Successful Dry Hopping Techniques?

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I went through all the hassle of buying SS tea balls yada yada...I keg mine. I went to my LHBS and talked to the guys. I mentioned the tea balls and they laughed. He grabbed me by the ear and pulled me over to the "fine" mesh bag area. He GAVE (free of charge) me two that hold two ounces perfectly.

I boil the bags, transfer whole leaf hops, tie them with a regular overhand knot and drop them in. I leave them the whole time.

Sure beats the hell out of messing with all that other stuff. Works for me
 
Some LHBS's sell tea balls, so their laughter is unnecessary condescension. :rolleyes:

ILOVEBEER said:
I went through all the hassle of buying SS tea balls yada yada...I keg mine. I went to my LHBS and talked to the guys. I mentioned the tea balls and they laughed. He grabbed me by the ear and pulled me over to the "fine" mesh bag area. He GAVE (free of charge) me two that hold two ounces perfectly.

I boil the bags, transfer whole leaf hops, tie them with a regular overhand knot and drop them in. I leave them the whole time.

Sure beats the hell out of messing with all that other stuff. Works for me
Click to expand...
 
I just tried my first attempt at dry hopping with a rainy day IPA I brewed last week. I simply cut a grain sock down to an appropriate size, threw in 2 sanitized stainless steel washers I had, and added the 1 oz of Fuggles and .25oz of Warrior I had left over, I used pellet hops and that is why I decided to go with a sack. There is almost no hop particles floating around in the beer so the grain sack seems to be working out great. I then threw the sack into the secondary and racked right on top of it. The beer was on day 4 with S-04 (a very fast fermenting yeast) and about .002 away from my expected FG at racking time. The sack floats at the top, but the washers provide just enough weight to keep the sack submerged just under the surface. I have 12 more days in secondary and then 2-3 weeks in the bottle before I can share my result, but I'll tell you it smelled pretty good while racking!
 
Brewinator said:
Some LHBS's sell tea balls, so their laughter is unnecessary condescension. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yep! Mine does.... they seriously laughed at you and pulled you by the ear? If that happened to me I'd be ordering all my brew supplies online from that point on! Hah
 
anybody tried dry hopping with millennium?

i have an apa in primary. plan was to prime for 3 weeks, rack to keg, dry hop with two oz's of millennium right in the keg with hop bag and a cork to float it.
 
I don't think you need a cork buddy...all the times I have dry hopped the bag never hits bottom until the keg is empty.
 
shlap said:
Yep! Mine does.... they seriously laughed at you and pulled you by the ear? If that happened to me I'd be ordering all my brew supplies online from that point on! Hah
Click to expand...

It was a figure of speech. They lured me over to the bags section by offering me a beer they had on tap.:rockin:
 
ILOVEBEER said:
all the times I have dry hopped the bag never hits bottom until the keg is empty.
Click to expand...

lol....how do you know?

either way, thanks for the advice. i'll skip using the cork. one less thing to sterilize, right?

but yeah...anybody have any experience with millennium hops as a dry hop?
 
Just FYI. The very first batch I made, I dry hopped with a hop bag& 1 oz of pellet hops in the keg, as I was way too worried about sanitation. The bag got sucked into the beer line tube and plugged it about 2/3 of the way through the keg. I had to open the keg and fish out the hop bag with my racking cane.
 
I have read a lot about dry hop methods. It sounds to me a lot of it boils down to personal preference. It appears to me as if the all around easiest method would be to put the hops in a nylon bag. Are there any drawbacks to using the nylon bag? I plan on using pellet hops and will be using a carboy as my second.
 
Hey Superdave~

I have tried many different ways with the dry hopping, and I think 7-10 days will pretty much do it. My preferred method is to add the dry hops and then I roust the fermenter once a day over the first three days to sink everything. Then I roust it every other day. I have found this to the method that works best for me.

I have tried adding hops just after high krausen and transferring after three days, but it has never worked for me. I never really got the "perfumy" aroma that is supposed to happen with this method.

