How to: dry hopping??

I tried dry hopping an IPA for the first time using 1 oz of fuggle leaf hops and a muslin bag. I fermented in a bucket/primary for two weeks and then racked over the hops in a carboy. It was a pain in the a$$ to get the bag in the carboy(and I probably contaminated the batch...even though I washed my hands very well before the ordeal). So, my question is how do you get the hop bag in to the fermenter? Or Is it best to dry hop in a bucket? Thanks in advance.


The object of life is not to arrive at the grave intact and with a well preserved body...but rather to skid in sideways, beaten up and broken down, screaming, "holy ****! What a ride!"

I dry hop in a bucket, but I also hate carboys and won't use them or even own one. This is one of the many reasons. The cons far outweigh the pros of a carboy

I just throw my dry hops in primary. I do not have hazing issues, and there is no hop matter in the keg (or bottles if you bottle) because I cold crash. I would recommend getting a super cheap dorm fridge that you can fit your primary bucket in, throwing the dry hops in there, and cold crashing after 4-5 days. Leave it in the fridge to for 24-72 hours and you'll have delicious, clear, dry hopped beer without worrying about the bag!

I am one of those on this forum who strongly feel that secondary for homebrewer is almost never necessary - only on very high gravity beers that need extended aging (< months). So throw them in, cold crash, and enjoy!


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I put the hops right into the carboy without a bag. I did the bag thing once and it wasn't worth doing again. Putting the hops straight into the carboy makes it a little more difficult to siphon out and clean but I prefer not to force the bag into the carboy opening.

I figure, by the time you have jammed the bag of hops through the hole you have already broken down the hops to the point were particles can get out making the process somewhat pointless (minus the siphoning easier).

BrewWNC said:

I put the hops right into the carboy without a bag. I did the bag thing once and it wasn't worth doing again. Putting the hops straight into the carboy makes it a little more difficult to siphon out and clean but I prefer not to force the bag into the carboy opening.



I figure, by the time you have jammed the bag of hops through the hole you have already broken down the hops to the point were particles can get out making the process somewhat pointless (minus the siphoning easier).

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True. Another method is instead if bagging hops, bag the siphon - tie a bag or Some stainless steel mesh around the end of your racking cane or auto siphon, and you'll leave nearly all the hops behind. I still think cold crashing is better for many other reasons which you can find on here, but either method will work for filtering out unbagged dry hops.


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I was given this piece of advice by the gentleman at my local HBS. I have not tried it yet, but plan to when I brew my next ipa or apa.

He said to add the hops to your primary fermenter when it is done fermenting. Leave it there for no more than 3 days then rack over to secondary for aging and cold crashing. He said by dry hoping this way you will eliminate the piney flavor that often comes with dry hopping for too long.

Like I said... I haven't tried yet but I know that on previous IPAs I've made I let dry hop a week or longer (because I was out of town) and the piney flavor was very predominant.






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budonze said:

I was given this piece of advice by the gentleman at my local HBS. I have not tried it yet, but plan to when I brew my next ipa or apa.

He said to add the hops to your primary fermenter when it is done fermenting. Leave it there for no more than 3 days then rack over to secondary for aging and cold crashing. He said by dry hoping this way you will eliminate the piney flavor that often comes with dry hopping for too long.

Like I said... I haven't tried yet but I know that on previous IPAs I've made I let dry hop a week or longer (because I was out of town) and the piney flavor was predominant.

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Most people describe a grassy flavor when dry hops are left in too long. Piney flavors come from specific types of hops (chinook, simcoe, Columbus, etc). Most people agree that 5-7 days is fine. I usually keep it to 4-5 days, but don't freak out about 3 days.

Regarding secondary: does not help clarity. It actually takes longer for the beer to clear if you move it. Think about it - beer clears from the top down. If you let it stay in primary, it'll clear. If you rack to secondary (and therefore mix all of the beer up by siphoning into a new container) it'll ruin all that clarifying that has already happened! How silly! And it's not like the particles are like "damn there's too much sediment at the bottom of this bucket, better stay in suspension." No. So leave it in primary if you want it to clear faster. Also, leaving it in primary you aren't introducing unnecessary oxygen, possible contamination from the auto siphon, the tubing, or the secondary fermenter itself, or anything else. Cold crashing will work of course in either primary or secondary, but remember that if you mix all the beer up by moving it to secondary and then cold crash it, it'll take longer. Just throw the partially cleared primary fermenter into the fridge and cold crash that. It'll clear much more quickly, be more convenient, be less oxidized, etc. there are virtually zero advantages to secondary (excepting long term aging, like more than 2-3 months, and even then it's debatable!).



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salty_dog_68 said:

View attachment 185224

I tried dry hopping an IPA for the first time using 1 oz of fuggle leaf hops and a muslin bag. I fermented in a bucket/primary for two weeks and then racked over the hops in a carboy. It was a pain in the a$$ to get the bag in the carboy(and I probably contaminated the batch...even though I washed my hands very well before the ordeal). So, my question is how do you get the hop bag in to the fermenter? Or Is it best to dry hop in a bucket? Thanks in advance.


