I'm about to dryhop....

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perry

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Hey, everyone. I'm about to throw some Mt Hood pellets into the primary, and I've never dryhopped with pellets before. I'm going for sort of a mild to medium floral aroma in an IPA with an OG of 60 (TG prob'ly will be around 12 or so). How much should I put in there?

Thanks, -p
 
I'm not sure, but I know pellets aren't all that aromatic you would use more than if you were to dryhop with whole leaf hops. How much do you have on hand?
I am dryhopping this weekend with 2 oz of whole leaf cascade on my IPA.
 
Not sure about how much, but from what I have read you should dry hop in the secondary. If you put it in the primary the aroma will be scrubed by the yeast during fermentation.
 
EmptyH said:
Not sure about how much, but from what I have read you should dry hop in the secondary. If you put it in the primary the aroma will be scrubed by the yeast during fermentation.
Oh yeah, I missed that when I read his post:D

Secondary, definitely!


Dan
 
That was fast!

Willsellout, I have about six ounces... Emptyh, I don't do a secondary wit my ales (other than what happens in the keg) The fermentation is very nearly over so I'm not too worried about the effects of that...

Iwas thinking I'd need more in pellets than in whole hops due to the reduced floral... So, if I was to do 2 oz whole, like willsellout up there, should I go 2.5 or 3 in pellets? Whd'ya think?

-p
 
What style is it? If it's anything other than an IPA I would say 1.5-2 oz would probably be good. If it's an IPA I would say 3. But I don't have a whole lot of experience dryhopping with pellets.


Dan
 
I've dry hopped with pellets and if they are aromatic when you open them, they're fine. What I would do is wait until fermentation is done and chuck them in. I'd put in less then you think- you can always add some more but can't take them out if you add too much. Pellets seem stronger to me than whole hops, so I'd do an ounce at most to start.
 
One "potential problem" with dry-hopping in the primary and especially with pellets is the time for them to settle to the bottom. I seem to recall it taking 7+ days before they start falling into the trub so you could be having your beer in the primary for <n> weeks. Racking before they fall would be a big old mess with pellet goo going into your bottle bucket or keg. Or you could use a hop bag with the pellets and dry-hop for only a week. I'd do 1 oz; maybe 2 but no more.
 
I heard on BB radio that most commercial brewers dryhop in primary when fermentation is almost but not completely done. You can leave yeast on a primary trub without any problems for two weeks (sometimes more). Pitch a lot of healthy yeast and aerate well to get your primary ferm mostly done in about five days, dryhop, wait until the two-week mark, then rack to secondary. That's what I'd do from what I've heard on BB radio.
 
Thanks, everyone. Hmmm. I'm wondering about that settling out thing... I agree with the idea that the beer can sit on the cake for up to two weeks, maybe longer at lower temps, but how long do pellets take to settle out? A week? Ten days? Any longer than ten days, I guess I'd consider a secondary when dry-hopping with pellets, although that adds a lot to the overall process....

(Sorry to all those brewers out there who have probably addressed this question a millon times...) -p
 
mew said:
I heard on BB radio that most commercial brewers dryhop in primary when fermentation is almost but not completely done. You can leave yeast on a primary trub without any problems for two weeks (sometimes more). Pitch a lot of healthy yeast and aerate well to get your primary ferm mostly done in about five days, dryhop, wait until the two-week mark, then rack to secondary. That's what I'd do from what I've heard on BB radio.

They got these wonderful filtration systems they leverage though and why there isn't any secondary in the professional industry as a whole.
 
perry said:
Thanks, everyone. Hmmm. I'm wondering about that settling out thing... I agree with the idea that the beer can sit on the cake for up to two weeks, maybe longer at lower temps, but how long do pellets take to settle out? A week? Ten days? Any longer than ten days, I guess I'd consider a secondary when dry-hopping with pellets, although that adds a lot to the overall process....

