I am looking at dry hopping for my first time. I plan on racking to secondary and adding 2oz of cascade pellets. Is there any advantage to pulverizing the pellets first versus just dumping in the pellets as is? I just picture a clump of pellets sitting at the bottom of the carboy. I thought if you crush them up first it is getting to way more surface area or hop oils right away. But then again, maybe they on their own in time anyways.
Dry hopping with pellets
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user 84304
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You don't need to crush them, they'll dissolve themselves just fine, no clumps in my experiences. I always rack the beer onto them, instead of dumping them in after, to clarify.
Bierliebhaber
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Hop pellets...they melt in your beer not in your hand.
The last one I did I put the pellets in a 1 gallon paint strainer bag and added a couple of marbles to make it sink. I tied it closed with Glad Wrap and jammed it between the stopper and the neck of the Better Bottle. I then just put the autosiphon in past the bag and racked from below it. I didn't have to worry about not sucking in too much trub.
Sounds like a lot of work. I just dump them in on top, and 10 days later, most have sunk to the bottom and I rack to bottling bucket. I might get a few flakes, and they end up in the very last bottle. No problems.
I just dumped them in my carboy on my last batch of a Belgian IIPA. After the 2 weeks they sunk to the bottom and didn't have a problem siphoning. They will break apart on their own.
Takes about 2-3 minutes! And I used 2 ounces.
rescue brew
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Just dry hopped for the first time a few weeks ago. 1 oz of citra pellets. Just popped off the airlock and poured 'em in. No worries.
wildactbrewer
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Sterilization shouldn't be a problem. I've never had a problem with it when dry hopping. Just don't leave the airlock off for too long. Hops, by nature, have antiseptic properties. They were originally used to preserve beer for extended periods of time. This is why IPAs are super hoppy, they had to survive the boat ride from the UK to the Indies and the cool moist holds of ships at the time were a PERFECT breeding ground for bacteria. So no worries on adding them straight in...
Sorry for the History lesson...I am a teacher by day and a brewer on the weekends! LOL
Sorry for the History lesson...I am a teacher by day and a brewer on the weekends! LOL
But maybe not a teacher of IPA
You sterilize your beer after fermentation? I hate to be the one to ask, but, are you sure you've thought this through? I don't think your beer ever was sterile, nor would you want it to be.
Risk of infection from dry hopping is not something you need to worry about.
ElJefeBrews
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I dry hopped my last beer (first time dry hopping) and had a lot of hop flakes floating at the top of the carboy and even though I tried filtering through a strainer, I still had a lot of those flakes on the bottom of my bottling bucket. Is this normal?
I don't know what your strainer is like, but I put a sanitized 5 gallon paint straining bag over the inlet side of my siphon, and it works great.
For a long time I never used anything and would get a few flakes. Most of these ended up in the last couple of bottles. I used to mark the caps of the last couple of bottles and these would be the first ones opened. If the beer is highly carbed, the hop flakes can act as nucleation sites, and cause gushers upon opening. Otherwise it doesn't hurt the beer.
plankbr
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Cold crashing a day or 2 before bottling will make a night-and-day difference with a much clearer beer transferring to the bottling bucket.
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