Dry-hopping question

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darogo

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Hey there,
I just did a partial-mash IPA and I dry-hopped the heck out of it - 3 ounces of hop leaves for a 5 gallon batch.

The bags and leaves sucked up a bunch of the liquid, so when i transferred it to my bottling bucket, I came out with a bunch less, maybe 1/2 gallon or so less than the 5 gallons. Would you use water to fill back up to the 5 gallon level?

Thanks.

Dave
 
I would not add water (you can though...). but in the future you can squeeze the hop bags to get a lot of the beer/wort out. Also just start with 5.5gal and just should be closer next time...
 
You can, but I wouldn't bother. A half gallon loss isn't too bad and if you add water now you may just end up altering the overall flavor some, a slight chance of introducing a contaminant, etc. But I'd regularly come up a little under 5 gallons on my batches come bottling time and just rolled with it. A couple less bottles wasn't the end of the world.

If you do add water, as long as it's sanitized (boiled tap water, from a jug, etc.) there shouldn't be any major issues.
 
thanks fellas. next time i'll fill it up to 5.5 gallons. i did end up adding more water, but like you said, marubozo, now i'm afraid i've altered the taste. and i guess it could be slightly less in alcohol as well if my leaves and two grain bags sucked up a bunch of the liquid and now i'm adding more water. dang. live n learn i suppose...

thanks for the replies...
 
darogo said:
thanks fellas. next time i'll fill it up to 5.5 gallons. i did end up adding more water, but like you said, marubozo, now i'm afraid i've altered the taste. and i guess it could be slightly less in alcohol as well if my leaves and two grain bags sucked up a bunch of the liquid and now i'm adding more water. dang. live n learn i suppose...

thanks for the replies...
Click to expand...

I regularly brew 5.5 gallon batches to make up for this loss, it's not a bad way to go.
 
so when you use 5.5 gallons instead of 5 gallons, you use a blow-off tube rather than an airlock? seems to me that's asking for a blow up. i'm using your standard 5 gallon plastic fermenter and a typical glass carboy for secondary...
 
darogo said:
so when you use 5.5 gallons instead of 5 gallons, you use a blow-off tube rather than an airlock? seems to me that's asking for a blow up. i'm using your standard 5 gallon plastic fermenter and a typical glass carboy for secondary...
Click to expand...

Well, if you're using an existing recipe, you should do whatever it calls for. Just adding more water to a preset amount of ingredients will change the intended outcome.

So, if your recipe is for 5 gallons and you just add a half gallon of water to it so you can recover it come bottling time you've already diluted your beer some. You'll get more bottles in the end, but the beer might not be exactly what the recipe called for.

If you brew for the specified 5 gallons and lose some to trub and dry hopping you'll end up with a few less bottles or finished beer, but the end result should stay true to what the recipe intended to create.

The way around this is to alter your recipe by adding more ingredients to offset the additional final volume you're looking to finish with so that losing some beer during the process will still yield a full 5 gallons. If you can't do this right now, no worries.

In the end, if you're off by about a half gallon you're only shorting yourself about 5 bottles of beer. Granted, adding water to dilute those 5 bottles isn't a ton, but by the time the beer is done fermenting and ready to go I say just cut your losses and roll with it and plan accordingly for next time if you can. :mug:
 
darogo said:
so when you use 5.5 gallons instead of 5 gallons, you use a blow-off tube rather than an airlock? seems to me that's asking for a blow up. i'm using your standard 5 gallon plastic fermenter and a typical glass carboy for secondary...
Click to expand...

I use a 6 gallon bucket and a blow-off tube. Gluten free brewing must be a little different since I've not had any major major blow-offs. And like the guy above mentioned, I formulate all of my recipes to be 5.5 gallons rather than adding just another .5 gallons to make up the difference. You can use beersmith or other programs to scale up or down your recipes.
 
thanks, icasanova. i didn't realize there were programs to help you convert like that. i've always lost some liquid to trub, but didn't seem like enough to warrant changing anything around. adding so many more hops throughout the brew and then the addition of the 3 oz at the end really seemed to make a big difference. maybe i'll pick up a bigger bucket and use the conversion program for next time. the price seems worth it. thanks very much...
 
marubozo said:
Well, if you're using an existing recipe, you should do whatever it calls for. Just adding more water to a preset amount of ingredients will change the intended outcome.

