Dry Hopping Questions

I'm going to give dry hopping a go for my next batch and have a few questions.

1. The recipe says "dry hop Centennial hops 7 days." Does that mean add at seven days or leave for seven days?
2. When you dry hop with pellet hops what do you do about sanitizing them before dumping in the fermenter?

It means the hops should be in for 7 days before bottling/kegging
No need to sanitize hops...one of their functions is to act as a preservative

Add the hops for dry hopping after you have reached your final gravity and then leave them alone for seven days. Be sure to filter/strain the beer as it is transferred to your bottling bucket. Good luck and welcome to the club.

So all I need to do is spray the hop packages with StarSan before I open them and just pour them in? Well that is easier than I expected.

jesutton3 said:

So all I need to do is spray the hop packages with StarSan before I open them and just pour them in? Well that is easier than I expected.

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You don't need to do just that. Just take them right out of the package and dump them in. Hops don't need to be sanitized as they are a preservative to the beer and keep it healthy!

Thanks for the info. Just to clarify I was refering to spraying the outside of the package. Not the hops themselves.

jesutton3 said:

Thanks for the info. Just to clarify I was refering to spraying the outside of the package. Not the hops themselves.

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I do spray the package but its probably being over cautious, but it only takes a second, makes me feel better. So I do it.

jesutton3 said:

So all I need to do is spray the hop packages with StarSan before I open them and just pour them in? Well that is easier than I expected.

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Unless y are using "wet hops" you will be fine adding the hops directly to the fermenter.

I wait until the fermentation is 80% of the way through fermentation and then I throw in the hops. You would then leave your hops for 7 days.

Holter said:

Unless y are using "wet hops" you will be fine adding the hops directly to the fermenter.

I wait until the fermentation is 80% of the way through fermentation and then I throw in the hops. You would then leave your hops for 7 days.

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+1. Don't want to blow all that aroma out your airlock!!!

+1 to waiting -- I wait until my beer starts to fall clear. Then when I start thinking about dry hopping.

I'm actually going to give Keg Hopping a try on this next batch. I hear it keeps the flavor longer (but requires more conditioning time)... who knows at least it will be beer!

You really should wait to add your dry hops until you reach your final gravity. If you add them while the beer is still fermenting some of the hop aroma will be blown off with the CO2 that's escaping through you air lock.

lpdjshaw said:

You really should wait to add your dry hops until you reach your final gravity. If you add them while the beer is still fermenting some of the hop aroma will be blown off with the CO2 that's escaping through you air lock.

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I agree that it should be at the end, but not once you hit your FG. You want the yeast to still be a bit active when you dry hop so that they eat up any of the oxygen that the hops carried with them. I also think some active fermentation helps produce more aromatics. I used to wait until the very end, but I never felt like I was achieving the aroma that I wanted. I changed to adding at 80-90% completion and now I am very happy.

Holter said:

I agree that it should be at the end, but not once you hit your FG. You want the yeast to still be a bit active when you dry hop so that they eat up any of the oxygen that the hops carried with them. I also think some active fermentation helps produce more aromatics. I used to wait until the very end, but I never felt like I was achieving the aroma that I wanted. I changed to adding at 80-90% completion and now I am very happy.

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Curious how you're judging "percent complete"? Appearance of activity? Calculations?

Not sure about Holter but I just wait for the batch to start falling clear.

It's based on expected attenuation. If my beer has an OG of 1060 and my target gravity is 1010 that means that my expected attenuation will be 50 points. I wait until I have fermented 80-90% of the 50 points, so in this example it would be at 1020-1015. That's when the yeast have really slowed down, but they are still somewhat active.

Again, just my system.

Holter said:

It's based on expected attenuation. If my beer has an OG of 1060 and my target gravity is 1010 that means that my expected attenuation will be 50 points. I wait until I have fermented 80-90% of the 50 points, so in this example it would be at 1020-1015. That's when the yeast have really slowed down, but they are still somewhat active.

Again, just my system.

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So are you taking a hydrometer reading daily or some other frequency?

bbshopplf said:

So are you taking a hydrometer reading daily or some other frequency?

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For the first several days I do take samples. I used to just watch the air lock but these days I am paying closer attention to my fermenting beer.

It's good to taste it along the way, very educational

Holter said:

For the first several days I do take samples. I used to just watch the air lock but these days I am paying closer attention to my fermenting beer.

It's good to taste it along the way, very educational

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Gotcha. As a noob to homebrewing, i'm appropriately terrified of O2 and it's evils, so the idea of exposing the wort daily is uncomfortable.

bbshopplf said:

Gotcha. As a noob to homebrewing, i'm appropriately terrified of O2 and it's evils, so the idea of exposing the wort daily is uncomfortable.

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Right. Just remember that there are many breweries that still ferment in open topped fermenters. There is so much C02 coming out of a fermenter that the oxygen isn't going to make its way down to the beer. Once it stops fermenting though you should rarely check the beer. let it sit and clear up before you rack it to the keg/bottle.

I remember in science class as a kid where we had a candle lit in a jar and a soda bottle filled with CO2. If you tipped the soda bottle over to "pour" the CO2 into the jar with a candle the flame would go out because it was now deprived of oxygen. The lesson was that CO2 is denser (I think that's the term) than the O2 was and as such it would pour and replace the O2. The same goes for fermenting beer. The headspace of your fermenter is probably 100% co2 as long as the air lock is bubbling. If you open the fermenter to sample the beer you won't be introducing that much o2 and it's likely that the co2 is going to drive the o2 out before it can affect the beer at all.

Awesome. That makes a lot of sense...

I listen to the brewing network alot and Tasty Mike Mcdole who is a great homebrewer
adds his hops while fermentation is still visible, to keep them in suspension. Towards the end of fermentaion. So I have taken his approach. I for one don't take samples I just wait for the bubbling to slow, which after 8 years I know approx stage of attenuation. I know some people say the only way to tell is hydrometer, well in 8 years i've only had one batch that WASN'T done when the bubbling stopped, so my preference is to stay out of my fermenting beer.