The fermentation curve has flattened out so I’m dry-hopping this 2 days early with the hope that I may still get a little bit of CO2 produced and minimise oxidisation induced by just chucking in the hops via top hatch, quick and dirty.

Before opening the FV I slowly de-pressurised to 5 PSI via the PRV and then started unscrewing the top hatch until it continued to empty itself that way, which saves wrestling with the otherwise stuck lid.

Having dumped the hops, partially closed the bottom valve to prevent them sinking into the jar, and fitted the sanitised floating dip tube, I re-fastened the top hatch and refitted the spunding valve and pressure gauge, but did not add any CO2. I’m keen to see how much is produced over the next two days (dry-hopping sometimes seems to kick-start things again) but will add gas manually if nothing happens in order to counteract shrinkage during cold-crashing in 2 days time.

One Hour Later

And we’re back to 10 PSI. Amazing. I’m reducing gently to 5 PSI via the PRV in order to let out what is hopefully just oxygen from the top of the FV, confident it’ll re-fill itself soon enough.