Dry Hop First Timer--Questions

Looking for technique tips again, this time on dry hopping.

I'm going to add some hops to my lager that is fermenting out nicely right now. (I'll be checking SG tonight to see where it is at) Not thinking ahead, I purchased leaf hops instead of pellet. I am using carboy as primary right now and usually keep the beer there until bottling day. I might rack into a secondary this time and dry hop it then.

I've read that pellet is preferred for ease of use in the carboy (skinny neck) and because it breaks down nicely in the end. With leaf, my first thought was to use a brew bag but then thought "wort-soaked leafs will probably plump up and be next to impossible to remove afterward. I was thinking of either dumping them in 'free-form' and dealing with the siphoning later. Or wrapping the siphon tube with the mesh bag. Or trying to keep the bag ends outside the neck of the carboy and push the airlock in, so the hops are suspended in the top of the wort.

Other than "use pellets next time"--anyone have any tips? And general timing preferences? Wait till fermentation is complete or nearly complete? Is the idea more of a 'let the hops soak in the beer' or 'have the hops ferment in the beer'? I guess different timings would effect a different taste somewhat.

Thanks.


Always learning,


Jeff

brew strong has a hole podcast about dry hopping

Dry Hopping

I've dry hopped with leaf hops many times. You can certainly just put them in, they generally float and thus are out of the way when racking for bottling until you get to the end. I'm a bit fastiduous and usually bag them, the bag is a bit hard to get out, but I use better bottle for secondary and the opening is a bit bigger than glass, so I have always been able to get the bags out after bottling.

Also, note that leaf hops float - if you bag them, the bag will float on the top and probably not do too much good. I always weigh down the bag using santized glass marbles. It takes quite a few to effectively sink the bag of hops - the hops are stubbornly bouyant.

I dry hopped with leaves in a carboy, and it was a lot of work getting that bag in through that skinny neck. We were worried about not being able to get the bag back out but after it sits in there for a week it tears really easy and then you can just rinse out the hops. We just did this on Sunday.

Here's a pic. And yes, I forgot the damn marbles!!!
http://gs93.photobucket.com/groups/l79/GG6N7QAWSW/?action=view&current=brewdone.jpg

I'm doing my first ever brew and the last step required dry hopping. I just dumped the 3oz of pellets into my carboy and racked straight onto it. After 7 days they settled some at the bottom but there was also a layer on top and quite a bit suspended in the beer itself. I was all nervous wondering what to do...as usual HBT to the rescue with tons of suggestions. I grabbed my newly puchased fine mesh hop bag, wrapped it around my autosiphon and racked to my bottling bucket.just remember to sanitize , sanitize , sanitize.
Worked like a charm! I have learned many lessons from this site but the best is...relax, have a homebrew.

I much prefer whole leaf hops (no bag) for dry hopping. The one time I tried dry hopping with pellets (no bag) I kept clogging the siphon with the hops sludge, it was extremely frustrating. They never did settle down and compact like trub does. The whole hops just stay there at the top and are easy to rack out from underneath.

You want the beer to be completely finished fermenting before adding dry hops. If it's still bubbling, it will scrub away a lot of the aroma you're trying to keep in there. Usually I'll rack to secondary, wait a week for it to stop gassing off then dry hops for the very last 5-7 days before bottling. This preserves the most hop flavor and aroma IMO.

Thanks, folks. Yeah, my siphoning technique will probably naturally keep a bunch of stuff out of the tubing, so I'll just go "loose leaf" and go with that. Looking forward to some hoppy goodness. Tasted it tonight when I did an SG test; 1.030 and dropping, so still a ways to go but very tasty

(brew house Pilsner kit)