Question before dry hopping

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stoneyts

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I am planning to dry hop my Citra pale ale today and have a question. When I opened my primary I saw that the kraeusen had left approx a 2' ring of gunk around the inside of the bucket. Should I try to wipe that out or leave it alone. I was going to leave the beer in the primary until bottling rather than transferring to a glass carbou. Another question I have is, if I want to put the hops addition in a mesh bag to keep from adding any more trub to the beer ,I assume I need to sterilize the bag. Is just soaking it down with StarSan all I need to do? Thanks! So much to learn , so little beer in my pipeline.LOL!
 
1: Don't touch the yeast ring.

2: Hop bag is good, but sanitize it you should. If the bag is very clean, you could just sanitize it. If it's not "like new", you should boil it for 10-15 then you can shove your hops in it and throw in the primary. Afrer the boil, I like to wear saranwrap gloves and sanitize my gloved hands to manipulate everything... (Don't boil or sanitize the hops!)

3: If you don't secondary, you SHOULD transfer to a bottling bucket right before bottling. Don't bottle from the primary.
 
Yep, the krausen ring is a mixture of yeast and hops trub. Leave it alone if you can as it's very bitter. You can boil the hops bag, bake it at 200f for ten minutes or just give it a long soak in star san or idophor. By long soak, I mean two minutes of complete immersion in the sanitizer.
 
Prior to adding the hops for the dry hopping I took a sample for my SG reading. It was 1.012@ 72*. If I am understanding things correctly that would translate to 1.022 when adjusting for temperature. Am I correct in my thinking ?
 
Probably should have asked this before I let go of the hops bag but should I have done something to make it possible for it to be agitated in some way? When I let go of it ,it sunk like a rock. Is there something I need to do to ensure a good infusion of the hop oils? Slightly rock the bucket? Consider my first post about the ring on the inside. Sorry for so many question, fist time doing this. Thanks in advance!
 
Be careful exposing the beer to the hop ring. The hops will infuse nicely because of the alcohol, no need to shake or disturb them.
 
Prior to adding the hops for the dry hopping I took a sample for my SG reading. It was 1.012@ 72*. If I am understanding things correctly that would translate to 1.022 when adjusting for temperature. Am I correct in my thinking ?

I'm not sure this is correct. I think 1.012 @ 72* would be about 1.013. Use this calculator to confirm:

http://dd26943.com/davesdreaded/tools/convert.htm
 
At normal fermentation temps, you can pretty much forget about gravity corrections... You can add 1 point if you want but it's negligible...
 
Probably should have asked this before I let go of the hops bag but should I have done something to make it possible for it to be agitated in some way? When I let go of it ,it sunk like a rock. Is there something I need to do to ensure a good infusion of the hop oils? Slightly rock the bucket? Consider my first post about the ring on the inside. Sorry for so many question, fist time doing this. Thanks in advance!

I normally skip the bag and just toss them in. You may add to the trub but it's not really a big deal unless you're doing 2.5 gallon batches.
At this point the beer has pretty much finished fermenting and you do not really want to shake or oxidize it. I'd just let the hop bag be.
To be honest I usually toss the hops in and walk away for 5-7 days, rack, and then bottle or keg. Easy as drinkin' a beer!
 
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