Really, it is all a matter of preference.
 
Might as well add to this, since I just read all these pages :)
I've tried dryhopping now a few times, and I never got any good aroma. My last IPA that is now carbing in the keg, I put 2 ounces of pellet cascades for about 2 weeks (wanted to do less time but got busy) in my secondary in a bag. In all my dryhopping experience I've never weighted the bag down at all, Is this my problem, is it just floating at the top and not getting mixed into the brew?
 
lefty913 said:
Could be. Have you ever tried not using a bag and just let the pellets marinate free of constraint?
Click to expand...

No, I have only tried with the bag, so it is easier to transfer the beer out to the keg, then I pull the bag out.
 
i used to use a hop bag. now i just add them to the primary after 3 weeks or rack ontop of them into secondary. when i siphon i just tie a hop bag to the end of the racking cane. i get no hop particles in the beer. some cases ive had the hops sink to the bottom with 2 weeks of dryhopping, sometime with 1 week dryhop not all sink and some of it stays a float.
 
BeantownR6 said:
i used to use a hop bag. now i just add them to the primary after 3 weeks or rack ontop of them into secondary. when i siphon i just tie a hop bag to the end of the racking cane. i get no hop particles in the beer. some cases ive had the hops sink to the bottom with 2 weeks of dryhopping, sometime with 1 week dryhop not all sink and some of it stays a float.
Click to expand...

Is there a difference between a hop bag, and like a grain sock, I think I'm using a grain sock, like the ones that come with some extract kits.
 
These are the threads that make HBT what it is! I'm a pantyhose fan myself :D no no no not wearing, using in my bier! Actually it's the grandma style knee highs that I use. I purchase the lightest colored ones I can find, then boil them in water until all the dye is released from them. Do yourself a favor and use natural or some skintoned version as black is a pain in the neck as I had to swap water 4 or 5 times, still real easy though! Okay so that's the hard part I also put marbles in with the hose when boiling. Kills 2 birds with one stone!

I dryhop by putting marbles and pellet hops in a knee high, tying it off, and dropping it in the fermenter. I've done this in the primary after fermentation was done when I wasn't going to rack to a secondary & I've used it in a secondary. Great results both ways and if doing it in the primary you're still able to harvest yeast easily without worrying about so many hop particles.

Schlante,
Phillip
 
Greetings all - first time poster here.

I found this thread by searching for dry hopping and have read all the posts. Lots of interesting ideas, but I think Phillip's post above about the pantyhose may be the one I go with.

This is my 2nd batch, first time dry hopping. A DFH 60 minute clone. The hops are still in the bag from the brew store, but I'm pretty sure they are pellets.

I do not plan to use secondary, just primary (in a bucket) for about 3 weeks. The instructions say to add the dry hops on day 5 after brewing, so that would be about 23 days in primary with the add'l hop pellets. Anybody see any problems with this plan?

If I don't use the pantyhose, and just drop them in uncontained, I gather that I should wrap a hop bag around my siphon tube when I rack to the bottling bucket, to avoid hop particles in the beer, correct?

Thanks all.
 
I guess I should also say that I bottle as opposed to keg.

I just noticed when I posted my reply that this thread is in the "All Grain and Partial Mash" section; I am using an extract batch, so I apologize if I posted to the wrong forum section.
 
I do not plan to use secondary, just primary (in a bucket) for about 3 weeks. The instructions say to add the dry hops on day 5 after brewing, so that would be about 23 days in primary with the add'l hop pellets. Anybody see any problems with this plan?
Click to expand...

Yes. Flip those numbers around. Dry hop for the LAST 5-7 days.

If I don't use the pantyhose, and just drop them in uncontained, I gather that I should wrap a hop bag around my siphon tube when I rack to the bottling bucket, to avoid hop particles in the beer, correct?
Click to expand...

Or you could rack to a 'secondary' for a few days and then siphon out of that. That should help to leave most of the particles behind.

And I know others will tell you differently but for me, Pellets suck. They just do.
 