So, if your recipe is for 5 gallons and you just add a half gallon of water to it so you can recover it come bottling time you've already diluted your beer some. You'll get more bottles in the end, but the beer might not be exactly what the recipe called for.

If you brew for the specified 5 gallons and lose some to trub and dry hopping you'll end up with a few less bottles or finished beer, but the end result should stay true to what the recipe intended to create.

The way around this is to alter your recipe by adding more ingredients to offset the additional final volume you're looking to finish with so that losing some beer during the process will still yield a full 5 gallons. If you can't do this right now, no worries.

In the end, if you're off by about a half gallon you're only shorting yourself about 5 bottles of beer. Granted, adding water to dilute those 5 bottles isn't a ton, but by the time the beer is done fermenting and ready to go I say just cut your losses and roll with it and plan accordingly for next time if you can. :mug:
Click to expand...

This is good advice. I would hate to think that I diluted the effect of my dry hopping.

The only thing that would remotely be acceptable if you were to brew 1/2 gal of hop-tea made from a french coffee press filled with hops.

I don't think I would bother with this at all, unless it was used it to make a priming solution, after the tea was made. No doubt, the end result would still be quite different.
 
thanks for the tip schlenkerla. i'll keep that in mind next time.

on a side note, we went to bamberg strictly because of the rauchbier. such a great time at schlenkerla, spezial, mahrs. whew... i may have to try to make a rauchbier sometime...
 
darogo said:
thanks for the tip schlenkerla. i'll keep that in mind next time.

on a side note, we went to bamberg strictly because of the rauchbier. such a great time at schlenkerla, spezial, mahrs. whew... i may have to try to make a rauchbier sometime...
Click to expand...

I worked in Bamberg for 5 years (Warner Barracks).

Spent much time in the gasthaus there:

Schlenkerla - Rauchbier
Fassla - special starkbier (strong beer)
Klosterbrau - lightly smoked brew
Maiselbrau - lunches about 2-3 time per week for 5 years :mug:...original in Bayreuth...
Greifenklau - up on the hill for dinners
Mahrs - only a couple of times, I didn't care for their brews :eek:
Kaiserdom - great lager.
Keesman - available almost everywhere outside of town...
Spezial - across the street from Fassla...streetfest beer...
 
I use a 6.5 gallon glass carboy. I like to see what's going on and I fill it up to 5.5 gallons in the primary. No need for blow off as it gives plenty of head space. Plus, you can tape on a fermometor and get a pretty good temperature reading. Once you go to glass, you won't go back to plastic.
 
sounds like heaven homebrewer_99! we had some amazing beer on that trip. i can't wait to go back. you worked in a great spot.

mw66, that's a good idea. i guess i've only ever used the standard plastic bucket for fermenting, as it's easy enough to flip the switch and drain out the liquid into the secondary. i don't often make beers that i'm afraid will need a blow off tube - standard IPAs and ambers, barleywine - there's rarely an issue with the airlock not being enough. but this one was an imperial ipa so there was more of everything, hence the blowoff tube that i didn't even need.

but i do kinda like the idea of primary fermenting in a 6.5 gallon cabory. i always lose some to trub, so i can sleep easy knowing i won't have to worry should i increase my recipes to compensate. also, it would be cool to check out what's going on in the primary. i'll think about that one. thanks!
 
darogo said:
Hey there,
I just did a partial-mash IPA and I dry-hopped the heck out of it - 3 ounces of hop leaves for a 5 gallon batch.

The bags and leaves sucked up a bunch of the liquid, so when i transferred it to my bottling bucket, I came out with a bunch less, maybe 1/2 gallon or so less than the 5 gallons. Would you use water to fill back up to the 5 gallon level?

Thanks.

Dave
Click to expand...

I personally never add extra water at any point after sparging in the brewing process. Your beer will still be good, no doubt, but next time just make a bigger batch. Personally I calc all my recipes for 6 gallons....I almost always brew hop forward beers so I lose a lot after the boil to hop sediment and to dry hopping.
 

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