Dry hopping in Primary

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phidelt844

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I'm about to dry hop Yooper's Dogfish Head 60 Min IPA clone. I have had only one beer prior that I had to dry hop, and due to not having any secondary vessel available, I just threw the hops in to the primary after ~3 weeks. This round, I do have a 6g better bottle available. Are there any real benefits, aside from additional clearing, to dry hopping in a secondary vessel? Does the trub absorb some of the flavor/aroma from the hops if it is done in primary? I normally skip the secondary and go 3-4 weeks primary straight to keg, and I would like to avoid the transfer if it doesn't make a difference either way... If I will notice an improvement by dry hopping in secondary I will certainly take that route, however. Thanks!
 
I almost always dry hop in the keg and do it a week before putting the keg on tap. That gives me the freshest aroma.
 
I have yet to do any dry hopping, but I vote for doing it in the keg. I usually let my kegs sit in the cellar for a week or so before chilling and carbing anyway. Any sediment left over from hop pellets will just get pulled with the first pint or two.
 
OK, let's see if I can explain this in a way that is semi-understandable.... As I understand it, the hop "goodies" will cling to everything in your beer, including the escaping CO2 during active fermentation. If you dry hop in primary, then you have much more stuff in the carboy in the form of trub, break material, yeast, etc that the hop molecules can attach to and be lost when kegging or bottling. Racking to secondary removed a lot of this material before introducing the hops, thereby "encouraging" more of the hop stuff to remain in the beer when it is moved to its final destination....
 
If you have the BB available, I'd transfer for dry hopping. The amount of dry hops used for an IPA combined with the trub from the primary might be hard to deal with at bottling time.

The beer will usually gas off somewhat after transferring, so I generally wait a day or two after transferring before adding the dry hops so I don't lose any of that great aroma out the airlock.
 
I'm in a similar situation, except I don't have a 6g better bottle available. I'm brewing an ultimate pale ale (I think it's like a double ipa) from my lhbs. I don't have the recipe available, sorry. I plan to let the wort sit in primary for about two weeks, then will dry hop for about 3 days, all in primary.

Couple questions:
1. Is 2 weeks before dry hopping ok? (I want to let fermentation end and let things settle)
2. Is 3 days dry hopping too short? Could I go to 7 days? (easier to bottle on weekends)
3. If I dry hop in my primary, will I have an unreasonable amount of crap floating around?
4. If I have a 6g bucket with a spigot, should I rack to that as secondary and bottle directly from that? My LHBS guys recommended not using a bucket for secondary, but I don't remember why.

Thanks. BTW, I did search the forum for my answers, but didn't find them directly.
 
I would leave it in primary for at least two weeks, but more than likely 3. Then dry-hop 1 week. You don't have to figure things down to the day. When I get ready to rack or bottle, it really doesn't bother me whether it is 2 early or 2 days late. I just make it easy on myself.
 
Thanks, both threads helped me. My IPA is in primary for 1 week now, I'll just leave in 2 more, rack to keg, dry hop there and let it sit for another week, cool and carb when ready. I'm going to have to bottle what's left of some pumpkin ale in my 2nd keg, just can't bring myself to drink it and need to make room for the IPA. :mug:
 
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