Dry hop gravity changes

[thehaze]

I want to share my personal experience with the subject.

I've dry hopped more than 35 batches ( still a beginner ) and most of them with at least 6 gr/l and biggest ones had around 16 gr/l only for dry hopping. I don't use a Tilt, but regular hydrometers. I have never experienced a sudden drop in gravity due to dry hopping. The FG was always the same before and after dry hopping. A 7 point drop means something else, and not just dissolved gases or sugars added from a small dry hop charge.

Dry hopping does not change the temperature. I've never stumbled upon people or articles/books that mention this. My experience says no.

Dry hopping does not make a beer more attenuated. I've dry hopped beers with FG from 1.005 to 1.027 with no change in temperature or final gravity.

 

[thunderwagn]

If you google search hop creep, you'll find more information on the matter. I've seen posts of dry hopping causing over attenuation and bottling issues.
To what extent this pertains to us on a homebrew level? I have no idea, but I've seen and heard it mentioned a few times now, enough to spark a bit of interest, and to think it may be a real thing.

https://www.craftbrewersconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2017_presentations/Tom-Shellhammer_02.pdf

or this could simply be some oddity with the Tilt. No clue

 

[Mark Farrall]

I want to share my personal experience with the subject.

I've dry hopped more than 35 batches ( still a beginner ) and most of them with at least 6 gr/l and biggest ones had around 16 gr/l only for dry hopping. I don't use a Tilt, but regular hydrometers. I have never experienced a sudden drop in gravity due to dry hopping. The FG was always the same before and after dry hopping. A 7 point drop means something else, and not just dissolved gases or sugars added from a small dry hop charge.

Dry hopping does not change the temperature. I've never stumbled upon people or articles/books that mention this. My experience says no.

Dry hopping does not make a beer more attenuated. I've dry hopped beers with FG from 1.005 to 1.027 with no change in temperature or final gravity.

For the sudden drop the theory I'm working on (based on the other posters suggestions) is that for some beers the dry hop gives the dissolved gases a method for dropping out of solution. Some of these bubbles hit the tilt on the way up and the tilt shows a sudden drop in gravity. A gentle swirl of the fermenter removes these bubbles from the tilt and it returns back to the previous gravity. That explains the drop and slow return to a higher gravity I was experiencing previously, but it didn't explain all the drop on all batches. Which is where thunderwagn's explanation above completes the picture.

edit: and here's the brew session, just click on the fermentation tab (assuming these pages are visible) - https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/brewsession/253601

 

[thunderwagn]

For the sudden drop the theory I'm working on (based on the other posters suggestions) is that for some beers the dry hop gives the dissolved gases a method for dropping out of solution. Some of these bubbles hit the tilt on the way up and the tilt shows a sudden drop in gravity. A gentle swirl of the fermenter removes these bubbles from the tilt and it returns back to the previous gravity. That explains the drop and slow return to a higher gravity I was experiencing previously, but it didn't explain all the drop on all batches. Which is where thunderwagn's explanation above completes the picture.

edit: and here's the brew session, just click on the fermentation tab (assuming these pages are visible) - https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/brewsession/253601

I get a permission error when I try to access your link. You may need to enable sharing.
I think the Tilt is really cool. Someday I may pull the plug on one!