(Sorry to all those brewers out there who have probably addressed this question a millon times...) -p

I've only dry hopped with pellets twice and it was a couple years ago (whole now). Hopefully someone chimes in but I really think it was around 7 days or so.
 
I don't move to 2ndary either and do all my dryhopping in the primary (obviously). My most recent batch is a red ale and I used 2oz of amarillo [EDIT: (pellets, I've never used whole....yet)] for a 10 gallon batch. I added these to the primary fermenter without a bag before I pitched the yeast. The fermentation was sloppy as it kept putting hops in my blowoff tube (I don't use airlocks) but this beer probably has better aroma than any beer I've ever made.....it may quite well be the best beer yet!
As far as the pellets settling out: A lot of the pellets were on top of the krausen and when it fell most everything went to the bottom. I bet it was only 2 days after the krausen fell that it was pretty well "settled" (9 days total), although still a little cloudy.
If you have the ability to crash cool your primary, I'd suggest going this route, if you don't.....you'll end up having the beer in primary longer than usual. I've left beer in primary for up to 4 weeks though and haven't had any ill effects to speak of.
Good Luck
 
Craig, thanks for that tesimony. Sounds like your methods are similar to mine. I'm wondering though, why you add the hops before the major part of the fermentation is over... is it so that the hops will settle with the krausen? And yes, I can lower the temps to whatever I need within a few hours (my fermentation "chamber" is a big ol' freezer with a controller) I agree; that will probably speed things up.

-p
 
desertBrew said:
One "potential problem" with dry-hopping in the primary and especially with pellets is the time for them to settle to the bottom. I seem to recall it taking 7+ days before they start falling into the trub so you could be having your beer in the primary for <n> weeks. Racking before they fall would be a big old mess with pellet goo going into your bottle bucket or keg. Or you could use a hop bag with the pellets and dry-hop for only a week. I'd do 1 oz; maybe 2 but no more.


This $2.00 doohickey worked great when I had to rack off a fermenter absolutely laden with free floating hops. The beer was crystal clear.

Hopstopper_1.jpg

Hopstopper_2.jpg

Hopstopper_3.jpg
 
Damn, Biermuncher, that's simply brilliant! Why the hell didn' I think of that all those times dryhopping with whole hops...? Sheesh.

And thanks for the pics. -p
 
That is a good idea Biermuncher. Seems like it would aerate the beer though but I trust it didn't otherwise you wouldn't suggest it. What did you use for the filter...?
 
Looks like a piece of nylon grain bag to me. Is that right, or is there somethin better? -P
 
perry said:
Looks like a piece of nylon grain bag to me. Is that right, or is there somethin better? -P


It's a paint filter. I tried to find some at walmart with no luck. Looks like I will have to go to the local hardware store to get it.



Dan
 
Willsellout said:
It's a paint filter. I tried to find some at walmart with no luck. Looks like I will have to go to the local hardware store to get it.



Dan
Right.

Nylon paint strainer at Lowes. They come in one gallon and five gallon sizes. They also work great as hop bags.

The 2-pack 1 gallon (shown) is like $3.00. I used a simple black paper clamp to secure it.

There was no aeration because I dipped it in slowly. I used a clothes line clip to secure the racking cane so the tip was about 1 inch off the bottom.
 
perry said:
...why you add the hops before the major part of the fermentation is over... is it so that the hops will settle with the krausen? And yes, I can lower the temps to whatever I need within a few hours (my fermentation "chamber" is a big ol' freezer with a controller) I agree; that will probably speed things up.
-p

Well originally it was because I didn't know any better. It was only recently that I noted that it was a maybe not so good thing to add them before/same time as pitching yeast. But it's worked for me in the past and I might keep doing it this way....but I'll have to expirement more with adding it when the fermentation has subsided a bit.
I like to keep it as simple as possible so if the benefit isn't there, I won't do it. Speaking of simplicty, that nylon paint filter looks great!
 
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