Am thinking about doing a little tweaking with my next extract recipe. It will be a Brewers Best English Pale Ale. I thought I may try dry hopping.The kit says the IBUs are 30-33, so I figure addingsome additional hops might give it a little more hop kick. This is how I figure on doing it, please let me know if this sounds right. When I transer to secondary I will throw a hop bag with hops right on top. Probably give it a week, then bottle. Question is also how many hops are customary to add for dry hopping? Should I use fresh hops or pellets? I assume fresh hops are readily available at my LHBS if I choose that route. Although I have been told pellets are just as good as whole. Also do I add similiar type that is already in the kit or experiment with a different kind of hops? Not sure if different ones would make it taste funky or not. Sorry for the dumb questions but I'm still a bit of a newbie (this is my 4th batch).
Dry Hopping
- Thread starter Gopher40
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Dry hopping is a pretty straight-forward procedure. It's 50/50 for what type (pellet, whole, plug) you use, but I've found that whole hops are a major PITA to get into a carboy, so I usually use pellets.
You've got the right idea with using a muslin bag, but some people (including me) toss the hops right in and use the muslin bag to filter out any hop/trub residue when bottling, so it's more a matter of personal preference. If you end up using pellets, give the carboy a gentle swirl every few days to allow the hops to settle. Also make sure you sanitize the bag before putting it in!
As for the amount of hops, it all depends on the recipe. For English pale, dry hopping isn't extremely prevalent, but Fuggles or Kent-Goldings and the like would work best if you're aiming for more hop aroma. I'd say around an ounce per 5-gal batch, and 7 days is the given norm for dry hopping.
You've got the right idea with using a muslin bag, but some people (including me) toss the hops right in and use the muslin bag to filter out any hop/trub residue when bottling, so it's more a matter of personal preference. If you end up using pellets, give the carboy a gentle swirl every few days to allow the hops to settle. Also make sure you sanitize the bag before putting it in!
As for the amount of hops, it all depends on the recipe. For English pale, dry hopping isn't extremely prevalent, but Fuggles or Kent-Goldings and the like would work best if you're aiming for more hop aroma. I'd say around an ounce per 5-gal batch, and 7 days is the given norm for dry hopping.