The object of life is not to arrive at the grave intact and with a well preserved body...but rather to skid in sideways, beaten up and broken down, screaming, "holy ****! What a ride!"

Click to expand...

Look in to the Big Mouth Bubbler. Perfect for dry hoping and such. Basically a carboy with a wide mouth like a bucket.

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+1 using muslin bag on the siphon. I am going to dry hop this next batch (a heady topper clone) in primary for 4 days, transfer to secondary to next dry hop, and then after 4 days cold crash and into the keg. The muslin bag and cold crashing keeps a lot of gunk out of the beer.

Just dump the hops in the primary. I've tried all of the above methods and they aren't worth the extra hassle. Having the hops swim free seems to produce better aroma IMHO.

Of course I am assuming you have the ability to cold crash, at least to some extent.

I dump the hops in a few days before cold crashing and bottling.

showcow said:

Regarding secondary: does not help clarity

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It actually does, but takes longer.
The secondary is not a magical clearing tank. When you rack, you pull
in some trub from the bottom. That's the main advantage of a secondary, to minimize the yeast you pull in from the bottom.

Take the 10 days or whatever you need for your primary, rack to a secondary, and let it sit another 2,3+ weeks.

When you rack out of that you will pull in less yeast from the bottom.
The secondary does mix up the yeast, so will take longer to clear.
But the final result will be clearer.


Cold crashing also helps - big time.

If you don't secondary, you may have to leave some extra beer behind as the siphon head gets close to the trub layer.

The real problem with a secondary is the oxidation risk.
On the other hand if there is minimal headspace, compared to a bucket, you can benefit that way.

Put the whole leaf hops loose into the secondary first. Use a sanitized funnel and the end of a long sanitized plastic spoon to get them into the carboy. This is more a precaution than a necessity. Carefully rack the beer from the primary onto the dry hops in the secondary and let sit for 5-7 days. Done.

You can also just dump the whole leaf hops loose into the primary using the same method but you'll have a difficult time getting all the hops to fully integrate with the beer.

A work around to this is to use pellet hops directly in the primary after fermentation has finished or significantly slowed down. They will dissolve and much will drop out to the bottom over time. No need to dirty another carboy.

I sanitized a butter knife and placed it in the hops bag and added the hops. just dropped it in the carboy and it ought to come out pretty easy when I transfer to the keg.

ArcLight said:

When you rack out of that you will pull in less yeast from the bottom.
The secondary does mix up the yeast, so will take longer to clear.
But the final result will be clearer.


Cold crashing also helps - big time.

If you don't secondary, you may have to leave some extra beer behind as the siphon head gets close to the trub layer.

The real problem with a secondary is the oxidation risk.
On the other hand if there is minimal headspace, compared to a bucket, you can benefit that way.

Click to expand...

There are plenty of debate threads on this here, but this is the crux of the argument:

You say leave trub behind in primary, mix all the rest up by transfer, let it settle for 2-3 more weeks makes it more clear. I say, why mix it up? The point is, because secondary is not a magical clearing tank, time is the only factor. Not secondary time. Total time. Leave trub in primary, leave more in secondary later - or rack carefully out of primary after the same amount of time and get clear beer faster. - leaving the same amount of trub as you would have primary+secondary trub.

Again, it's not like the yeast won't drop out in primary because there's too much at the bottom already.

All this to ask: in your opinion, why does beer using secondary end up clearer? Sounds like because you give it more time... Try leaving it in primary for all of those 10 days plus 2-3 weeks and I think you'll be surprised.

Wait I get it - basically your point is it gives you two chances to siphon, which means less trub in the package.

While of course that makes sense, secondary also has trub - so I don't think that's necessarily true either. You're trying to avoid the top of the trub with your siphon... Doesn't really matter if there's 1/16" of trub or 10 feet.

showcow said:

All this to ask: in your opinion, why does beer using secondary end up clearer? Sounds like because you give it more time... Try leaving it in primary for all of those 10 days plus 2-3 weeks and I think you'll be surprised.

Wait I get it - basically your point is it gives you two chances to siphon, which means less trub in the package.

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Yes - 2 chances to siphon. What a secondary offers is a way to pull in less trub when racking. Forgetting about the effort and oxidation /infection risk -
Each time you rack, you will pull in less trub, provided you give the beer time enough to settle. This is because there is progresively less and less sediment (mostly yeast at this point).

It can take longer using the secondary, if you really want to rack less yeast. A primary will clear and then extra time doesn't make it much clearer.

If you are going to take the trouble of using a secondary I'd also advise you cold crash.

Having said this - I usually dont use a secondary, I let it sit in the primary until its bottling time. The cold crashing helps a lot.

