About dry hopping

when do i add the hops? was planning on adding them after 14 days in the fermenter then leaving them in there 7 more days. or do i add them to the secondary after the beer is fully fermented?

I put mine in secondary- but there is no law saying you have to do that. The key is to add them after all fermentation has stopped. You want the hops aroma to permeate the beer- if fermentation is still going on, the co2 will carry away these aromas as it outgasses. You could add them to the primary if you want, as long as the beer is finished.

k thanks for the help. i think ill do it your way

Just to expand on that a bit, before I add my dry hops, I usually wait a few days after I rack to the secondary. I find that, very often, I get a little fermentation activity or, at least, some outgassing after racking. All that passes within a few days.


TL

Just put em in there, watch em float around loose, and then wrap a bag, I use a nylon hop bag, around the end of your auto-siphon when you rack into the bottling bucket. The loose hops actually keep some of the trub from coming through - they're filter-like, so I can get that last little bit into the bottling bucket.

To get em in I have a small, very new and clean funnel, that I starsan, and I just dump em in through there and stuff em in with a sanitized butter knifee.

I have done some reading up on this stuff and evidently that aroma will not last forever, I have even read where it starts going away after three months. I haven't decided if adding hops at the end of the boil lasts longer, so I still dry-hop. Maybe both? But, my beers are generally completely drank within 3 months of reaching maturity so this meandering didn't even matter did it?

I keg, so I delay dry hopping until about a week before I'm ready to put it online. That can be 2-3 months after kegging.

Can you use pellets to dry hop, or shout you use plugs and whole flowers ?

You can use pellets, but they aren't as suitable for dry hopping.

Whole hops or plugs have a lot more of the lupulin glands in tact so the aroma is better. They also do a fantastic job of filtering out the trub when you rack from secondary to your bottling bucket.

david_42 said:

I keg, so I delay dry hopping until about a week before I'm ready to put it online. That can be 2-3 months after kegging.

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Do you use a hop ball or something and dry hop in the keg?

Kewl thanks.

Lot's of different ways to dry-hop.

You can put them in a mesh bag and weight it down in secondary. My personal "theory" is that this isn't the best way because when the hops start to swell in the bag (either pellets or whole), the inner hops won't get exposed to the beer. Again this is just my personal belief.

My preferred method is to add leaf hops to the primary/secondary when fermentation is complete and just let them float in the beer. I find that with this method and a paint strainer over the end of my racking cane I have a very effective filter when racking to a keg or bottling bucket. Disadvantage of this method: Whole leaf hops soak up a ton of wort, which is part of the reason why I now make slightly larger batches (5.5gal).

I did opt to use a mesh bag when adding dry hops to a keg to prevent clogging.

Lots of good info in here. I bought 1 oz of Cascade leaf hops that I plan on adding into my secondary once fermentation finishes.

IMO - I really like to use pellet hops. They disperse well after adding them. Pellets are nice because you can just pour them in the primary without bags or a huge mess.

Secondly if you have the ablity to drop the temp of your beer down to 45 or lower the hops sink to the bottom making it just like any other beer to rack.

Third - It is best to dry hop about 1 deg balling before terminal gravity. The reason being is the last bit of fermentation will absorb any of the O2 you add to the beer with the hops.

Just my 2 cents, but it works like a charm with out bags and the mess of whole hops. Many breweries use pellets to dry hop and the ones I am talking about won medals in the GABF last year and the WBF.

B-Dub said:

IMO - I really like to use pellet hops. They disperse well after adding them. Pellets are nice because you can just pour them in the primary without bags or a huge mess.

Secondly if you have the ablity to drop the temp of your beer down to 45 or lower the hops sink to the bottom making it just like any other beer to rack.

Third - It is best to dry hop about 1 deg balling before terminal gravity. The reason being is the last bit of fermentation will absorb any of the O2 you add to the beer with the hops.

Just my 2 cents, but it works like a charm with out bags and the mess of whole hops. Many breweries use pellets to dry hop and the ones I am talking about won medals in the GABF last year and the WBF.

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I agree....

When dry hopping, do the hops, pellet, leaf, whole etc need to be sanitized first? Or are they processed to be "clean" and the alcohol that is present in secondary enough to keep things infection free?

Thanks.

Wicked Daddy said:

When dry hopping, do the hops, pellet, leaf, whole etc need to be sanitized first? Or are they processed to be "clean" and the alcohol that is present in secondary enough to keep things infection free?

Thanks.

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Throw them in as is. Hops have a natural antiseptic quality that prevents nasties from surviving on them, plus the fermented brew is not a suitable environment for what little bacteria may be on them. This is why the Brit's dry hopped. Filling the barrels with hops helped preserve the brew over the long sea voyage.

Wicked Daddy said:

When dry hopping, do the hops, pellet, leaf, whole etc need to be sanitized first? Or are they processed to be "clean" and the alcohol that is present in secondary enough to keep things infection free?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I think the last thing you want to do is put your hops in a sanitizing solution. It would wash away a lot of the bitter oils, as well as possibly messing up the flavor of your beer to boot.

You are right to bring up the question about the possibility of introducing bacteria with the hops. I think that the answer is that you probably will; however, it will be miniscule and shouldn't hurt a thing. The conventional wisdom that I've read here (and some of my own experience) is that the alcohol content of the beer after fermentation has stopped will prevent any microbes from doing any damage. Relax, have a homebrew!

After the beer is conditioned, I dry hop in the keg in a 2 gallon paint strainer bag ziptied shut, that gives them plenty of room so the beer can absorb all the goodness. I don't weight the bag, after a couple days it will sink. Put the keg online after about a week, the beer is gone within 2 weeks. Thats when I pull the bag and clean everything. I have never developed off flavors. As proof some of my neighbors will show up on my doorstep magically within a few minutes of me getting home. I'm not worried about bacteria between the alcohol the hops and kegs short lifespan.

I heard Jamil say on one of his podcast episodes that the hops emit a chemical that surround the little nasties and prevent them from growing/expanding and ruining your beer.

Ahh yes, I completely forgot about the origin of the IPA and the purpose of the hops before I asked that question. I was thinking perhaps I should lighltly boil them for a couple minutes, let the mixture cool and then pour it all into the secondary.

I love the aroma of an IPA and my next batch will be a must for dry hopping. Thanks to all who replied!