Dry Hopping Strategy Questions

I have a SN Celebration Ale clone in the primary and a 1/2 oz of Cascade (whole hops) waiting for dry hop. It has been in the primary for 1.5 weeks, I planned to leave it for 3 weeks and then choose 1 each of the following options:

Choose 1:

1. Rack to secondary for dry hopping
2. Leave in primary for another week for dry hopping

Choose 1:

1. Sanitze hop bag, bag and stuff hops in and leave for 7 to 10 days
2. Skip hop bag and add hops directly to beer

Very interested to hear which combo of the above most people would choose...

If you add whole hops directly to the beer do you have issues when it comes time to rack to bottling bucket with hops stopping up your auto-siphon or is that only really an issue with pellets?

Been reading a lot of the old threads on this but would like to get a fresh opinion...

I've never used whole hops for dry hopping. The one time I dry hopped, I added the pellet hops directly to the primary. After a week, they had settled out. I had no problem racking to a bucket for bottling.

I have to say "it depends". If I'm planning a secondary, I'll add the hops then, but I never like to dryhop more than about 10 days. I often add the whole hops into the fermenter after primary fermentation is finished. They really don't interfere with the racking, but the can suck up quite a bit of beer! When I make a batch I'm planning on dryhopping, I'll often make 5.5 gallons so I end up with 5 gallons after the trub and dryhops.

You don't need to leave it in the primary for 3 weeks, you can with no adverse effects but you don't need to. I would transfer to a secondary and add hops in a sanitized hop bag. Make sure there is plenty of room in the hop bag because the hops will expand a lot.

Also,

xinunix said:

[*]Skip hop bag and add hops directly to wort

Click to expand...

At this point it's beer

xinunix said:

Choose 1:

1. Rack to secondary for dry hopping

Choose 1:

1. Sanitze hop bag, bag and stuff hops in and leave for 7 to 10 days

Click to expand...

I choose the first option in both cases. JMO, but a Celebration clone needs a couple of ounces for dry hopping. Just drank one tonight - brewed in January - still lots of hoppy goodness. That beer got an ounce of Cascade and an ounce of Centennial for dry hopping in the secondary.

I did secondary with whole hops added with no bag or nothin. Worked great. Save the sanitized hop bag to put around your racking cane when it comes time to bottle. That's what I did and only left a pint or so or beer in the secondary, minus what the hops had absorbed.

+1 on the SN celebration needing more than .5 oz of hops. It's really an IPA of sorts and my last IPA had 2 oz of dry hops in the secondary.

I would rack to secondary after 2 weeks (assuming it's at FG), let it sit for a week and then dry hop during the second week with whole hops directly (no bag).

That's just the way I like to do it. It may or may not be the best way. You're going to get every conceivable combination of methods, none right or wrong. They all will work, you just have to pick one.

I'm about to dry hop in secondary without a hop bag. But if you're planning on using a hop bag with whole hops, you might want to pick up a few stainless steel nuts or washers, sanitize them and throw them in the hop bag. That'll keep it from floating half in and half out of your beer.