Others will say "your racking is the problem, careful racking wont bring over a lot of trub".
I've tried that, and unless I leave behind a couple of beers worth of yeasty beer, I still get too much yeast.

I have to ask for some advice on this subject. I have a clone of Bells Two Hearted Ale that has been fermenting 6 days today. I am supposed to dry hop 1 oz of centennial. I know cold crashing helps to clear the solids but I currently have no artificial method to do this.

In my area we are expected to get some below average temps starting Monday til Wednesday of between 30 and 55 degrees. Can I cold crash outside or is the crash not to get below freezing? I was just going to toss the hops in sans bag...


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catdaddy66 said:

I have to ask for some advice on this subject. I have a clone of Bells Two Hearted Ale that has been fermenting 6 days today. I am supposed to dry hop 1 oz of centennial. I know cold crashing helps to clear the solids but I currently have no artificial method to do this.

In my area we are expected to get some below average temps starting Monday til Wednesday of between 30 and 55 degrees. Can I cold crash outside or is the crash not to get below freezing? I was just going to toss the hops in sans bag...


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Click to expand...

You might find that it takes longer than a few hours for the temp to drop all the aay down. And you need to keep it in the mid-30s for a t least 24 hours after that. I would bag the hops. You don't want huge temp swings like that, even after fermentation is over, and even if it probably won't get above 50.

But what the hell, try it if you don't have a bag! Worst case it doesn't crash the trub well, and in that case you can get a bag later and (after sanitizing) tie it to the end of your siphon. That wa

bottling bucket/keg.

Edit: I didn't see that it's only been 6 days. Let it go two weeks before you dry hop/cold crash, especially if you don't have precise fermentation temp control. Give it time to clean up fermentation before you crash it.

showcow said:

You might find that it takes longer than a few hours for the temp to drop all the aay down. And you need to keep it in the mid-30s for a t least 24 hours after that. I would bag the hops. You don't want huge temp swings like that, even after fermentation is over, and even if it probably won't get above 50.

But what the hell, try it if you don't have a bag! Worst case it doesn't crash the trub well, and in that case you can get a bag later and (after sanitizing) tie it to the end of your siphon. That wa

bottling bucket/keg.

Edit: I didn't see that it's only been 6 days. Let it go two weeks before you dry hop/cold crash, especially if you don't have precise fermentation temp control. Give it time to clean up fermentation before you crash it.

Click to expand...

Thanks Showcow! I guess the temp shouldn't fluctuate so I am not going to be able to cold crash. I was kinda spit balling on that idea anyway... Oh, well.


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Yeah. Either throw the hops in a bag, or put them in with nothing and tie the bag around the siphon. Either way clean beer to keg or bottles! Cheers

salty_dog_68 said:

View attachment 185224

I tried dry hopping an IPA for the first time using 1 oz of fuggle leaf hops and a muslin bag. I fermented in a bucket/primary for two weeks and then racked over the hops in a carboy. It was a pain in the a$$ to get the bag in the carboy(and I probably contaminated the batch...even though I washed my hands very well before the ordeal). So, my question is how do you get the hop bag in to the fermenter? Or Is it best to dry hop in a bucket? Thanks in advance.


The object of life is not to arrive at the grave intact and with a well preserved body...but rather to skid in sideways, beaten up and broken down, screaming, "holy ****! What a ride!"

Click to expand...

Fellow brewer,
I used to dry hop with leaf and pellets and worry etc. Then l learned there are hop oils available to totally eliminate the dry hop problem. Since then I have been a very laid back old man. Beer judges can't tell the difference.

budonze said:

I was given this piece of advice by the gentleman at my local HBS. I have not tried it yet, but plan to when I brew my next ipa or apa.

He said to add the hops to your primary fermenter when it is done fermenting. Leave it there for no more than 3 days then rack over to secondary for aging and cold crashing. He said by dry hoping this way you will eliminate the piney flavor that often comes with dry hopping for too long.

Like I said... I haven't tried yet but I know that on previous IPAs I've made I let dry hop a week or longer (because I was out of town) and the piney flavor was very predominant.

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Click to expand...

Why the hell would you age an IPA? Cold crash in primary and keg.



Almost Famous Brewing Company

Bottled my first IPA a week ago. Dry hopped an ounce of centennial for 6 days. When the primary was cracked open, I had an explosion of citrus aroma! This is a 2Hearted Ale clone, btw.

Can't wait (but I will, dammit!) to taste it!

Actually, I'm attending my first ever beer tasting on 4/26/14 at the newest LHBS near me. Bringing this years varieties of Cream of Three Crops, the clone above and an APA honey. Hope they go over well.


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Primary for three weeks, rack to keg and dry hop right in the keg. Less chance of oxidation in my opinion. IPA's are best fresh to keep that nice hoppy aroma and flavor. I don't care about clear beer, especially in an IPA. Some of the best IPA'S I've ever had were not clear. Hope this helps some.