{"id":9442,"date":"2022-02-25T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T18:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/?p=9442"},"modified":"2022-03-09T17:48:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T22:48:38","slug":"dry-hop-creep-in-beer-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/25\/dry-hop-creep-in-beer-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Dry Hop Creep in Beer Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This week I take a look at “dry hop creep”, what it is, how it affects beer and how to prevent it. This is my second article on the topic, and you can find the earlier article on dry hop creep here<\/a>.<\/p>

What is Dry Hop Creep?<\/h3>

At the basic level, dry hop creep is the continuation of fermentation in the bottle or keg after the beer has been finished and packaged for distribution. It primarily occurs in beers using very high levels of dry hopping which is why the term “dry hop creep” was coined.<\/p>

Symptoms of dry hop creep include over-carbonation of bottles and kegs, over attenuation of the beer and often diacetyl (buttered popcorn flavor) as an off flavor in the finished beer. It is a potential problem for any unpasteurized of unfiltered packaged beer as these beers still contain active yeast cells.<\/p>

Fermentation in the finished beer can result in a 1-2 plato drop in gravity over a period of 30-45 days along with a 5% increase in carbonation. This can be a serious issue for commercial beers.<\/p>

Dry Hop Creep Research<\/h3>

The chart at the top of this article shows dry hop creep (click on it to expand) and how it progresses over time. For several years now, craft brewers of IPAs with high levels of dry hopping have known about stability issues with their finished beer including the diacetyl off flavor.<\/p>

However not until 2018 were researchers able to explain the problem in some detail. Oregon State University published a paper<\/a> in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry and also presentations were made by Caolan Vaughan at Brewcon 2018<\/a> in Sydney and another was done at the Oregon Beer Summit<\/a>. <\/p>

The chart above is also from Oregon State University. As you can see the hop creep usually starts several days after the dry hop addition, and will continue to slowly ferment for up to 45 days. It also creates a significant spike (orange line) in diacetyl in the finished beer.<\/p>

What Can Be Done About Dry Hop Creep?<\/h3>

There are several techniques available to pro and home brewers to reduce the impact of dry hop creep:<\/p>