Drop hopped.. should there be a thick top?

[lms94]

Hey,

I've just added the hop pellet directly to my ferementing bucket as I'm due to bottle in the next 2 - days.

I've just checked and there's a thick layer on the top..

Should that be there or should the pellets be breaking up and going to the bottom?

Thanks!

 

[shoengine]

I just bottled my dry-hopped (pellets) IPA. I had the thick layer of debris on top, and it is definitely caused by the pellets. When I disturbed the surface by moving the carboy, the layer diffused into the beer and it looked like little flakes. The smell was of beer and hops, with no sour aroma or taste.

I think that since the pellets were not boiled, the hop fragments were never broken down and mixed with the trub. Bottling was a pain because the fragments clogged the bottling wand, and if I do it again I will use a bag for the dry hops, or to do a racking through a filter, before putting it into the bottling bucket.

 

[lms94]

I've heard cooling before bottling causes then to drop to the bottom?

 

[bleme]

I always throw my dry hops in a bag with some marbles for weight.

 

[shoengine]

I've heard cooling before bottling causes then to drop to the bottom?

You can try, but since they aren't a part of the solution, changing the carrying capacity of the fluid shouldn't do much by itself.

 

[unviewtiful]

I've heard cooling before bottling causes then to drop to the bottom?

Cold crashing is a very common technique to encourage yeast to flocculate and other solids (hops in this case) to drop to the bottom. If you have the means, get your fermenter as close to freezing as you can for 24-48 hours.

 

[lms94]

I will cold crash it a day before bottling as I plan on siphoning it into another bucket to add the priming sugar anyway.

So the layer on the top is nothing to worry about as long as it doesn't clog up the siphon and such?

 

[shoengine]

I'd say no, but smell it and taste it. That'll tell you if you have something funky growing in it.

 

[Hayden512]

My dry hopped beers always have an inch of hop sludge sitting on top of it. Just siphon under it.

 

[catdaddy66]

I just bottled an IPA clone and dry hopped as you did, loose in the fermenter. I had a thick crust of hop substance for 4 days but it eventually sank and became a thick cap on my trub.

 

[Sbe2]

You can try and mix in some gelatin

The Gelatin Effect