. Do it in the bucket you are in with a sanitized sack. Then you can pull the sack and proceed with your lager phase. There might be some hop debris that makes it through the sack but it shouldn't be noticeable or a problem.

Answer 2

In my experience grassy notes come through when hopping at cold temps.

I've tried to salvage some old IPAs with a cold dry hop and filtering with little success when they are at or below 55° while it kinda works, they have always gotten a grassy note flagged by at least one judge.

For a lager the last real effective time for a dry hop is during your diacetyl rest. The increased tempurature aids the extraction of the hop flavor and aroma.

Answer 3

I just stopped by my favorite home brewing store this morning and I also had a question about dry hoping. I read somewhere that when dry hoping if you use hop bags, they should be sanitized first by boiling them but the gentleman at the brewing store said just dump the hops into the secondary fermenter. I asked him if that would cause a problem when it came time to bottle with all the hop residue and he said just put hop bag on the end of the bottling tube and that should filter it out. You can beat me up if you want, I'm still learning.