Dry hop

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Dark_Ale

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I am always looking for something new to try. Has anyone dry hoped in the secondary? I was reading about it today, just wondering if any of you have tried it and what you thought about it. I am kinda looking for aroma, and when you remove the cap from the bottle the hops smell just over whelms you, not brewing for competition here, just searching for my style of beer. Made a American brown today, using (3/4 60min) amirillo hops,(1/2 cascade 15 min) (1/2 casade at the end) It smelt so wonderful cooking, but when it went in the primary it did'nt have the smell I wanted. I can adjust the recipe later. What are your thoughts
 
I can relate. This is one of the goals we're always chasing too.

I've done a little bit of dry hopping, but not too much. I'm always paranoid about sanitation.

One idea is to make a hop tea, add the hops, and chill it very fast, then add to secondary. I imagine the faster you chill it, the better aroma you'd get.

In pursuit of this goal, we tried a hopback once. We bought a nice stainless commercial one. I don't know what we did wrong, but we could never get it to work properly. It always clogged and hosed up the chill. We even had a pump pushing beer through the hopback and chiller.

My gut feeling is that the best way for us to get great fresh aroma is a hopback that the hot wort flows through immediately before entering the chiller. That would give the hops the briefest exposure to hot wort.

I haven't messed with one lately. We just try to add hops very late, like after the wort is removed from the boil and it is being chilled. That makes for pretty great aroma if you use quality whole hops.

I'd love to hear what you come up with and any success stories!

Janx
 
rightwingnut said:
What, exactly is a hopback?

Sorry. It's basically a chamber into which you stuff some hops ( I think we tried to stuff in too many ;) ) It has an inflow and an outflow. You plumb the out line from your kettle to the in line of the hopback and then go from there straight into your chiller.

The longer you boil hops, the more bitterness you get, and the shorter time they are boiled, the more aroma you get. So a hopback is basically a way to briefly expose the hops to hot wort that is then quickly chilled. So you get the best aromatic qualities theoretically.

It's like running the wort through a hop filter :D Yum!

Janx
 
rightwingnut said:
Yum, indeed.
Ya'll got me fired up now, I'm gonna have to go get some more malt.....and hops........I am gonna try the tea, and the hop filter sounds like it would be awesome....I can wait to try both....Thanks for the info
 
Janx said:
Sorry. It's basically a chamber into which you stuff some hops ( I think we tried to stuff in too many ;) ) It has an inflow and an outflow. You plumb the out line from your kettle to the in line of the hopback and then go from there straight into your chiller.

The longer you boil hops, the more bitterness you get, and the shorter time they are boiled, the more aroma you get. So a hopback is basically a way to briefly expose the hops to hot wort that is then quickly chilled. So you get the best aromatic qualities theoretically.

It's like running the wort through a hop filter :D Yum!

Janx

Hops is definitly an area where I am lacking knowledge, If I were making an american brown, and looking for the aroma to slap me in the face, what hops do you think would do me justice........Thanks for the info. I used amirillo and cascade last time, I must say when I was finished boiling it I was disapointed, but now that its ferminting in the primary when I opened the closet to check on it, The aroma out of the top of the airlock was awwwwwwsome. I just hope it makes it to the bottle. If I was gonna try a hop tea or filter the wort through some hops, which would you recommend for the aroma, and can I grasp the aroma without getting to bitter?
 
Definitely. If you want aroma and not bitter, add the hops as late as possible to the boil. I add mine after the wort is removed from heat and just before chilling.

Amarillo and Cascade are both good choices. If you don't think you had enough last time, add a few more handfuls this time. You can go nuts with aroma hops and your beer won't get bitter.

Also, I've said it in other places, but I really recommend whole hops for aroma. Pellets never give me the same results as nice fresh hop cones.

Janx
 
I've dry hopped quite a bit using plug or leaf hops right out of the package with no problems. Fuggles would be a good aroma hop for a brown. When using plugs, I quarter the plug with a serrated knife (watch the finger tips!) and just drop them directly into the secondary carboy. Experiment by increasing hops in .5 oz to 1 oz increments until you find ammount you're happiest with.
 
Witbier said:
I've dry hopped quite a bit using plug or leaf hops right out of the package with no problems. Fuggles would be a good aroma hop for a brown. When using plugs, I quarter the plug with a serrated knife (watch the finger tips!) and just drop them directly into the secondary carboy. Experiment by increasing hops in .5 oz to 1 oz increments until you find ammount you're happiest with.

I read somewhere that you dont have to worry about contamination when adding hops to the secondary........When you add the plugs, do they fall apart, float on top, and I assume you do this before bottleing, and how long do you leave it in your primary before you bottle it?
 
Dark_Ale said:
I read somewhere that you dont have to worry about contamination when adding hops to the secondary........When you add the plugs, do they fall apart, float on top, and I assume you do this before bottleing, and how long do you leave it in your primary before you bottle it?
They fall apart, spread out to cover the top of the beer, and then pretty much float on top. I leave mine in as long as the beer is in the secondary.. usually about 2 weeks.
 

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