Dry hopping

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For IPAs, I typically do 2.5 to 3 weeks initially without dryhops and then 1 to 1.5 weeks with dryhops. I've tried many other schedules over the years and I personally prefer this one the best.
 
If I can tack a question onto this one, I dry hopped for the first time yesterday by weighting my hop sack with a few SS screws (both boiled beforehand). When I dropped into the carboy, it sank to the bottom, so I thought I had added too much weight, but this morning it was floating on top of the beer. My questions are (and I'll continue to search the forum), should I just let it float on top or fish it out and add more weight to sink it? Do you agitate the beer by giving the carboy a gentle swirl while the dry hopping is taking place? It seems like this would be necessary to evenly distribute the hops.

Thanks,
John
 
If I can tack a question onto this one, I dry hopped for the first time yesterday by weighting my hop sack with a few SS screws (both boiled beforehand). When I dropped into the carboy, it sank to the bottom, so I thought I had added too much weight, but this morning it was floating on top of the beer. My questions are (and I'll continue to search the forum), should I just let it float on top or fish it out and add more weight to sink it? Do you agitate the beer by giving the carboy a gentle swirl while the dry hopping is taking place? It seems like this would be necessary to evenly distribute the hops.

Thanks,
John

You will improve your utilization if you sink your hop sack (provided the hop sack is not too small to allow the hops room to expand). You can gently swirl or stir your hops but this will only probably add fractions to your utilization.
 
If I can tack a question onto this one, I dry hopped for the first time yesterday by weighting my hop sack with a few SS screws. When I dropped into the carboy, it sank to the bottom, so I thought I had added too much weight, but this morning it was floating on top of the beer. My questions are, should I just let it float on top or fish it out and add more weight to sink it? Do you agitate the beer by giving the carboy a gentle swirl while the dry hopping is taking place? It seems like this would be necessary to evenly distribute the hops.

You will improve your utilization if you sink your hop sack (provided the hop sack is not too small to allow the hops room to expand). You can gently swirl or stir your hops but this will only probably add fractions to your utilization.

1) Screws are sharp on the ends and they will puncture your bag. If using a carboy, it may also prove difficult to dislodge the screws from the neck of the carboy since they might get caught.

2) Did you use pellet hops or leaf hops? When unbagged, pellet hops will all eventually sink whereas the majority of leaf hops will always float. A weighted bag needs to be heavy enough to keep leaf hops submerged. Screws don't seem to be that heavy unless you were using a ton of them.

3) Do not fish it out. Lesson learned. Either weigh it down more in the future, or skip the bag idea altogether. You will only be introducing unwanted oxygen by trying to fish it out at this point.

4) While not completely submerged, the dryhops are still offering flavor & aroma. I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've heard of the swirling idea urged, but I would personally avoid shaking once the dryhops are in. You don't want the hops to be coated with a layer of yeast and become less effective. You do want the yeast/trub/proteins to drop out, not to be in suspension. Time and gravity are your friend.

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A) A) Hop Utilization is typically used in the sense of IBUs, Isomerization, and Bitterness during the boil. With dryhops, the beer is cold. There is no more isomerization or IBU extraction going on.

B) I personally don't see any benefit in bagging pellet hops. They are my choice of dryhops. However, for weighted/bagged leaf hops in a yeast-cake free secondary, I can see the benefit.
 
A) Hop Utilization is typically used in the sense of IBUs, Isomerization, and Bitterness during the boil. With dryhops, the beer is cold. There is no more isomerization or IBU extraction going on.

Unless your utilization is steered toward aroma and not bittering (as in dry-hopping). What else would you call it if not "utilization?"
 
I understood what you meant. But it's kind of like referring to mash ph as "mph" instead of what people normally are accustomed to seeing it as, miles per hour.

I would call it more aroma, or more hop oil extraction.
 
I understood what you meant. But it's kind of like referring to mash ph as "mph" instead of what people normally are accustomed to seeing it as, miles per hour.

I would call it more aroma, or more hop oil extraction.

I get where you're coming from. But honestly, I find the word utilization used related to dry hopping as quite common. I suppose extraction works just as well but then we are off on a "I say potAto, you say potato" Louis Armstrong thing....:mug:
 
True. Utilization would be an okay word for it if "hop utilization" wasn't already a common homebrewing phrase related to the isomerization of IBUs in hot wort. Type "hop utilization" in the search on this website and you'll see what I'm saying.
 
True. Utilization would be an okay word for it if "hop utilization" wasn't already a common homebrewing phrase related to the isomerization of IBUs in hot wort. Type "hop utilization" in the search on this website and you'll see what I'm saying.

Type "dry hop utilization" and do the same. :p

My point is that utilization is a pretty broadly used term to express value related to efficiency. Isomerization of alpha acids for IBUs in beer doesn't hold a lock on the franchise. There is no "right" or "wrong" here. Utilization is a common expression used for both techniques. I (as an American) use different English words for certain things than my British friends, but in the end we are all speaking English and we understand each other perfectly well.

:mug:
 
Thanks for the replies and tips. The screws I used are short stubby machine screws, not pointed screws, so I'm not worried about them puncturing the bag. Although at this point, that might be a good thing...the hops swelled a lot more than I thought they would and the bag looks pretty full. If I could I'd take them out of the bag altogether. Oh well.

I used pellets. For my last dry hop (I just remembered this was my second dry hop, not my first), I just threw the pellets in but that beer ended up with a LOT of sediment so I wanted to try dry hopping in a sack.

There's no way I could fish it out now anyway...it's swelled so much I don't know how I'm going to get it out of the carboy! I tried giving it a poke with a sanitized rod, but I've decided to not mess with it anymore and let it ride. I probably won't get the most out of the hops, but lesson learned for next time.

I'm planning on bottling next weekend, so the dry hop will have been two weeks...maybe they'll sink by then.
 
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