What's your dry hopping technique?

I'm 4 batches into making all grain and I'm starting to make some darn fine beer, even if I say so myself. For now I'm trying to perfect an IPA before I move onto other styles (only because it's the style I'm most familiar with). However I cannot get any noticeable aroma from dry hopping. Last time I threw in 4 oz into the secondary (5 gallon batch). Here's my method:

- Primary 10 to 14 days + cold crash 3.
- Move to secondary, add gelatin + dry hop (pellets). 10 days then cold crash for 3. Bottle. Wait 3 weeks, chill for 1 week. Drink.

This produces crystal clear beer, but no aroma. I'm thinking of either reducing the time in secondary, or adding the dry hop later.

I have never dry hopped with pellets before maybe the less surface area gives you less hop aroma. We will let someone chime in that has used both methods before

If you dry hop with pellets without a hop bag make sure you filter into your bottling bucket. You can clog up a spring loaded bottle filler pretty quickly.

What kind of hops are you using? For the ten days of dry hopping what temp are you at? The warmer it is the more it will extract from the hops.

For my DFH clone, I only use 1.5 ounces of dry hops and get plenty of aroma. Four ounces should be almost overpowering. I assume you're using fresh hops (not ancient ones from years ago) and "good" dryhopping hops?

I've never used gelatin, so I can't speak to the effect that may have.

Vinnie and Russian Rivers preaches that you should dry hop multiple times. say dry hop for 5 days with an ounce, remove (easy for him with a conical ) dry hop again for 5 days with another ounce and maybe even a third time.

It's just a hop to the left!

And then a step to tha' ri-iii-ght!

Put your hands on your hips, and then you hold on ti-iiight........

Pay close attention to the hop you are using and it's Beta levels.

Tonedef131 said:

What kind of hops are you using? For the ten days of dry hopping what temp are you at? The warmer it is the more it will extract from the hops.

Click to expand...

2oz Centennial + 2oz Simcoe at 65 degrees for 10 days, then 3 days at 38. I'm using pellets (no hop bag). Before I transfer to the bottling bucket I run off about 1/2 a pint of hop gunk so that nothing gets into the bottles.

I dry hop a lot of my beers, this is what seems to get me the most flavor and aroma for me:

- rack to secondary after a 10-14 day primary (assuming FG has been reached)
- leave the beer in secondary carboy for 1 full week.
- add dry hops (I prefer whole leaf, no bag) to the carboy and leave for another week
- rack to keg or bottling bucket and wait for 3 weeks to age/carbonate

I don't crash cool or use gelatin, I only use whirfloc or IM in the boil. The beer is almost always clear by the time I put in the dry hops. The thing that seemed to make the biggest difference for me was waiting the first week in secondary before adding the hops - by that time there is no significant CO2 being released to carry out the aroma from the hops. Then the beer goes straight off the hops and into the keg or bottle.

I'm not too familiar with using gelatin, but if you are adding pellet hops and the gelatin together, maybe it's grabbing the hop particles and pulling them down before they have enough contact time with the beer? I agree that you should be getting something from 4oz, I've done 2oz before and got plenty of flavor and aroma.

With your dual cold crashing do you really think you need the gelatin? I made a perfectly clear IPA with a good cold break and an extended primary, no cold crashing, no gelatin.

Not coming ffrom experience, so take it for what you will.

My first attempt at dry hopping in secondary was not great. Just not much aroma. I used 1 oz of centennial or cascade.

This last time I tied a bag to the dip tube of my corny and put the hops in there. Hopefully they will not break loose. Should be getting close to serving time in next few days (still way too young though).

Since I rarely use secondaries, I dry hop with pellets directly into the primary at the end of fermentation for ~10 days. Then I put a paint/grain bag over my racking cane and rack it into the bottling bucket to filter out all of the junk.

at week 2 I throw hops in primary,(no hop bag) then at week 3 I crash cool it for a week. it always settles out,pellets or cones.

I only use whole hops that a fresh for dry hop in secondary. It made a huge difference. I ususally order my hops from hops direct. Makes me think your hops may not be the freshest. Not sure of your source, but you may want to find one that deals in a high volume.

4 oz seems like a boatload of hops. I made up an APA with a great hop aroma and just tossed pellet hops into my primary about 5-6 days out from bottling. I guess it could be the gelatin, or maybe just lousy hops.

I dry hop in the keg with a hop bag and it's fantastic you dont lose any aroma over time.

Pat

Best way for me to dry hop in a keg is to clamp the bag on a 4-6 inch string to the inner lid, right on the inside of the pressure relief valve. That way you only have to remove the lid to lift out the hops, and don't risk contamination by reaching into the keg. I use the screw-tightened hose clamp jigga-bobs to attach the string to the relief valve.

3 things that have already been touched on;

1. Temperature, Vinnie suggests getting the temp up to 72 degrees for dryhoppping.

2. Multiple additions, Vinnie also suggests adding smaller amounts of hops over several days. Try mixing varieties.

3. Gelatin, I definitely would NOT add gelatin at the same time as the hops. Gelatin is used as a fining agent after dryhopping. I add gelatin after my final cold crash.

Like this;

10-14 days primary
3 days cold crash primary
bring temp back up to 72 (36 hours with small space heater)
dry hop 3 oz. of hops every 3 days for a total of 9 days
cold crash 3 days
rack into corney bright tanks (dip tubes have been cut 1/4") hols at 36 degrees 3-5 days
rack into serving kegs and force carbonate.


Many different ways to go, just my .02

Eastside