Not exactly the way I wanted to start dry hopping.....

I'm on about my 25th or so batch, (mostly extract kits) and I've been intrigued with the idea of dry hopping. But this ain't the way I wanted to get started. Sunday night I brewed up two 5 gallon batches, a Nut Brown Ale and a IPA, both from True Brew kits. The IPA ingredients were as follows:

Unhopped Amber Malt Extract - 2 cans
Crystal Grain - 1 lb.
Pilgrim Hop Pellets - 1 oz.
UK First Gold Hop Pellets - 1 oz.
Heavy Toast Oak Chips - 1/2 oz.
Ale yeast - 1 pack

Unexpectedly, friends came by when I was about half way through with the IPA, and I forgot to add the UK First Gold Hop Pellets for the last few minutes of the boil. The whole batch has been in the carboy since Sunday night and appears to be doing well. I barely missed the OG of 1.050 at 1.048 according to my old eyes on the hydrometer.

I know that the batch is going to need the finishing hops. My question is, when and how do I dry hop under these conditions? Thanks y'all in advance.

Beers,
Ken

how much were you supposed to add at the end? the full oz?. As long as you remebered your 60ish minute addition and you add the hops as a dryhop you should be fine. Obviously it will end up less bitter but the flavor addition only adds negligible bitterness.

When your beer isnt fermenting anymore, move to secondary and add hops... Wait around 7-10 days or more if you want alot of hop flavor but i dont usually go for more than 14 days or it can tend to get grassy...then consider your beer dryhopped

Thanks, scinerd. Last dumb question. Since these are hop pellets, do I drop them in whole or break them up a bit?
Thanks in advance,
Ken

Put them in as-is. Persinally I'd put them into a straining device, either a SS mesh oversized tea ball, or a nylon hop bag (a paint strainer from the hardware store tied up with butchers string is a good sub).

Throw in some sterilized marbles so the the 1 gal paint strainer bag will sink....

^ +1 forgot to add that. You can also use sanatized stainless steel nuts/bolts/washers.

I agree with the washers...I would not use anything with threads on it...Too easy to hide bad things...Think large ball bearigs...

tireater said:

I agree with the washers...I would not use anything with threads on it...Too easy to hide bad things...Think large ball bearigs...

Click to expand...

For dryhopping post ferm I don't let it worry me. I usually give them a 10-15min star san soak and let em go. I once used the two SS ball valves (handles removed) from my keggles in a dryhopsack with 2oz leaf hops. I had already loaded it with about 8 washers and nuts and it still wouldn't sink. The valves were the heaviest things I had that were stainless/glass.
The beer turned out great.

Hodawg said:

Thanks, scinerd. Last dumb question. Since these are hop pellets, do I drop them in whole or break them up a bit?
Thanks in advance,
Ken

Click to expand...

throw them in whole. There essentially powder and will sink to the bottom of the fermenter. You only really need a hops bag or filter when your using whole hops. If you whirlpool in the boil kettle (search that on here if your not familiar with it), most of the pelets will be left laying on the bottom in a cone type arrangement. Just dump them in. Good luck

As for the washer/ballbearing/pellet etc for weighting down the bag, i went to target/pier one and got glass beads used for filling flower vaises. They work perfectly. Marbles are equally effective and cheap.

I'm sorry I don't like threaded things...I appear to be lost in a thoretical world...