BMoreBeerish said:
If I don't use the pantyhose, and just drop them in uncontained, I gather that I should wrap a hop bag around my siphon tube when I rack to the bottling bucket, to avoid hop particles in the beer, correct?
Click to expand...

I just tossed my pellets into the carboy last time, and I have to say that racking to the bottling bucket was a complete pain in the arse. The hop bag on the siphon tube kept on getting clogged every 10-20 seconds, so I ended up removing it, and then having to be really careful about getting too many hops off bottom of the carboy. I will be dry-hopping w/ the hop bag next time.
 
BendBrewer said:
Yes. Flip those numbers around. Dry hop for the LAST 5-7 days.

Makes sense. I'm sure the instructions are based on fermentation being complete and racking to secondary or the bottling bucket within about 10 days of brewing. However, thanks to all the knowledge dropped here at HBT, I now know that longer is better in primary, secondary, and bottles. I'll plan to add the dry hops (in pantyhose or a hop bag definitely), on about day 16 or so, and bottle on day 21.
Click to expand...
 
I prefer the taste/aroma if you dryhop cold. I'm lucky enough to use a refrigerator for a chamber and just turn down the t-stat when i'm ready to cold crash.
 
How does one ounce of Amarillo pellets sound for dry hopping a 5gal batch of pale ale?
Should I use more or less?
I'm planning on just tossing the pellets in the secondary, then kegging and cold crashing.
 
mattldm said:
How does one ounce of Amarillo pellets sound for dry hopping a 5gal batch of pale ale?
Should I use more or less?
I'm planning on just tossing the pellets in the secondary, then kegging and cold crashing.
Click to expand...

1 ounce is good. I would toss them in the secondary then rack the beer of top of them. After about 5 days cold crash for the last 2 days before transferring to the keg. This will drop most of the hops out of suspension so less particles will make it to the keg.
 
There are many good methods discussed here. I used a couple of different one's when I brewed in brewpubs, depending on what type of equipment I had.

My first pub used open fermenters (glycol jacketed, stainless vessels with a removable stainless lid) and transferred to a cooler for aging. I dry hopped in the aging tank with whole leaf hops in a large bag. What some of use use to hold grains. I would put a large stainless steel nut in the bag to hold it down.

When dry hopping cold, it takes a lot longer, but the flavor seems to stay stable longer. I would keep the beer on the hops for three weeks and then transfer to a serving tank and carbonate.

When I started at a brewery with Uni-tanks and no aging, I had to change my methods a bit. I still cooled the beer down to 40 F after fermentation was finished. I removed as much yeast as I could from the cone. I then poured pellet hops in from the top of the fermenter after I unscrewed the pressure relief assembly. I made sure to sanitize everything and put that back together. Again the beer would age on the hops for 21 days. At the end of that time, the beer would be filtered through a 5 micron plate and frame filter into the serving tanks.

Currently for homebrew, I ferment in Mini-Brew 6.5 gallon conicals. After about 2 weeks, I transfer the beer into another conical with hops and a small amount of polyclar(1/8 tsp.) . This helps clear the beer a bit and allows the hops to settle in the cone. For dry hopping at room temps, the time is much shorter. 3-5 days is about optimum. To assure clear beer, I will sometimes transfer into a third vessel with a touch more polyclar (1/4 tsp)to help things settle out. for an additional week. At that point I will transfer into a keg and place it in the refrigerator and carbonate.

I have found that the hop flavor and aroma is at it's peak when it is transferred in the keg. It starts to fade right away. It is hard to detect after about 3 weeks.

This was also noticed when I was judging IPAs and American Barley wines at this years NHC first round. Many beers were knocked down because there was very little aroma left. I'm sure the beers were fine when bottled, but the aroma had faded away by the time the judges got it.

