Our Brewing Innovation Manager Andy and Senior Scientist Luke have been featured in a podcast episode from the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. The episode discusses the phenomenon of Dry Hop Creep and how our brewery was able to detect it.

In 2011, Andy and Luke noticed unplanned changes in ABV within some of our dry hopped beers. When ABV of a beer does not fall within government compliance levels, it cannot be sold which results in a loss of beer.

“Most of our beers were very well under control from an ABV compliance standpoint but it was the dry hop beers that were certainly more variable,” Luke said.

Online research was attempted to determine why the change was occurring, but there was very little information on what they were seeing. Fortunately, the team was able to find some literature from the 1800s which detailed a “freshening of hops” that was causing dry hopped beer to go through a second fermentation.

After the team found a cause for the changes in ABV, they were able to better manage their process in order to help prevent further Dry Hop Creep. The key to brewers having more control over Dry Hop Creep is to have a better understanding of how it works, the podcast explains. 

To learn more about Dry Hop Creep and to see what our team and others are doing to handle it, view the MBAA Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and the MBAA community page.