Cold crashing and adding hops after fermentation

[Roger Roger]

Hi brewers, 

I'm in my first batch now brewing an american pale ale, and I just received the notification from my Beerdriod that fermentation is complete. My kegs will arrive next week and I was wondering if I can move to store mode and add the hops extract to the Beerdriod so it can ready by the time the kegs arrive. I'm planning to force carbonate the beer as soon as I get the kegs. Will this ruin the batch? Should I only add the hops before kegging? 

Your help and advice is much appreciated. 

[Captain 3 Droids]

On 18/05/2019 at 4:30 AM, Roger Roger said:

Hi brewers, 

I'm in my first batch now brewing an american pale ale, and I just received the notification from my Beerdriod that fermentation is complete. My kegs will arrive next week and I was wondering if I can move to store mode and add the hops extract to the Beerdriod so it can ready by the time the kegs arrive. I'm planning to force carbonate the beer as soon as I get the kegs. Will this ruin the batch? Should I only add the hops before kegging? 

Your help and advice is much appreciated. 

Hi Roger, Mark here. As the kegs are coming next week I would add the hops and leave the brew in the keg mode and not the store (down to 4C). This will allow for the hops to enhance the brew, the yeast to clean up and sediment to settle. (Note when brewing a 23l batch in the plastic fermenters, fermentation best left for 14 days so no harm in leaving it in the droid). At the moment the keg mode lasts 2 days and will auto switch to store, you can change it back to the keg mode.

If you choose to let it go to the store mode then fine but add the hops now so they get 2 days at keg temperature.

[Roger Roger]

Thanks a lot Mark