Dry Hopping - Two Questions

I have my first extract batch brewed, and has been in my primary bucket for about 26 hours now (been bubbling away for most of that time).

I have two questions related to dry hopping:

1) I bought a Northern Brewer kit for EPA, 2 oz of Cascade for the bittering and 1 oz Cascade for finishing. I love hops aroma and as a beer drinker would like to improvise and add some finishing hops. Any harm from a brewing perspective in doing this?
2) I don't plan to do a secondary - just leave it in my primary bucket for 3-4 weeks. Can I just drop the hops into the primary bucket after about 2 weeks?

Thanks.

You can add hops at the finish, if you'd like. I love hops, too, but it seems like an ounce of cascade for finishing hops is adequate. You may want to consider dryhopping with cascades, though.

You can add your dryhops about a week before you plan on bottling your beer. You don't want to leave them for more than a week or so.

YooperBrew said:

You can add hops at the finish, if you'd like. I love hops, too, but it seems like an ounce of cascade for finishing hops is adequate. You may want to consider dryhopping with cascades, though.

You can add your dryhops about a week before you plan on bottling your beer. You don't want to leave them for more than a week or so.

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Thanks for the advice.

Are whole hops best for dry hopping, or do pellets work?

Pellets will work fine. You will actually lose less beer volume from pellets; whole hops will soak up a good bit of liquid.

I've never used pellets, but I get the impression they tend to leave a lot of (small) debris. I don't know if that debris floats like whole hops do, but if it does, I suppose it might not get left behind when siphoning...

There are plenty of threads here about how long to dry hop for, you can't go wrong dry hopping for a week, personally I do it for two but that's mainly because I do secondary, and follow the old 1-2-3 rule.

Have fun!

I just dry hopped for my first time with pellets. I put them in a big grain bag and left the top of the bag out of the opening of my carboy and put the airlock back on to hold it in place. Then when Im done ill pull the bag out and it looks like all the debris is contained. Hope it works; Ill let you know

I dry hop with PELLETS. I put them in LOOSE.

#1. They are pulverized, so all of that hop goodness gets infused into the beer.

#2. They settle out, completely in my case, leaving a nice clear beer to keg.

#3. I dont need to place anything over my syphon when I empty my fermentor, again, the pellet bits all settle out like the yeast.

#4. Pellet hops will expand, A LOT, if placed in a hop bag in a carboy, they may be tough to pull out. It also MAY, I say may, hurt the ability to get the hoppy goodness in the beer.