First time dryhopping

Woops

So my second AG and first self created recipe. "Cocopuffs Stout". I finally had some time to rack into secondary last night and add somethings into the secondary, including 1oz of pellet hops. I forgot to consider hops expansion. This is what i found this morning. Also I was unfortunately running late (always), so I had to call my wife and explain the plans to fix this. I believe the beer is still fermenting and offgassing so hopefully no oxidation occurs.

Any mess on the carpet? Forget the airlock and go with a blow off tube going into a bucket. It will save you many-a-mess.

Cocopuffs Stout made me LOL - thanks for the chuckle! As for oxidation, you have to work at it to oxidize beer, taking your airlock off for a few minutes won't have any affect, you're fine.

And yes, you're lucky its not all over your carpet - and or more precisely, you're lucky that your SWMBO didn't see it all over the carpet

Cocopuffs Stout, came from when I was designing it. It sounded more like a breakfast cereal than a beer.

Oatmeal
Bakers Chocolate
Vanilla.

I wish I could drink it for breakfast.

No mess on the carpet. I had racked it late one night after work and looked in on my babies (carboys) on the way out the door at 450 a.m. to see the mess impending. I added the wine thief to the Starsan keg and called SWMBO wife from work and gave her directions on how to clean it up. It is aging securely with adequate head space now.

The sample tasted great. I can't wait for the "Breakfast of Champions" to be ready. May take a while as the OG was 1.075.

So Im confused why this happened? Im going to dry hop for the first time and I know hops foam but why did yours foam so much?

joey11bball said:

So Im confused why this happened? Im going to dry hop for the first time and I know hops foam but why did yours foam so much?

Click to expand...

It was not a foaming issue, it was a headspace issue. I had been reading about secondary. Using little head space to prevent any oxidation issue. I filled the secondary very near the top of the secondary and then poured in the pellet hops and added the airlock. There was about 3" of headspace in the top of the neck in the secondary when I went to bed. The pellets expanded probably 3 times overnight pushing the stopper out. I had to leave for work but my wife siphoned out some wort to clean it up, so I do not know how much it eventually expanded. I am sure if I left another inch of headspace the pellets could expand in the wider part of a 5 gallon carboy.

I am doing a Pliney clone and will have to dry hop that with around 6 oz of hops, I know better and will use a 6.5 gallon carboy for that secondary.
Good luck with your first dry hopping.

Thanks that makes sense

No problem, my favorite way to learn is through others mistakes.

I've dry hopped two beers now and I prefer to do it in the keg. Take a smallish grain bag and boil it with a stainless steel wing nut, add the hops, tie it up and drop it in the keg before you rack.