Dry hop in a secondary or in the primary?

[NICK_M]

Hi all! So I just finished a IPA clone and is rocking out in the primary. My plan is to dry hop for five days when primary fermentation is almost finished. My question is should I do this in the primary or should I rack to a secondary? I know more people nowadays are moving away from racking to a secondary, but I would like to have a crystal clear beer without dealing with finings and what not. I did use Irish moss, but I'm not sure if I should be worried about other things like chill haze.

 

[chossy]

If I were you I would do it in a secondary, are they leaf hops?... just whack the hops into your vessel and then gently drain the primary into that. I think you will get a crisper cleaner hop aroma that way, throwing hops into the primary once it is mostly done for me doesn't sit right, as it has all the yeasty stuff there and krausen guff to contend with. Nothing wrong with doing it at the start when you first put it into the primary but later on.... I'm not sure how well or nicely that will work...

Someone with more experience can shed more light on it as I love a hoppy IPA and would like to know more too.


Slainte!

 

[fartinmartin]

Well there you go , we all do it our way, I would throw them in to the primary, then after three weeks rack off and cold crash.
The dry hop will disintegrate then float and eventually sink as sediment, for me only rack off when they have sunk.

 

[nukebrewer]

Nothing wrong with doing it at the start when you first put it into the primary but later on....

Well, actually... the beginning of fermentation is the worst time to add dry hops. The CO2 escaping from the beer will carry all the aroma and some of the more volatile flavor compounds away. Standard practice is to add them after fermentation is complete and whether it's in primary or secondary doesn't really matter. I personally don't care about doing a secondary so I add my dry hops to the primary. Additionally, in For The Love Of Hops, Stan Hieronymus says that recent experiments with dry hopping have shown that adding dry hops when the fermentation is almost (but not completely) done produces a unique hop character due to the yeast causing some chemical changes in the hop compounds.

 

[chossy]

Nice,

With the finishing pellets you buy they say just whack them into the primary straight away... I did this a few times and thought it was barely noticeable.

Whenever I dry hop I always put it into secondary, I just don't like the thought of all that stuff sitting around in my beer. I might try it in a primary... might...

 

[yeahfairly]

Well there you go , we all do it our way, I would throw them in to the primary, then after three weeks rack off and cold crash.
The dry hop will disintegrate then float and eventually sink as sediment, for me only rack off when they have sunk.

This^

You stated you wanted to "Dry Hop for 5 days when primary fermentation is ALMOST finished". Leaving your beer on the yeast for a while after fermentation is complete allows the little buggers time to clean up after themselves a bit and will help you achieve your goal.

I would dry hop in the primary.... After dry hopping I would rack the "Juice of the Gods" off of the trub in the primary and cold crash.... maybe add some gelatin if you want to get a little more clarity.

We all have our ways and preferences... but I see no reason to rack to a clean Carboy then add more ingredients that you are going to want to separate from your beer right before bottling or kegging. I can see racking off the trub into a clean vessel then adding ingredients that you won't separate before bottling.... like extract flavorings or VODKA! It seems like an extra unnecessary step to me that poses more hazards than benefits.

 

[Wulfman]

If you want to reuse your yeast it would be best to add to secondary. That way you can harvest yeast properly. Ive read the yeast dont like the fresh hop oils. I haven't had much experience to tell a difference, but that's what I read. Cheers!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[InLimbo]

My last IPA was the first one I've dry hopped in primary, and it was the best IPA I've ever made to date. In my opinion, you do more harm through oxygen exposure by racking your beer to secondary solely to dry hop than if you just dry hop in primary and don't expose it to O2. There is absolutely nothing wrong with dry hopping an ale that's sitting on top of a yeast cake AS LONG AS you aren't trying to harvest and re-pitch said yeast.