Dry Hopping with Pellets???

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Brew_Meister

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
102
Reaction score
0
Location
Lawton, OK
I just brewed this SNPA clone recipe from BYO yesterday:

• 8 oz. caramel malt, 30° Lovibond
• 6 oz. DeWolf-Cosyns cara-pils malt
• 6 lbs. light malt syrup
• 1.5 oz. Perle hops (8.2% alpha acid) for 60 min.
• 2.5 oz. Cascade hops (5.4% alpha acid): 1 oz. for 15 min., 1 oz. for 5 min., 0.5 oz. pellets (dry hopping).
• Wyeast 1056 (American ale)


It is in the primary right now for about 24 hours and it is bubbling away. The recipie calls for dry .5 oz Cascade hop pellets at secondary. My question is should I put these in a hop bag or just toss into the secondary during racking? Do I need to sanitize them somehow or should the alcohol in the brew keep nasties away? Also, has anyone had any experience with dry hopping using pellets vs. whole hops?

On a side note... I tasted this before closing the lid on the fermenter and it tastes great... very hoppy. :rockin:

Thanks
 
I just did an almost identical batch. I simply opened the bag of pellets and poured them into the secondary. (I used an oz). The beer turned out fantastic. Only thing I did different was to re-rack to another carboy for a couple days after 7 days in the secondary, because there was a lot of trub and a few floating hops.
 
just throw them bad boys in there naked...hops are a natural anti-microbial, so dont worry about nasties camping out on them.

i dry hop with pellets all the time, they work great!
 
Thanks for the replies...
I think I will just toss in next week when I rack to secondary. I only have one glass carboy, so if I wanted to rack again, I would have to re-rack into the same carboy. I think I might just let settle a little longer so that the hop trub settles out.

By the way Robbw how did yours turn out? And do you think I should up the hops to 1oz instead of .5oz? I am looking for a pretty hoppy brew.
 
Brew_Meister said:
Thanks for the replies...
I think I will just toss in next week when I rack to secondary. I only have one glass carboy, so if I wanted to rack again, I would have to re-rack into the same carboy. I think I might just let settle a little longer so that the hop trub settles out.
Don't move it around more then you have to. I think you are making a wise decision by letting it sit a little longer in the secondary.
 
I'm racking my 8th IPA to secondary on Saturday and always have dry hopped with 1oz. Cascade in a muslin bag. No marbles, just let it float around. It makes for an easier bottling/kegging experience IMHO.

Wild
 
Here are the hops I used:


Hops:
1 oz. Nugget hop pellets (Boiling hops 45 Min.)
1 oz. Perle hop pellets (Boiling hops 14 Min. )
1 oz. Cascade hop pellets (finishing hops last 1 min.)
1 oz. Cascade hop pellets (dry hop in secondary)

I thought the beer was outstanding! Very hoppy and flavorful. :mug:
 
I've found dryhopping with pellets rather more messy than using whole hops, but it isn't a problem.
 
OK so I decided to just toss the hop pellets into the beer at secondary. I used 1oz cascade for this and boy did they make a mess when I added the beer to them. But it sure does give the beer a nice aroma. :cross: I am hoping that the hops will settle out after a week or two.
 
Brew_Meister said:
OK so I decided to just toss the hop pellets into the beer at secondary. I used 1oz cascade for this and boy did they make a mess when I added the beer to them. But it sure does give the beer a nice aroma. :cross: I am hoping that the hops will settle out after a week or two.
I just did the same thing on Saturday. Next time, I'm using a bag!:mad:
 
whole hops are definitely better than pellets for dry hopping. Pellets will work fine but in the future you should use whole hops if at all possible.
 
Lost said:
whole hops are definitely better than pellets for dry hopping. Pellets will work fine but in the future you should use whole hops if at all possible.
Please advise why.

I used plugs, and whole leave years ago. I eventually found that the hop pellets are a more cost effective solution, and a little messier. Please advise why whole hops should be used instead of pellets.
 
Here are a few good reads on the subject of hops:

http://www.realbeer.com/hops/aroma.html

http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html#forms

http://www.realbeer.com/hops/

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-2.html

to answer your question: the processing of hop flowers into what looks like rabbit pellets causes the lupulin glands to burst (they're ground up). These glands contain the essential oils that provide hop aroma and when they are processed the essential oils are broken down and released. Processing makes the utilization of the alpha acids (bittering agent) higher - you get more bitterness from the same amount of hops basically because the pellets (especially type 100 pellets) are a concentrated form of the hop flower. The processing does not have the same beneficial effects for the essential oils which are what you want to get into the beer if you're dry hopping or adding flavor/aroma hops.
I like to think of it this way: perfume is basically synthetic essential oils; we all know it doesn't last long. I could practically take a bath in it and by the time I get to school or work the fragrance is hardly noticeable. By grinding the hops up the essential oils are released and they begin to quickly dissipate just like perfume. In whole hops the oils are contained in the glands and do not dissipate as readily. Of course there are those that claim that the processing makes the essential oils more easily soluable in the beer because the lupulin glands have been ground up and broken down but I don't buy this argument (and I think most of the professionals would agree).

This advice is worth exactly what your paid for it. Happy brewing :mug:
 
You just have to be more careful when racking for bottling. Usually the pellet hops have settled to the bottom. Just be careful to no suck up too many when transfering to the bottling bucket. I try to be careful with mine, but a few still get in. Although the spring in the bottle filler acts as a filter, too many hop flakes clog it up.
 
That's the only part about the dry hopping. All the floating hops. I usually have to re-rack and I end up losing more and more beer each time I do a transfer. This time, I didn't re-rack but siphoned through cheese cloth. Probably screwed up the beer because I know I added some O2 to the mix.
 
Robbw said:
This time, I didn't re-rack but siphoned through cheese cloth. Probably screwed up the beer because I know I added some O2 to the mix.
Siphoning through cheesecloth shouldn't add any O2 as long as your siphon is submerged which it has to be to work. That's assuming you put the cheesecloth on the 'inlet' of the siphon. Even if you put it on the outlet you can keep that below the 'wortline'.
 
Back
Top