Dry Hop Advice..

I recently bought the American Pale Ale II Extract kit from Morebeer.com (link: http://morebeer.com/view_product/18351/102178/American_Pale_Ale_II-_Extract).

It will be a 5 gallon batch and it came with the following hop directions and quantities...

2 OZ Cascade (Bittering 60 mins)
2 Oz Willamette (Flavoring - last 5 mins)
2 Oz Cascade (Aroma - Last minute)

Out of the box it seems this kit will have a nice bite...

Here are my 2 questions:
Is there any risk in going from primary to bottling bucket and bottling it for half the batch and sending the second half to a secondary fermenter and dry hopping? Does head room matter in a secondary?

Looking to make half "as directed" and tweaking the second half.

If it's ok to do what hops would you recommend and how much? How long in the secondary etc etc...

Thanks in advance

You sure can bottle half and send the other half to secondary for dry hopping. Head space won't matter in this case, as there won't be any additional fermentable sugars for the yeast to wake up with, just hops. As for how much hops to use, that's all a matter of personal preference on how much additional flavor and aroma you want. I would imagine dry hopping with another 2oz of Willamette would be good, but I don't really know.

Some people will complain about headspace...personally I wouldn't worry too much....

As for dry hopping, while I've only done it once, I've tasted a bunch of purchased beer that's dry hopped, and Cascade is my personal favorite. I used Cascade for my own dry hopping and it was great. With the Cascades as your aroma hop, I bet it just kicks that up a notch!

I think you'll be alright. APAs are the sort of thing that are supposed to hang around, so oxidation isn't a huge concern. Still, you need to be very gentle with it when you just rack it over to the secondary -- very careful.


TL

Sounds like a fun idea but personally I would find some gallon jars and use those for the experiment. My GUT says it's risky but you will probably be OK.

unless you're planning on harvesting the yeast from the primary, (in which case i would go to a secondary), just rack half to the bottling bucket and dry hop in the primary. it'll be simpler and you'll have no risk of oxidation, real or perceived. also eliminates another transfer and all the attendant issues.

will you get a dh better result if you go to a secondary? possibly, but it'll be awfully good in the primary....and easier...me likey easy.