Dry Hopped using Pellets -> Greenish Color

My latest dry-hopped beer had a brownish-greenish, downright unappetizing sewage-like color. It looked okay during bottling, but I was disgusted at the first pour after 3 weeks in the bottle. So I left the beer on the shelf for another month to rehabilitate - and I find the hop residue has dropped to the bottom of the bottle and I have a fine beer with a lovely reddish-gold color. The bottle trub in these beers is dark so there's no question I had a good amount of hop residue in solution during bottling.

I fermented 3 weeks before dry hopping, the primary phase completed early in week 3 - dry hopped with 2oz pellets during weeks 4 & 5 in the primary then bottled. Temp was 68° weeks 1-4 and 64° week 5.

I think my mistake was around the end of the first week of dry hopping when I swirled the carboy a good bit to try to sink the floating hop scum. I figured the following week would be enough time for the hops to fall out. Maybe I reactivated the yeast and they kept the hops in solution, I don't know. This recipe had a fair amount of Carapils, perhaps the yeast decided to have a second go at fermenting it.

I haven't read about anyone else having this problem, but it makes sense that tossing the equivalent of powdered hops in the fermenter may cause some to stay in solution. Next time I might consider using either leaf hops, and/or a hop sack, and/or a more significant cold crash. Suggestions are welcome.

Steve

I've dry hopped a number of times in the primary with pellets using similar time frames as you and never had a problem. Two things i do differently is cold crash and use gelatin to get everything to settle into the trub prior to kegging.

My beers have always been clear and well colored.

On top of a cold crash + gelatin.....

I use the finest mesh bag when racking to the bottling bucket -- it'll catch 99% of hop/trub residue. Just put the bag over the racking hose like a condom and start the siphon.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm going to get some of those fine mesh bags.

If you buy a fine SS strainer from Walmart that works well, and you can wash it. Mine has a long handle so it spans the fermenter.

Cold crashing is the best bet. Never used gelatin, but I hear it works.

My first pour out of the korny keg had a nauseating color and I thought for sure it had gone bad. I boldly took a sip and it tasted relatively fine other than being a little hoppier than when I checked the final gravity. I think a lot of hops from dry hopping stayed in the beer and settled when I carbonated and refrigerated the beer so the first pour had a considerable amount of hop sedimentation. I am hoping after a few pours it will clear up and the hops flavor will be a little more subdued.