I need some suggestions on dry hopping

So I am about to go into my secondaries with 10 gallons of my big IPA. I bought 2oz of Amarillo and 2oz of Simcoe. Both are loose hops. I was thinking of doing the dry hop in two additions separated by a week. 1oz into each carboy the first week, and 1oz into each carboy the second week. I am using two 5 gallon carboys for secondary.

Do you guys just throw in the loose hops or use a bag?

Any issues with just tossing them in? Absorption, siphoning/settling issues etc?

I can't think of a valid reason to do two seperate additions, you might as well do them all at once. Anyway you do it, you will have absorbtion issues. Personally I just dump them in, because it's way easier than trying to stuff a hop sock though a carboy neck. As for siphoning, I'd recommend using a mesh paint strainer or fine grain bag tie wrapped to your racking cane to filter out hop particles. I forgot to do this last time and my IPA has some hop chunkies in it.

That's a great idea, I was just wondering about that when reading another post about a guy's IPA that had hop chunks in the keg.

How much absorption will there be do you think? Should I use less hops?

The beer was 1.061 going in.

I can't give you a real accurate answer on absorbtion, but if I had to guess I'd say maybe a quart or so for each carboy. Hops do soak up alot, but I've never really paid attention to how much. Your losses on 10G will be negligable.

I know that Palmer's book suggests 1/2 oz for 5 gallons. But I read another book by the guy who started Dogfish and there is a bit in there by a guy from Russion River about dry hopping and he uses quite a bit more and also puts some in the final pouring tank. I thought it might be fun to find a stainless tea ball and put one in each keg.

Nothing wrong with your ideas. If you read through Palmer's book he isn't big on high-alpha IPAs, I've never dry-hopped with less than 2oz.

It already smells great. I can't wait to see what the dry hop adds.

I used over 10 oz in the boil, including a first wort hop.

Just thinking about it makes me thirsty.

2 oz for 5 gallons is not a huge amount of hops. I would use a bag weighted down though or else they'll float on top only 60% submerged or so. It's better to have them completely submerged. 2 ounces of whole hops will take up a lot of space so make sure you have plenty of headspace in the carboy. How much absorbtion? I dunno, not alot.

BTW Bert Grant recommends dry hopping with 3-7 ounces per 5 gallons. Now THAT's a lot of hops!

What do you use to weight the bag down with?

Does using a bag take away the amount of hop oils that get into the beer?

A bag isn't going to affect dry-hopping alot, esp if you use a grain bag with fairly large mesh. For those who weight their hop bags I've seen them use sanitized marbles to get the bag to sink. Tie a piece of strong fishing line to the bag and route one end out of the carboy so you can pull the bag up to fish it out.

I would suggest that you dry hop with .5 ounce of each variety, wait a couple weeks, taste it, then add more if necessary. Dry hopping with 1 ounce of Amarillo and 1 ounce of Simcoe in a 5 gallon batch might be a little bit much for a beer with an OG of only 1.061. You can always add more later but you can't take it away after you have added it.

My favorite Imperial IPA recipe has a strong malt backbone (think Arrogant Bastard) and an OG of about 1.080. I like to use one high AA hop variety and make many additions throughout the boil. For a 5 gallon batch of my Double Simcoe IPA clone, I'll use 6 ounces total (1 ounce at 60 min, 45 min, 30 min, 15 min, 0 min, and dry hop). This makes for a very bitter, flavorful, and aromatic IPA with a clean malty backbone which I personally feel is very important. With Imperial IPA's, balance is the key.

Also, I'm not sure if keg keg or bottle but I always put my dry hops in a new panthose and add directly to the keg at kegging time. I leave them there unti the keg is dead and then I simply throw the pantyhose away. Nice and simple but works great.

Brad

I like the pantyhose idea.
How do you sanitize that before you throw it into the carboy?
A soak in StarSan?

I really like the results of multiple addition dry hops. I recently did this with a hoppy red (think Green Flash Hop Hed Red), and the results were fantastic. I used 1oz for 1 week, transfered to a new carboy and added 1 more oz for 1 week. The reason for transfer is that you don't want to leave the old ones in for too long to avoid grassy flavors, and 1oz of leaf hops really swells up. I had to use a blow off tube for the first addition, and it was nearly half filled with beer/hops. Granted I had about 5.3 gals in a 5gal carboy. Do a search for a seminar by Vinnie of Russian river regarding multiple dry hop additions...good stuff.

You got it, a soak in star san, squeeze the excess, add hops, tie them off, then put them in. No weights or anything. They will sink on their own eventually.

Some important notes on the pantyhose. I buy them at the dollar store and cut them to size depending on the amount of hops I am using. I always buy them in white hoping that they are undyed but I am pretty sure pure nylon is clear so that may just be a habit. I have never had they white ones impart any dye or off flavors and I often use them with pellt hops in in the boil kettle.

Really cool ideas!

I like the panty hose idea but worry about chemicals leaching out into the beer, regardless of star san, considering these things are made in China from who knows what. just a thought.

