dry hopped stout?

If my stout comes out of the primary too sweet. Can I dry hop in the secondary for 5 days to get some bitterness.

Dry hopping doesn't add bittering.

Hops need to be boiled to obtain the bitterness.

Are you sure it was done in the primary? If it wasn't, the yeast will take care of the extra sugars.

Also, try not to judge a beer by a flat, warm, unconditioned sample. It may be exactly where it should be considering it is not meant to be consumed for a few more weeks.

look up making a hop tea

I would check your gravity and see where you are. It is totally possible that the fermentation is just lagging a little and you need to wait some more for the yeast to do their job.

I use to run into sweetness issues and hung up fermentations, then I bought a hydrometer and read How to Brew.

dneubeck85 said:

Dry hopping doesn't add bittering.

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Dry hopping can make the beer more bitter. It doesn't increase the beer's estimated IBU's because it doesn't add any iso-alpha acids. However, you may perceive more bitterness than before.

I was only tasting the wort. I just don't know how the taste changes after the fermenter. I just want to be ready with options if it comes out sweet.

SG started at 1.060. Added a some brown sugar coffee and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Justin-Janes said:

SG started at 1.060. Added a some brown sugar coffee and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

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What's it at now?

Wort is very sweet. It comes from the sweet fermentable sugars. The sweetness will be mostly gone by the time it's beer.

Still bubbling, only been three days. I'll wait and see, but hop tea look good.

Justin-Janes said:

I was only tasting the wort. I just don't know how the taste changes after the fermenter. I just want to be ready with options if it comes out sweet.

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I literally signed up for this forum just now, because i am blown away by this statement.

I know, this is the beginners section... but maybe reading a book on BASIC brewing principles, would be more productive than posting on this forum.

Im not trying to be a total a-hole. just... really? mind blown

Let it sit for a week or two, check the gravity again and give 'er a taste. I bet it'll be totally different. (And better!) Then after bottling, it'll change and improve dramatically over a couple months.

And there's nothing wrong with tasting samples along the way. Cheers and carry on!

Justin-Janes said:

Still bubbling, only been three days. I'll wait and see, but hop tea look good.

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whoa, you're worrying about sweetness after 3 days in the tank? You shouldn't even be opening that thing for 2 weeks miniumum! lol. It's not even done yet so it's definitely going to have some sweetness.

Myself, I put the wort in the tank, pitch the yeast and don't return for 3 weeks. Give it a while longer yet. You're eating the chicken before it's cooked!

Doctor_Wily said:

You're eating the chicken before it's cooked!

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I think he is more along the lines of chasing it around in the field with a fork a knife... The chicken hasn't even been prepped for cooking.

JonM said:

Let it sit for a week or two, check the gravity again and give 'er a taste. I bet it'll be totally different. (And better!) Then after bottling, it'll change and improve dramatically over a couple months.

And there's nothing wrong with tasting samples along the way. Cheers and carry on!

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In addittion to JonM's reply, it's not uncommon for stouts to age. In commercial practice, rarely in homebrewing, brewers often age stouts for aboiut 6 months, then mix it with a fresh batch.

Dry hopping isn't common in stouts. There's probably more leeway for American interpretations of the styles for dry hopping.

METALGUY said:

I literally signed up for this forum just now, because i am blown away by this statement.

I know, this is the beginners section... but maybe reading a book on BASIC brewing principles, would be more productive than posting on this forum.

Im not trying to be a total a-hole. just... really? mind blown

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What is your experience and why do you believe it is okay to berate someone who is simply asking a question?

This forum has always been very friendly and helpful to those of us who are lacking in experience. I have read many books about brewing and have made some decent brews over the years, but there are still many things I do not understand. When I come here and read some people's explanations I understand the particular concept better. This is due to them being able to explain it in such a way that I can wrap my brain around it more easily than I can by reading about in a book.

We all have to stat somewhere, so in the future do try to be less judgemental about you perception of others apparent lack of knowledge.

@OP, I'm sure after a couple weeks you'll notice a huge difference in the beer. You'll likely find it much more balanced.

OBayBrewer said:

What is your experience and why do you believe it is okay to berate someone who is simply asking a question?

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You did not add anything useful to this thread. At least i offered the advice of picking up a begginning brewers book.

To the Original poster:

im assuming you brewed an extract batch using a recipe. If you followed the instructions, and added your bittering hops at the correct time it will be fine. dont worry, i know that things can be stressfull on your first few brews. it goes away.

thats good that you tasted your sweet wort, because now you can compare the difference between unfermented and fermented wort.

here is something for you to check out!

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Justin-Janes said:

I was only tasting the wort. I just don't know how the taste changes after the fermenter. I just want to be ready with options if it comes out sweet.

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The wort is supposed to be sweet. That's the sugar the yeast is gonna convert to alcohol.

I have read all about it. I was just tasting the wort. It has been in the fermenter for a week, and I haven't opened it up. All I was asking is how the taste of the wort changes after it is done fermenting. I haven't tasted the final product yet. I'm just tasting it through all the stages.

Plus I'm not using a recipe. I just bought a hand full of ingredients to see what I could come up with. I just like to get some expert advise. I'm using 8 oz of roasted barley. Half oz of German hops. About a pound of brown sugar. Teaspoon of cinnamon. 5 cups of coffee. Dark malt extract. And a pound a dark sugar. I just feel like there may be a lot of brown sugar.

Justin-Janes said:

Plus I'm not using a recipe. I just bought a hand full of ingredients to see what I could come up with. I just like to get some expert advise. I'm using 8 oz of roasted barley. Half oz of German hops. About a pound of brown sugar. Teaspoon of cinnamon. 5 cups of coffee. Dark malt extract. And a pound a dark sugar. I just feel like there may be a lot of brown sugar.

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That should end up really dry. You'll still have sweetness from the molasses. You won't have much bitterness to balance it.

Justin-Janes said:

I have read all about it. I was just tasting the wort. It has been in the fermenter for a week, and I haven't opened it up. All I was asking is how the taste of the wort changes after it is done fermenting. I haven't tasted the final product yet. I'm just tasting it through all the stages.

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It will become less sweet as it ferments as the yeast eat up the sugar. Then once the yeast is done with the sugar it'll move on to other compounds and "clean up" so to speak. Unless you really want to know how the flavor changes throughout the fermentation process I'd personally say just leave it shut for the next couple weeks. This will reduce the chances of infection substantially.

keep us posted on how it goes.

Justin-Janes said:

Plus I'm not using a recipe. I just bought a hand full of ingredients to see what I could come up with. I just like to get some expert advise. I'm using 8 oz of roasted barley. Half oz of German hops. About a pound of brown sugar. Teaspoon of cinnamon. 5 cups of coffee. Dark malt extract. And a pound a dark sugar. I just feel like there may be a lot of brown sugar.

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Just to clarify, you are going to add 5 cups of BREWED coffee, right? Not 5 cups of ground coffee?

Fresh brewed coffee. I'm transferring to secondary on Tues. I'll taste it then and let it sit for a few weeks before bottling.

Ha. I thought so because 5 cups of ground seemed like A LOT. Then I thought, maybe they are just really into coffee and got to wondering...