Dry Hopping in Primary

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.

jagg

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
518
Reaction score
2
Location
North Central NC
I did Eds Haus Ale, it was an 11 gallon batch, I have it in 2 6 gallon carboys, thursday will be 2 weeks, I was thinking about dry hopping in there for 1 week then rack off and bottle, anyone see any negative effects of this, also would like suggestions on how much to prime with, being 5.5 gallons insrtead of 5, and what about using DME to prime with, rather than corn sugar? Any suggestions very welcome, this is my first Ag batch, and I dont want to screw it up, thanks in advance.
 
Sure, you can dry hop if you want. That will be pretty tasty, I think!

Priming 5.5 gallons instead of 5 is easy- if you normally use 5 ounces of priming sugar, use 5.5 ounces of priming sugar. For DME, I use 1 1/4 cups to prime 5 gallons. So, let's see, that's 1/4 cup per gallon. So, that would be 1 3/8 cups DME per 5.5 gallons. Check my math- I'm no math whiz!
 
On the priming, be sure to measure the volume after you rack to the bottling bucket so that you know what how much DME you need. Carbonation takes a little longer with DME than with dextrose, but it works fine. I always primed with DME, myself.


TL
 
Depending on what you dry-hop with (pellets vs. plugs vs. flowers) you will lose different amounts of beer. I just did an intensely dry-hopped IPA and probably lost between 1/2 and 1 gallon of my final product. I think it's worth the loss to get that great taste - but I think I will also modify my method next time to get as much as the beer as possible (instead of siphoning off into a bottling bucket, I may strain out hops and let the beer sit another day or two for newly stirred up yeast and sediment to settle).

Good luck! I am thinking of trying Ed's Haus Pale Ale myself - keep us updated on how dry-hopping it goes.
 
Thanks for the replies folks, just what I was looking for in an answer, and as always, you guys rock! I will definitely let you all know how it tastes, was wondering about using a hop bag to dry hop with, I have almost an ounce of Centennial pellets at 9.1% aa, and almost an ounce of whole Cascade at 5.1%aa, what do yall think about the hop bags? or just divide them up and dump them in? I will be checking back for the replies, thanks.
 
I was going to try to keep mine in bags, but they wouldn't fit through the opening to my carboy. I ended up just chucking the pellets and flowers in, and cutting the plugs into multiple pieces so they could fit through the hole.
 
Hi,
Dry hopping is fine in the primary as long as the primary fermentation is over. I usually do mine in the secondary, but either is fine. I prefer pellets because they are easier to bag (if desired).

Cheers,
Brad
 
Listen to what Beersmith said. If you dry hop in primary before fermentation is over, there is a good possibility that the hops could clog up your airlock/blowoff hose which could lead to some rather messy situations.
 
Yes, it is finished Im sure, airlock activity is 0, but I will check sg when I open the bung, I will carry on then Ill post tasting results when its ready, thanks guys.
 
Back
Top