Also, I like the idea of separate additions. Vinnie Cilurzo, of Russian River, suggests separate additions as adding significantly to the complexity of the hop nose.

Again, I wonder if sinking a bag verses tossing in the loose hops really makes a noticeable difference in the dry hopping. Don't the loose hops sink after they are saturated? And even if they always float, does that really matter?

One last point, I wasnt sure what schristian meant about using a blow off tube for the first addition, but it sparked an idea about creating a device, using a blow off tube or something similarly stiff, putting holes in it and sticking it down in there with the hops inside. Something like that might be a lot easier to remove that a swollen grain bag.

I have never tried to weigh down hops during dry hopping. I just made a IPA and dried hopped with 1oz cascade for close to three weeks. The beer is great and the smell is awesome also, RDWHAHB. Cheese cloth works great and there is definetly no die in it, you can ge tit at your LHBS.

oswegan said:

What do you use to weight the bag down with?

Does using a bag take away the amount of hop oils that get into the beer?

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Smallparts.com: Stainless Steel 302 Metal Ball 1/2" Diameter

I use these and a muslim hop sock which costs $.39. I put the balls in the sock and then boil them for about 10 minutes, drain off the water and then wearing sanitized gloves I put the hops in and tie the bag in a knot. These are made of 302 Stainless steel which is food grade and doesn't react. It takes about 7 balls to weigh down 1 ounce of whole hops. The tricky part is geting the hops in without letting them hit the bottom of the glass too hard for they will crack a carboy easily.

I find that whole hops will never sink and that nearly half of the hops don't even touch the beer which I think is very inefficient. Sure unweighted hops will work but I think submerged hops work better.

YMMV

Thanks.

I have heard that some brewers do a cold rest after dry hopping that serves two purposes, it clarifies by causing any remaining yeast to settle out and also causes the saturated loose hops to drop to the bottom.

Any validity to this??

I meant that After adding 1oz of leaf hops, the airlock was filled with beer within 30 mins so I needed to hook up a blowoff tube instead of an airlock thats all. And this was due to haveing about 5.3 gals in a 5 gal carboy. For leaf hops, I now use a 6 gal carboy. Also, with leafs, I just through them in loose and rack over them, they sit at the top but get fully soaked. With pellets, I use a bag with a couple sanitized marbles in it, although I much prefer leaf over pellets for dry hopping. With 2 additions and re-racking, I lose about 1/4-1/2 gal per 2 total oz of dry hops.

EDIT: I'll crash cool for a few days before kegging, and yes all the hops sink to the bottom, this has been true of both leaf and pellet.

Cool. Good info.

I think I'll toss them in loose and see how that goes. If it's a pain, or doesn't give the right result, I'll switch to a bag next time.

Now I just need to decide whether to do two additions of an ounce each, or throw two ounces in at once.

Hmm . . . thinking about this is making me thirsty.

I went with the bags after all, using stainless steel balls the weight them down. Not sure if it was worth it. They were a ***** to get through the neck of the carboy and probably a ***** to get out.

McKBrew said:

A bag isn't going to affect dry-hopping alot, esp if you use a grain bag with fairly large mesh. For those who weight their hop bags I've seen them use sanitized marbles to get the bag to sink. Tie a piece of strong fishing line to the bag and route one end out of the carboy so you can pull the bag up to fish it out.

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Wow, great idea. I've been trying to think of a way to make it easy to get a bag to sink in a carboy and then get it out.

I tried stainless balls and it was pretty hard to sink leaf hops. It was also a major PITA to get them out through the neck.

I just pitch them in now and rack with a hop sock over the end of the racking cane. Works great!

I even think I get better surface area coverage on the hops.

Will be trying my first dry hopping ever tomorrow with leaf hops. My LHBS told me to put some in the bag, then tie it off, then some more with anoter tie, etc to make it easier to get them in and out. Sounded like a good idea to me. Think I will try the marbles or stainless balls as well to weigh the bag down.

on the last IPA we made we dry hopped with .5oz of fresh leaf hops of four different varietals in two doses for five days each dose (1oz at at time) the absorbtion was minimal and if you use something clean to wring the hops out you will lose next to nothing. we also did a cold rest in between the two additions which was effective in dropping loose leaf particles. when we syphoned to the bottling bucket we also used a hop bag to filter and remnants. there was a noticable difference between the two additions over a shorter time frame and our last dry hop which was one addition over a slightly longer period. its still conditioning so we will see what the end product is.

I dry hop with loose whole hops. I gently rock the carboy every day or two so that all the hops get coated in beer. Also I think it works similarly to the way that putting a piece of cardboard in shallow water results in water rising up the cardboard. Once soaked the oils and stuff should diffuse back down into the beer.

TeleTwanger said:

I find that whole hops will never sink and that nearly half of the hops don't even touch the beer which I think is very inefficient. Sure unweighted hops will work but I think submerged hops work better.

YMMV

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Have you ever actually dry hopped with leaf hops? This does not happen. Put a piece of tissue into a cup of water, does it sit at the top? Leaf hops act the same way, they absorb the liquid and eventually sink.