This will be ok??

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Dondlelinger

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I found a health food shop in my town that actually carried hops. I have no LBH so it's hard for me to find these ingredient. I was excited so, I went out and purchased a 100g bag of whole leaf hops. I got home and added 20g of hops(directly in) to my already fermenting beer, not thinking. I then read that you should wait until fermentation is over before adding hops. I looked around but couldn't figure out why you couldn't just add the hops during fermentation.

Do you think this will be ok or did I make a mistake? If its "bad" please explain why.
 
The risk is infection.

Before the beer is high enough in alcohol it is at risk for infection from bacteria that may be in the hops.

Also, I'm not a whole hop guy but I think the whole hops you buy in brew shops are usually dried out before use. May not make a difference for dry hoppping though?
 
dry hopping? usually people wait untill fermentation is done because active fermentation can drive off some of the hop flavors. it won't hurt your beer, just may not get as much or as crisp of hop flavor as you would have other wise. do a search on here for "dry hopping" should find some good info
 
Also, I'm not a whole hop guy but I think the whole hops you buy in brew shops are usually dried out before use. May not make a difference for dry hoppping though?

yes, the hops are dried. i'm not sure if they dry them or not in the health food store. using undried hops would be ok. you would need more fresh hops to equal dry hops because the fresh hops still have some water weight, so it would be hard to know exactly how much you should use.
 
That name just means common hops. It doesn't tell us if you are using Northern Brewer, Fuggles, Magnum, Amarillo, etc. hops.
 
The risk is infection.

Before the beer is high enough in alcohol it is at risk for infection from bacteria that may be in the hops.

Any source for that information?

My understanding is hops are extremely unlikely sources of contamination and should function just the opposite.
Additionally, my understanding is waiting on fermentation to complete prior to dry-hopping is more about the concept that active fermentation will drive off some of the more aromatic and volatile oils that are the goal in dry hopping.
 
When you are dry hopping there is no reason to worry about adding unboiled hops to the fermenter. Infection from the hops just doesn't happen. --Plamer in How To Brew

The reason to wait for fermentation to slow is to prevent the CO2 from running off with all your good aroma.
 
It doesn't tell us if you are using Northern Brewer, Fuggles, Magnum, Amarillo, etc. hops.

I have no idea unfortunatley, I just looked up the name it said "used for beer flavor" so i went and bought them.. I have found the company, and I called them(left a message), to try and figure out the exact type of these hops.
The reason to wait for fermentation to slow is to prevent the CO2 from running off with all your good aroma
.

Thanks, to me that kinda sucks but I don't want a powerful hop favour anyways so hopefully this will be perfect
 
Any source for that information?

My understanding is hops are extremely unlikely sources of contamination and should function just the opposite.
Additionally, my understanding is waiting on fermentation to complete prior to dry-hopping is more about the concept that active fermentation will drive off some of the more aromatic and volatile oils that are the goal in dry hopping.

No source.

Agreed about active ferementation. But, he asked if there was anything bad about putting hops in the primary. To me, losing hop aroma isn't bad, it's just suboptimal.

As far as infection, my thought is that he is adding something potentially contaminated, having sat in a market, touched by who knows how many people prior to putting them in the fermenter. I have not seen definitive evidence to prove this.

I'm a firm believer that it is actually somewhat difficult to infect a batch of beer. But I'm just not going to put anything in my beer that is even potenitally not sterile before there is enough alcohol present to inhibit bacterial growth.
 
To me, losing hop aroma isn't bad, it's just suboptimal.
Exactly what i think
As far as infection, my thought is that he is adding something potentially contaminated, having sat in a market, touched by who knows how many people prior to putting them in the fermenter. I have not seen definitive evidence to prove this.
It was sealed I honestly don't think there is any worries about it.
 
hops are antibacterial, so it shouldn't be a problem. people dry hop all the time.
 
hops are antibacterial, so it shouldn't be a problem. people dry hop all the time.

People dry hop after primary fermentation is complete all the time.

But I agree that there is little chance of infection.
 
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