Dry Hopping for dummies

I have to admit that in all my time brewing I have never dry hopped anything. i get the concept, to add additional hops while in the secondary, but is there a process to this? Do i just toss them in the carboy in pellet form? Or is there some kind of gizmo that is used to assist? If so how does it work?

tried searching the forums but met with negative results. I have similar questions about using fruit, but will research that more before posting questions.

Thanks for the help
your pal
THE CAD

Yeah, it really is that simple. You just dump them in. And a secondary isn't even needed. Just dump them into the primary once the krausen drops.

what if i have whole hops? just use a small hop bag and pull it out when it's finished?

TyTanium said:

Yeah, it really is that simple. You just dump them in. And a secondary isn't even needed. Just dump them into the primary once the krausen drops.

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This is one way, another option is using a 'teabag' for the hops. Just remember to sanitise the bag.

thecad said:

what if i have whole hops? just use a small hop bag and pull it out when it's finished?

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Yup, that works too. Works great with a bucket; harder with a carboy (squeezing bag through narrow opening)

If you're dry hopping in a carboy, don't try to use a bag. Those hops will swell and getting them out will be a pain.

I usually dump them in loose (pellets or whole). Give the carboy a gentle swirl now and then to get those hops swimming around. When you are ready to rack, you'll want to wrap a paint strainer bag around your racking cane to act as a hop stopper.

If dry hopping in a bucket, I will place the hops inside a 1 gallon paint strainer along with some sort of sanitized weight (marbles). The bag makes for a cleaner beer when racking to bottling buckets or kegs.

Another Idea if you keg is to put them in a sanitized hop sock with a sanitized weight like a stainless nut, tie it closed with some sanitized unwaxed dental floss and drop it straight into your cornie keg. Pass the floss across the seal around the keg to suspend it just above the dip tube opening. Takes about 3 days of dry hopping I do this warm then chill and serve with the hops left in the keg.

BierMuncher said:

If you're dry hopping in a carboy, don't try to use a bag. Those hops will swell and getting them out will be a pain.

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I learned that one the hard way

I've tried both dry hopping in the primary and dry hopping in the warm keg. I by far like dry hopping in the primary far better.

One thing I've personally found, is I prefer to use a larger volume of hops, but leave them in the beer for a shorter amount of time. Some people leave it on for weeks, I rarely go longer than 5-7 days. I used to do 10-14 but found I often had grassy vegetal flavors that took too long to age out.

I was thinking of dry hopping my next pale ale so this has been a great help. Couple of questions though -
A) is it best to use one type of hop or several?
B) how much hops should I be putting in, weight wise?
C) should you slowly move the hops around every now and then or will then floating there flavour the whole brew?

Thanks!

mikegee said:

I was thinking of dry hopping my next pale ale so this has been a great help. Couple of questions though -
A) is it best to use one type of hop or several?
B) how much hops should I be putting in, weight wise?
C) should you slowly move the hops around every now and then or will then floating there flavour the whole brew?

Thanks!

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A) up to you but there are some tried and true combinations out there. It should complement the hops used in the flavoring position or later in the boil. I believe that dryhop " normality" lies within American hop varieties pretty much exclusively although there are certainly exceptions.
B) depends on the body IMO. Higher FG = more dry hops = more balanced result. Usually dry hops start around 1 oz per 5 gallons and people go crazy from there. I've seen IIPAs with as many as 7 oz in a 5 gallon batch
C)agitation is not needed. As long as you get them wet, it's working. Usually they'll do this on there own regardless of how you do it but if your tossing loose whole hops or plugs in, I'd give it a little extra time to get wet.

Ive heard Jon Palmer say if you dry hop on top of yeast ( in the primary) you might as well be throwing them away. Therefore; I will wait for the ferm to complete and then rack into a secondary with the hops in it.

The idea is that co2 bubbles produced by the yeast ( even in a ferm that is " complete") will strip the hop aroma esters from the beer. This is also a good reason to NOT agitate the beer once the dry hops are introduced.

Brewskii said:

A) up to you but there are some tried and true combinations out there. It should complement the hops used in the flavoring position or later in the boil. I believe that dryhop " normality" lies within American hop varieties pretty much exclusively although there are certainly exceptions.
B) depends on the body IMO. Higher FG = more dry hops = more balanced result. Usually dry hops start around 1 oz per 5 gallons and people go crazy from there. I've seen IIPAs with as many as 7 oz in a 5 gallon batch
C)agitation is not needed. As long as you get them wet, it's working. Usually they'll do this on there own regardless of how you do it but if your tossing loose whole hops or plugs in, I'd give it a little extra time to get wet.

Ive heard Jon Palmer say if you dry hop on top of yeast ( in the primary) you might as well be throwing them away. Therefore; I will wait for the ferm to complete and then rack into a secondary with the hops in it.

The idea is that co2 bubbles produced by the yeast ( even in a ferm that is " complete") will strip the hop aroma esters from the beer. This is also a good reason to NOT agitate the beer once the dry hops are introduced.

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Matt Cole of Fatheads

Brewskii said:

A) up to you but there are some tried and true combinations out there. It should complement the hops used in the flavoring position or later in the boil. I believe that dryhop " normality" lies within American hop varieties pretty much exclusively although there are certainly exceptions.
B) depends on the body IMO. Higher FG = more dry hops = more balanced result. Usually dry hops start around 1 oz per 5 gallons and people go crazy from there. I've seen IIPAs with as many as 7 oz in a 5 gallon batch
C)agitation is not needed. As long as you get them wet, it's working. Usually they'll do this on there own regardless of how you do it but if your tossing loose whole hops or plugs in, I'd give it a little extra time to get wet.

Ive heard Jon Palmer say if you dry hop on top of yeast ( in the primary) you might as well be throwing them away. Therefore; I will wait for the ferm to complete and then rack into a secondary with the hops in it.

The idea is that co2 bubbles produced by the yeast ( even in a ferm that is " complete") will strip the hop aroma esters from the beer. This is also a good reason to NOT agitate the beer once the dry hops are introduced.

Click to expand...

Matt Cole of Fatheads Brewery OTOH recommends dry hopping at 60-75% fermentation in order to drive off any O2 introduced by the hops. More than one way to peel an orange, I guess

logdrum said:

Matt Cole of Fatheads Brewery OTOH recommends dry hopping at 60-75% fermentation in order to drive off any O2 introduced by the hops. More than one way to peel an orange, I guess

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Even at final gravity, beer will continue to produce trace amounts of CO2 sufficient to displace any oxygen. And while at a micro or commercial level, dumping in buckets of hops to a giant conical may agitate the beer enough to introduce O2, sprinkling on an ounce or two into your carboy probably will not prove an oxidation risk.

I always wait until final gravity before introducing dry hops.