Dry hopping question

I typically let my beer stay on the yeast cake for two weeks before I keg it. This time, I was thinking of giving dry hopping a go. Once the fermentation process stops, I thought about putting 1 OZ of Sterling pellets in a tea ball and letting it soak for 3 to 4 days. Then next saturday (end of week 2) I would keg and force carbonate the beer.

Are there any reasons why this would be a bad idea?

By the way, This is an American Red Ale (very hopped up)

Thanks for the advice.

it will make it more bitter. which sounds like what you want. if you don't sanitize the tea ball you could cause an infection. other than that i cant think of any reason not to dry hop.

TipsyDragon said:

it will make it more bitter.

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You sure about that? May want to rethink and research more on what attributes dry hopping brings to the beer. Bittering is not one of them.

To the OP...sounds good.

really? thought thats why IPAs where bitter. the brits dry hopped while they where shipping it down to India.

the bittering occurs when the alpha acids react in the boil. If you have a program similar to beersmith plug an ounce of hops and play with the time it is in the boil, you'll see the IBU's go up as you increase boil time, this is where the bitterness comes from. You'll also notice that it doesn't effect bitterness or IBU's when you add dry hops in beersmith. The oils will disolve and add to the flavor when dry hopping so you'll get that "hoppy" flavor. You can have an IPA with a ton of hops and not a lot of bitterness, it just depends on where you add them during the process. Big difference in flavor, aroma, and bitterness.

While the tea ball is a good idea, it's definitely not necessary. Brew pub brewers just "toss" the pellets right into the fermentor post fermentation.

You could also re-hydrate the pellets with boiling water. Use just enough to saturate the hops. This will help release the oils from the vegetable matter. Just make sure you boil the water a couple minutes and sanitize your funnel.

So boil the water for say 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and add the hops to rehydrate them. Should the hops be drained before adding them into the beer? If it a small amount (only enough to saturate the hops) this should not cause and problems with the beer..... right? How long do you steep the hops before adding them into the beer?

Thanks for the info.

Salute!

The dry hop sounds good -- I've never heard of boiling the hops first but it's always good to try different ways of doing things.

if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just throw em in your primary after fermentation has completed or rack onto them in the secondary.

one thing you have to consider is that the added hops may make you sick. You run a very high risk of contracting hophedius maximus fatalus. Its kinda the homebrewers equivalent of herpes. There is no cure and you will never be able to enjoy a canned beer again. Speaking as someone who suffers from this condition i say use caution.

I'm no doctor..... But i did split a room at a holiday inn epress last night with a hooker, a wino and a midget in drag.

THERE IS NO CURE!!!!! You can only medicate with large amouunts of alpha acids for the rest of your life.