Farmhouse Saison Dry Hop question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CelticBrew14

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2012
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Location
Exton
Brewed a half batch of a Farmhouse Saison and it calls for adding hops to the fermenter at 14 days. I was planning on putting them in a nylon bag. My question is two fold, how long do I leave it in and should I transfer to a secondary after that time of the hop addition? I am brewing this for two friends coming to a going away party in August and I want it to be true to form.
 
The amount of time into fermentation that you add dry hops really doesn't matter. What matters is how long you leave them in, and that you bottle as soon as that period of time has ended. 10-12 days before you plan to bottle/keg is a good time to dry hop. I just brewed a saison and left it in primary for 14 days. Then I transferred into secondary and dry hopped for 10 days before bottling.
 
Thanks, I wasn't sure if I should dry hop in the primary or secondary but I will definitely leave it in until I bottle. I am doing this one authentic by bottling in 375ml Belgium bottles with cork and wire. They are good friends. If I like this I have the ingredients on hand to do anther batch. Will the hops in the secondary cloud this at all? They are pellet BTW.
 
Leave the dry hops in for about 7 days (most american IPAs ive seen do this). If you leave them for longer than two weeks you will get some grassy flavor from leaving it on the hops too long. That being said, I've had beer that was dry hopped for three months that was excellent, so it depends what you want.

I highly recommend bagging your hops in the nylon bags. You'll have a mess when you go to rack to bottles/keg if you dont. weigh the bags down with a handful of glass marbles so they dont just float on the top for a week. Sanitize the bag and marbles.

I personally bag my hops with marbles, place them in a secondary, and rack the beer on to it. I always wait until primary fermentation is complete for this, 2-3 weeks. check your numbers and all. Plenty of guys on here dry hop in primary, so you can do that too, and save the effort of racking to the secondary.
 
Thanks, I wasn't sure if I should dry hop in the primary or secondary but I will definitely leave it in until I bottle. I am doing this one authentic by bottling in 375ml Belgium bottles with cork and wire. They are good friends. If I like this I have the ingredients on hand to do anther batch. Will the hops in the secondary cloud this at all? They are pellet BTW.

dry hopping usually clouds the beer up a bit. Saisons are almost always cloudy though, so no big deal.
 
Thanks for the advise on the marbles. I was also told to tie a string to the bag ( sanitized of course ) and leave that hanging out of the bung to make it easy to remove later. I am thinking of doing it in the secondary now for 10 days after I transfer. I can pick up flower hops if that is better. The recipe is calling for .5 oz Saaz pellet. What would be the equivalent in flower?
 
My understanding is that the difference in pellet and whole hops mainly matters when using them to bitter, as utilizations are different. I would say use the same amount as called for in the recipe, but in my experience you won't get a very noticeable aroma contribution from 0.5 oz of hops in a 5 gallon batch. I would use at least 1-2 oz.
 
smiller said:
My understanding is that the difference in pellet and whole hops mainly matters when using them to bitter, as utilizations are different. I would say use the same amount as called for in the recipe, but in my experience you won't get a very noticeable aroma contribution from 0.5 oz of hops in a 5 gallon batch. I would use at least 1-2 oz.

It is a half batch of 2.5 gallons. The original recipe called for 1 oz at 5 gallons. I cut everything in half and confirmed it with brew pal. I have no issue hopping heavier though.
 
Cutting it in half would be correct, but if you don't have any problems with hopping heavier, I would go with 1 oz for a 2.5 gallon batch. It wouldn't give you as heavy of a hop aroma as an American IPA/DIPA, but it would lend to a nice hop presence IMO.
 
CelticBrew14 said:
Thanks, I wasn't sure if I should dry hop in the primary or secondary but I will definitely leave it in until I bottle. I am doing this one authentic by bottling in 375ml Belgium bottles with cork and wire. They are good friends. If I like this I have the ingredients on hand to do anther batch. Will the hops in the secondary cloud this at all? They are pellet BTW.

Except I thought you were sending those to me dad! Having them in the Belgian bottles should be really cool though.
 
Back
Top