If you want the hop aroma to stay, try to arrange it to dry hop cold for three weeks. Also, if you are entering competition, try to time your beer to package it right before you send it in. Now this can be a problem for folks who bottle condition, but the cold hop method does work to keep the flavor around longer.
 
oldschool said:
I prefer the taste/aroma if you dryhop cold. I'm lucky enough to use a refrigerator for a chamber and just turn down the t-stat when i'm ready to cold crash.
Click to expand...

What temperature is needed for "cold crashing?" I have an empty fridge right down in the basement next to where the beer is fermenting. It sounds like I might be well served to move the fermenter to the fridge for a couple days after dry hopping for 3-5?
 
BMoreBeerish said:
What temperature is needed for "cold crashing?" I have an empty fridge right down in the basement next to where the beer is fermenting. It sounds like I might be well served to move the fermenter to the fridge for a couple days after dry hopping for 3-5?
Click to expand...
Try it!

40F is the temp I would condition at. You can try various times and temps and let us know the result.

I have only dry hopped cold, where the beer was brought down to 40F before the hops were added, for 21 days and warm , 68F, for 4-7 days before the beer was racked off the hops, cooled and carbonated. In my experience the cold hopped beer held the flavor longer.

You may be able to find a time and temp program that speeds up the extraction of flavors and aroma but keeps it around in the finished beer longer.
 
Alright, so the plan of attack will be:

* Add hops (in boiled pantyhose with a marble to sink) on Day 16
* Move fermenter with hops to refrigerator at ~40F on Day 20
* Rack to bottling bucket on day 23
* Bottle condition at room temp for ~2 weeks

Objections? :drunk:
 
I've got a two-hearted clone right now that I dry-hopped w/2 oz of centennial pellets. This is my second time around dryhopping - first time I used 1 oz of whole cascade hops and had good success with that. I'm anxious to taste/smell any difference. I'll have to be extremely careful in racking to the keg. There's plenty of hops still in suspension. I'm planning on going the cheap nylon stocking around the racking cane route and seeing what happens. I plan on leaving the 2ndary out for 30 minutes or so, racking to a bottling bucket...letting it sit for another 30 minutes, then racking to the keg - in an attempt to minimize the particles I pick up.

Here's another question for everyone - has anyone experienced an increase in CO2 activity after dryhopping? I'm currently on day 18 of fermentation (10 days primary, 8 days secondary/dryhop) and I'm still getting multiple airlock bubbles per minute. I also notice hop particles moving up to the top layer of wort and then dropping back down - similar to a fun yeast party.

Thoughts?
 
Did you take a gravity reading before you transferred to your conditioning vessel? Did you make sure fermentation was complete before the transfer?

FWIW, I made a Two Hearted clone that I used 1 oz of Centennial for dry hop in 5 gallons. The FG was 1.008 before I racked on top of the dry hops. I used Safale US-05 yeast.

The hops can serve as nucleation points to release any CO2 that may already be in suspension. You may also have added something that is eating any sugar that was left from the fermentation.

When dry hopping with pellets, I have found it beneficial to rack into a tertiary vessel with some finings added to allow any hop mass that gets caught up in the transfer to settle. The finings (very small amount) will also help out a bit with clearing up the beer, which can get hazy from the dry hops. I would leave in tertiary for 2-3 days and then rack to the keg.

I am sure others have different methods that work for them.
 
I dry hop ale with pellets loose in the primary after fermentation has slowed, for about another 7-10 days. I typically see an increase in bubbling, but I thought it might be natural carbonation releasing due to additional nucleation sites. I typically use gelatin to clear the beer before bottling or kegging.
 
bnmir said:
I dry hop ale with pellets loose in the primary after fermentation has slowed, for about another 7-10 days. I typically see an increase in bubbling, but I thought it might be natural carbonation releasing due to additional nucleation sites. I typically use gelatin to clear the beer before bottling or kegging.
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking was going on with mine - I typically don't care too much about racking to a secondary anyways - so I just eyeball my airlock and rack when I feel like it's slowed significantly. I typically don't take sample gravity readings to make that determination. I am planning on racking to a third fermenter tomorrow night, then kegging on Sunday - that'll be a total of 22 days in fermentation. 10 primary, 12 secondary.
 
