Dry hopping in secondary?

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.

thenatibrewer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
144
Reaction score
0
Location
cincinnati
i just dry hopped my american pale ale in my secondary yesterday. i checked it today and the hops have covered the top of the beer, is that normal? will that settle out? will i have some "chunks" in my final product? any input would help. thanks.
 
I'm assuming that you're using whole hops and not pelletized form. In this case, the leaves will remain floating pretty much indefinitely. As such, when you're done dry-hopping, you'll want to rack to another vessel. Use a homemae racking filter, or a racking cane tip when you do so. Since the hops float, when you do rack, you won't have to worry about the hops clogging the racking cane until the very end. When you do get to the bottom, some hops leaves will undoubtedly clog your racking operation, thus slowing down the flow. Just keep going until you no longer have any flow, and then you're done. You'll certainly lose some amount of beer, but such is the life of a dryhopper.

I recommend not going directly to bottling from there. Let it settle for another week. Of course, a small amount of hop leaves will make it through the racking cane and into this tertiary vessel...but, when you rack from there into your bottling bucket the following week, chances are very slim that any of these stray leaves will make it into your bottling bucket. If they do, they'll probably float, so you can pick them out of the bucket with a sanitized handheld strainer.
 
But there really isn't anything wrong with hop pieces in your beer. I've bottled right from the secondary and almost got a piece in that last bottle.
 
i did not use whole hops, they were pellets. in that case what do i do? do pellets settle out better than the whole hops?
 
The pellets will sink...it's a good way to tell they've done their job. A good whirlpool into the bottling bucket should leave the hops in the secondary.
 
thenatibrewer said:
i did not use whole hops, they were pellets. in that case what do i do? do pellets settle out better than the whole hops?

Yeah, in that case, they will settle out. Then just use a tip on your racking cane, and you'll be fine.
 
what is a good whirlpool in your bottling bucket? should i create a whirlpool in my secondary then siphon on the sides? or is that over kill?
 
I have found that most of them will sort of settle. I use a filter ( hop bag) on the end of the auto siphon when transfering to the bottling bucket. I catches the larger particles.
 
is there a generally accepted way of getting whole leaf hops into a glass carboy of beer that is already filled? there is plenty of room, but how to get the hops in w/o a huge mess. thanks
 
man, my hop pellets never fully settled after 10 days in secondary....:(
If I had another carbouy I might have re-racked for a day or two to allow for further settling, but I'm trying to keep things cheap and simple for now.

Oh well, only the last few bottles had LOTS of hop pieces. And I'm not too worried. I sampled the progress 1 week post-bottling and I think this stuff is going to be liquid gold in a few more weeks! :ban:
 
ECOdork said:
I sampled the progress 1 week post-bottling and I think this stuff is going to be liquid gold in a few more weeks! :ban:

That's the spirit!!! Then you can just say - yeah, I meant to do it !!! Always take credit when the results are awesome :rockin:
 
'tis the beauty of homebrew!
:mug:
MA_Brewer said:
That's the spirit!!! Then you can just say - yeah, I meant to do it !!! Always take credit when the results are awesome :rockin:
 
Back
Top