I plan on brewing Saturday and it will be my first time to dry hop. I bought leaf hops because I misunderstood an email response from AHS that wasn't clear and after receiving my package today, I see they include hops for dry hopping with the kit. However they are in pellet form and not leaf form. How should I do my dry hopping, just keep everything in the primary or rack to secondary? My primary is a bucket and secondary would be a carboy and if I put the hops in a muslin bag, I have read that they can be hard to get out once they expand. Would I be okay reusing my grain bag after rinsing it out on brew day and then boiling in water just before adding the dry hops? If I keep in primary, do I still keep in a muslin bag or just dump them in?
Dry hopping with pellets
- Thread starter khkman22
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I have always dry hopped in my secondary, which is a carboy too. I don't use a muslin bag, I just pitch into the carboy. The pellet hops will settle on the bottom, and you can filter most out when you rack to your bottling bucket. Whatever's left will end up in the bottom of your bottling bucket, but it shouldn't be very much.
I don't use a bag, but you can certainly do that if you want. Sanitize the bag, and patiently add it to the carboy as it's a PITA to add a bag of hops to a carboy!
just dump in the primary.
I dump the pellets right in my primary (which is a bucket like you). One thing I have heard is to try and add them when fermentation is just finishing up so the yeast can scrub up any oxygen you introduce but it has to be late enough in fermentation so the co2 doesn't strip all the hop are as out.
I like pellets because i know that all the hop matter is submerged in the beer unlike whole hops that tend to float. Its easy enough to rack to bottling bucket without picking up much hop material when using pellets.
I like pellets because i know that all the hop matter is submerged in the beer unlike whole hops that tend to float. Its easy enough to rack to bottling bucket without picking up much hop material when using pellets.
NZLunchie
Well-Known Member
I throw pellets into a muslin bag and into the primary. I've never used a secondary and probably never will.
I wait 3-4 weeks until fermentation is done, put the hops in a 1 gallon paint strainer and add them right to primary, wait another 5 days and keg/bottle.
You want to make sure fermentation is done, otherwise the the aroma can escape with the cO2.
You want to make sure fermentation is done, otherwise the the aroma can escape with the cO2.
MMJfan
Well-Known Member
I throw pellets into a muslin bag and into the primary. I've never used a secondary and probably never will.
I too don't use a secondary unless it is a brew that doesn't require dry hopping and I need an extra fermenting bucket.
I use both pellets and whole leaf hops and I also use a muslin bag or a paint strainer bag. I usually add sanitized marbles to the bag for weight and tie the bag to my bucket handle using sanitized fishing line.
I've never tried dry hopping with pellets without a muslin hop sock, but I have tried it using whole leaf hops without a muslin sock and found it was a major PITA to rack my brew to the bottling bucket as my auto siphon kept getting clogged with floating hops and I ended up wasting about a gallong of good beer because of it?!
I've been wanting to try dry hopping with pellets, would you guys that do it say it's any different, flavor and aroma wise, from doing so with leaf? I'm assuming cold crashing the brew after a week would help the pellet trub drop to the bottom as well.
I would think it is even more of a PITA to get the bag out after the beer is bottled.
When I dry hop, I always transfer to a secondary carboy and use loose pellet hops. That way, I can re-use the primary for another batch, and I don't run out of beer. I use an auto-siphon to keg or transfer to the bottling bucket, and providing you keep the tip of the auto-siphon away from the hop debris, very little of the debris gets transferred out of the carboy.
-a.
Clonefan94
Senior Member
From a post I read on here, I bought some of the paint strainer bags from a hardware store. I just cut enought of it out off the bag to fit over the inlet on my racking cane and secure with a rubber band. I make sure everything is sanitized, thean rack to the keg. That worked great.
Here ya go. Paint strainer wrapped loosely around the cane and fastened with a zip tie or clip.
I dry hop in primary after FG & the beer settles out clear. Otherwise,the hop oils coat the yeast cells & go to the bottom. I dry hop for 1 week in muslin sacks.
Will putting it at the bottom like that lead to possible oxidation when racking to the bottling bucket, or is that only when putting it on the tubing end that is flowing out into the bottling bucket?
Also, looks like there is quite a bit of debris on the bag. Did that slow the flow down a lot or give you problems with clogging? I just don't want to oxidize the beer when trying to do this, and if the siphon gets blocked, I don't want to have to keep adjusting the bag and possibly wind up ruining my beer.
One last thing, it looks like you have just a racking cane and I will have an auto siphon if that would cause any differences.
