When to dry hop?

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Mitcha_aus

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Hey guys and Girls :)

Kinda new to this Homebrew scene so still trying to learn some basics..
im currently doing a amber ale and i would like to dry hop it using
cascade hops. Im going to use 25grams of Amarillo hops in my wort via Tea bagging. now the question i have is when should i dry hop my cascade hops? do i really need to move it to secondary or could i just place them in my primary? I know some of you will be shacking your heads thinking what a Newb but i truly have no idea. Oh and if i need to move it to secondary when is the best time?
Thanks in advance :)

Mitch

PS both types of hops are in pellet form
 
You'll hear lots of people on here say that they don't move from primary to secondary in a separate container to cut down on the possibility off contamination. I also practice this way of doing things.

Once your primary fermentation is complete as verified by steady gravity readings you can dry hop during or after secondary. I dry hop for five to seven days and this is done during the end of my secondary fermentation. So if my secondary is 14 days, the last 5-7 are for hop.
 
cool so i could leave my brew in the primary and just leave it in there for a further 14 days and treat it as my secondary without actually moving it into a second fermenter?
thanks for the quick reply :)
 
cool so i could leave my brew in the primary and just leave it in there for a further 14 days and treat it as my secondary without actually moving it into a second fermenter?
thanks for the quick reply :)

I dry hop mine after 1 week in the primary but I am fairly new to brewing and I am sure that everyone has their own way. I rack mine into the secondary fermenter to filter it but there are some people that don't use a secondary. That again is personal preference I suppose and would depend on how clear you want your beer to be ;)
 
I dry hop mine after 1 week in the primary but I am fairly new to brewing and I am sure that everyone has their own way. I rack mine into the secondary fermenter to filter it but there are some people that don't use a secondary. That again is personal preference I suppose and would depend on how clear you want your beer to be ;)

So would you move it into secondary before it finishes fermenting?
 
No don't move it before it finishes.
I don't secondary, I primary for a week or two then stick the dry hops in the primary for a week or two in a bag (attached to a coat hanger to help wedge it in so it doesn't float!), works great.
 
It's always best to wait till the beer reaches a stable FG & settling out well before dry hopping. I also use hop sacks to keep things clean & contained. The hop oils will coat the settling yeast if the beer is still cloudy. 7-10 days before bottling is the norm.
 
It's always best to wait till the beer reaches a stable FG & settling out well before dry hopping. I also use hop sacks to keep things clean & contained. The hop oils will coat the settling yeast if the beer is still cloudy. 7-10 days before bottling is the norm.

Interesting. I might wait longer than a week next time then. My current one is still bubbling every few minutes in the secondary at the moment.
 
unionrdr said:
It's always best to wait till the beer reaches a stable FG & settling out well before dry hopping. I also use hop sacks to keep things clean & contained. The hop oils will coat the settling yeast if the beer is still cloudy. 7-10 days before bottling is the norm.

So would I leave the hop bag in there for 7 days or so right up until I bottle or take it out earlier?
 
Leave it in right up until you're going to transfer it to the bottling bucket with the priming solution. I also have a good way to get those muslin hop sacks clean as new again. Untie them,then turn them inside out into a garbage bag (I use the plastic grocery bags) to keep the dog away from'em. Then rinse'em out under the faucet. Fill a small sauce pan about half way or more with water,& drop the sacks in. When it comes up to a heavy simmer,set the timer for 1 hour. Then get a small tupperware container with a tight lid,drain,& drop them in. Fill to cover with PBW solution,cover,& give'em a week. Then rinse,sqyeeze out,& hang to dry. They should be clean as new. Works with muslin grain sacks too.
 
unionrdr said:
Leave it in right up until you're going to transfer it to the bottling bucket with the priming solution. I also have a good way to get those muslin hop sacks clean as new again. Untie them,then turn them inside out into a garbage bag (I use the plastic grocery bags) to keep the dog away from'em. Then rinse'em out under the faucet. Fill a small sauce pan about half way or more with water,& drop the sacks in. When it comes up to a heavy simmer,set the timer for 1 hour. Then get a small tupperware container with a tight lid,drain,& drop them in. Fill to cover with PBW solution,cover,& give'em a week. Then rinse,sqyeeze out,& hang to dry. They should be clean as new. Works with muslin grain sacks too.

Thanks dude you've been a massive help
:)
 
Understand this is an older post, but still useful -

Im dryhopping 1 oz chinook leaf, 1 oz pellets in primary fermenter. Was thinking of putting at least the leaf hops into a muslin bag weighted by a sanitized shot glass to weigh it down.

I'll probably get different response based on preference but my questions are, recommend to put both hop types in same bag? put each hop type in different bags? just pitch pellets and bag the leaf hops?

Thanks.
 
Understand this is an older post, but still useful -

Im dryhopping 1 oz chinook leaf, 1 oz pellets in primary fermenter. Was thinking of putting at least the leaf hops into a muslin bag weighted by a sanitized shot glass to weigh it down.

I'll probably get different response based on preference but my questions are, recommend to put both hop types in same bag? put each hop type in different bags? just pitch pellets and bag the leaf hops?

Thanks.

This is just my opinion but I think that a muslin bag will be too restrictive and won't let the beer and the hops interact. I've put the hops in with no bag and then wrapped a paint strainer bag around the inlet of my autosiphon when racking to the bottling bucket to keep the hops out.
 
Whole leaf hops make a huge mess. I prfer to use muslin grain bags for whole leaf hops & the regular muslin sacks for pellet hops. either way,no more than 1 ounce in either bag to allow decent flow through. Grain bags are needed for whole leaf,as their mass is a couple times that of pellets when wet.
 
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