Rate of settling of dry-hops in Primary

So, I'm coming to the end of my second week in primary for my first brew, and it's almost time to do the dry-hopping step. I intend doing my entire fermentation in primary only, no secondary. This obviously includes the dry-hopping.

My question is how long will the hop pellets stay in suspension after adding them to the carboy? I intend to dry hop for 5-7 days and then bottle immediately. I'd prefer to not have lots of hop pellet material floating everywhere when it comes time to bottle.

So, will the hops have settled to the bottom of the carboy in a week, or would using a sterilized (boiled?) muslin bag be a better move. I'd prefer not to use the bag, since an extra item just ups the possibility of contamination.

Well, most of the hop pellets will turn into sludge pretty quickly. Some will drop, some won't. What I do is simply start my siphon in the middle of the brew, and lower it as the level drops, so that I siphon from between the floating hops sludge and the trub. The autosiphon has a black tip on the end that helps prevent sucking up big particles of sludge. I've tried doing the bag thing, but I always manage to clog that up, so I just use the siphon. It's not too bad.

Yooper, when referring to the "bag thing", were you referring to i) putting hops in a bag, ii) putting a muslin bag over the tip of the autosiphon, or iii) siphoning through a strainer bag into the bottling bucket?

One thing I noticed when I was using hop bags in the boil, the pellets turned to sludge QUICKLY and some of that sludge made its way out of the bag through the pores. No point using a hop bag if the same thing is going to happen?

Naked_Eskimo said:

Yooper, when referring to the "bag thing", were you referring to i) putting hops in a bag, ii) putting a muslin bag over the tip of the autosiphon, or iii) siphoning through a strainer bag into the bottling bucket?

One thing I noticed when I was using hop bags in the boil, the pellets turned to sludge QUICKLY and some of that sludge made its way out of the bag through the pores. No point using a hop bag if the same thing is going to happen?

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I was referring to using a hops bag (sanitized) over the racking cane. That never worked for me.

I'm not a fan of hops bags, so I rarely use them.

Hop bag over the cane got me bubbles in my siphon tube.

YooperBrew said:

I was referring to using a hops bag (sanitized) over the racking cane. That never worked for me.

I'm not a fan of hops bags, so I rarely use them.

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I've had similar experience... the hops always clog up the end when using a fabric bag on the tip. One thing that I've used is a piece of wire metal mesh cut off a scour pad. I sanitize it and then stick it over the siphon end. Works pretty good.

Yeah, I've read of people using SS scrubbies on the ends of their racking canes to filter out the funk.

As mentioned, this is my first brew. I lost a lot of volume to trub in the boil, so I'm already 1/2 gallon shorter than planned. Dont want to lose any more to hops and funk.

Naked_Eskimo said:

Yeah, I've read of people using SS scrubbies on the ends of their racking canes to filter out the funk.

As mentioned, this is my first brew. I lost a lot of volume to trub in the boil, so I'm already 1/2 gallon shorter than planned. Dont want to lose any more to hops and funk.

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I would say that the hops are probably the least of your concern if you are worried about losing volume. The majority of your beer loss is going to be from the yeast cake when you rack. The hops pellets aren't really going to contribute to much loss.

Personally, I don't even worry about hops particles from dry hopping. They really don't pose anymore of a problem than flavor or aroma hops. If it were me, I'd just throw them in, wait a week, siphon to a bottling bucket, and bottle. Just my opinion.

JJL said:

I would say that the hops are probably the least of your concern if you are worried about losing volume. The majority of your beer loss is going to be from the yeast cake when you rack. The hops pellets aren't really going to contribute to much loss.

Personally, I don't even worry about hops particles from dry hopping. They really don't pose anymore of a problem than flavor or aroma hops. If it were me, I'd just throw them in, wait a week, siphon to a bottling bucket, and bottle. Just my opinion.

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JJL -- I dont really have a problem throwing them in and waiting a week....but I worry about my friends who may/may not want to drink homebrew with green floaties in it.

As long as you are careful when you rack the beer to your bottling bucket, you should be able to avoid most floaties.

I usually end up with just one bottle having floaties (the last one). I usually drop an additional pellet or two into this bottle and mark it for future reference.

When I open this bottle, I make sure to strain it when pouring it into a glass. "Bottling-hopping" definitely gives the beer some awesome aroma and flavor. It's a bit grassy, but I like it.

Naked_Eskimo said:

JJL -- I dont really have a problem throwing them in and waiting a week....but I worry about my friends who may/may not want to drink homebrew with green floaties in it.

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then tell them its a special amazing magical beer that only you and other homebrewers can appreciate because we all know what it's like to homebrew and that they should get their stupid butts out of your house for being little wimpy women. Make sure you give them some Bartles and James for the road.

Naked_Eskimo said:

JJL -- I dont really have a problem throwing them in and waiting a week....but I worry about my friends who may/may not want to drink homebrew with green floaties in it.

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I really haven't had an issue with this. Careful racking helps, but really you just need to avoid stirring up the trub when you rack it. Dry hopping typically doesn't increase the likelihood that you will have floaties. Hop pellets tend to dissolve very quickly and settle out.

Someone mentioned that they usually only have 1 bottle with floaties. This would suggest that the hops settle to the bottom of a vessel within hours or less.

Have you had issues in the past with floaties, or are you just planning ahead?

i use a hop bag over the racking cane and never have any issues. i just toss the hops in the fermentor

JJL said:

Have you had issues in the past with floaties, or are you just planning ahead?

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Nope, this is my first brew. Just planning ahead.

i just rack in the middle as well. You will still get a bunch in the bottling bucket but its not a big deal unless they start to clog your bottling tip, which they always do with mine. Just have to clean it real quick and continue.

Naked_Eskimo said:

Nope, this is my first brew. Just planning ahead.

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Admittedly, I had no idea what to do the first time I dry hopped a beer. It's a technique that isn't really well covered in books or brewing instructions. Most books just mention that it's a technique that involves adding hops to the beer after you've pitched the yeast and leave it at that. I had basically the same questions as you. When do you do it? How long do you leave the hops in for? And how do you get the floaties out of the beer?

The first time I did it, I left the hops in for 3 days (way too short of a time) and I ran the beer through a strainer into the bottling bucket. This was wrong for so many reasons that I wasn't aware of at the time. Although, I didn't have any issues with oxidation (probably just lucky). When I strained it, the strainer didn't catch anything. I also didn't have floaties in the beer. One thing (of many things) the experience taught me was that hops pellets pretty much either dissolve in the beer or very quickly settle into the trub. It doesn't seem to cause any real problems.

Oh, and one other thing. I was using just a siphon tube. I didn't have a racking cane or auto-siphon at the time. So there was nothing preventing the hops from entering the tube.

Thanks JJL ... guess it's going to be a matter of trial and error and see what happens.

I love my IPAs, but dont want something like dry-hopping and undesirable floaties spoiling my desire to brew this style.