Yeast Cropping - Dry Hopping

Yeast Cropping & Dry Hopping: Best Practices

There’s no one right way to handle yeast cropping and dry hopping. But the timing and method you choose can affect both beer quality and yeast health. Here’s what to consider:

If You Dry Hop During Fermentation (Mid-Ferment)

Some brewers like to dry hop while fermentation is still happening, and some prefer the flavour and texture of beer made using this approach.

If you do this, it’s best to crop your yeast before you dry hop.

Why?

• Hops can stress out the yeast, hop oils coat the cells and make it harder to grow and flocculate
• Hop particles make it harder to reuse the yeast
• Removing yeast before hopping gives you a cleaner slurry for repitching

Tip: Crop a thin slurry from the bottom of the tank. This gives you a healthy, clean yeast sample before it gets mixed with hops.

If You Dry Hop After Fermentation (End of Ferment)

If fermentation is mostly done when you dry hop, you still want some yeast around.

Why?

• Some yeast is needed to help with hop creep (a second mini-fermentation caused by enzymes in hops breaking down sugars)
• Yeast can also help clean up diacetyl created during hop creep

In this case, crop some, but not all of the yeast.

A good approach:

1. Drop the tank temp by a few degrees to help yeast flocculate (settle)
2. Crop the settled yeast
3. Add dry hops
4. Let any residual fermentation warm the tank back up

This gives you a cleaner tank bottom and a healthier fermentation response to hop creep, without stripping out all the yeast you still need.

Tank Behavior Matters

Every tank behaves a little differently. Some tanks hold heat longer. Some cool faster near the cone. These thermodynamics affect how well yeast settles and how hops interact with the beer.

You may need to:

• Adjust timing for when to crop and hop
• Fine-tune temp drops based on your tank’s cooling pattern
• Watch for uneven flocculation or cold spots

Pay attention to how your tank responds and tweak your process over time.

Final Tips for Yeast Health & Reuse

• Hops can coat yeast cells and reduce viability
• Yeast harvested after dry hopping may foam more and store poorly
• If you plan to reuse yeast, always try to crop before hopping

Clean yeast = better beer and longer repitch life.

Quick Reference Table: Yeast Cropping & Dry Hopping