Grasslands said:
This is what I was thinking was going on with mine - I typically don't care too much about racking to a secondary anyways - so I just eyeball my airlock and rack when I feel like it's slowed significantly. I typically don't take sample gravity readings to make that determination. I am planning on racking to a third fermenter tomorrow night, then kegging on Sunday - that'll be a total of 22 days in fermentation. 10 primary, 12 secondary.
Click to expand...

Gas flowing through an airlock does not give any indication when a fermentation is finished. To KNOW rather than guess, you need to take hydrometer readings two to three days in a row. If you want to make consistent beer, this is one of the steps you should go through.

Beer doesn't care about how much time it spends in a jug. It cares about how much sugar the yeast start with and how much is left after they are done. The only way to KNOW that is to measure.

Good luck with your brew.
 
Wayne1 said:
Gas flowing through an airlock does not give any indication when a fermentation is finished. To KNOW rather than guess, you need to take hydrometer readings two to three days in a row. If you want to make consistent beer, this is one of the steps you should go through.

Beer doesn't care about how much time it spends in a jug. It cares about how much sugar the yeast start with and how much is left after they are done. The only way to KNOW that is to measure.

Good luck with your brew.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know all that. I just typically don't do it. Time constraints and other factors have been an influence - however when I want to KNOW as you put it, I do take a hydrometer sample over the course of a few days. I just don't always do it.
 
Gritsak said:
1 ounce is good. I would toss them in the secondary then rack the beer of top of them. After about 5 days cold crash for the last 2 days before transferring to the keg. This will drop most of the hops out of suspension so less particles will make it to the keg.
Click to expand...

I have another beer fermenting too so I have to plan my cold crash timing for both beers, so I was thinking of doing the dry hop for 7 days @ 66°-67° and then cold crashing for 2-3 days @ 38°, then kegging... Does that sound good?
 
I kegged my dryhopped (pellet) batch last night and man, it was definitely a PITA.

However, for those of you with an autosiphon, I figured out an easier way - at least for me - to filter out those pesky hops. It's been suggested on here to put a sanitized grain or hop bag over the tip of the siphon and wrap a rubber band around it. I tried this and the only thing I was able to achieve, aside from filtering the hops, was aeration. I'm not sure if that's been any one else's experience, but it put me on edge...especially when I've tried to clone my favorite beer (two-hearted).

Anyways, I figured out an easier way to minimize aeration from the bag and still achieve a decent filter. I just wrapped the bag around the other end of the tubing from the siphon and made sure there was space in between the end of the bag and the end of the tube. The bag rested on top of the beer in the keg so aeration was minimal, if at all. When I finished, I had a bag with a ton of hop residue in it. (this was after transferring into a bottling bucket first, then transferring to a keg)

That being said, I'm definitely going to use whole hops in the future for dryhopping.

Just my .02
 
Grasslands said:
I kegged my dryhopped (pellet) batch last night and man, it was definitely a PITA.

However, for those of you with an autosiphon, I figured out an easier way - at least for me - to filter out those pesky hops. It's been suggested on here to put a sanitized grain or hop bag over the tip of the siphon and wrap a rubber band around it. I tried this and the only thing I was able to achieve, aside from filtering the hops, was aeration. I'm not sure if that's been any one else's experience, but it put me on edge...especially when I've tried to clone my favorite beer (two-hearted).

Anyways, I figured out an easier way to minimize aeration from the bag and still achieve a decent filter. I just wrapped the bag around the other end of the tubing from the siphon and made sure there was space in between the end of the bag and the end of the tube. The bag rested on top of the beer in the keg so aeration was minimal, if at all. When I finished, I had a bag with a ton of hop residue in it. (this was after transferring into a bottling bucket first, then transferring to a keg)

That being said, I'm definitely going to use whole hops in the future for dryhopping.

Just my .02
Click to expand...

Put the hops in a nylon stocking and tie off the end before you drop them in to dry hop.
 

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