Dry hopping and cold crashing with a conical

[cpferris]

Hey guys, this is day 8 of my primary fermentation in a conical. At first, I was thinking of racking to a carboy for secondary fermentation and dry hopping there, but after reading several posts here, it looks like it might be just as easy to dry hop directly in the conical and skip the secondary step altogether.

With the carboy approach, I was thinking of cold crashing the carboy in my kegerator before kegging. If I just leave the beer in the conical until kegging then there is no way to cold crash as my conical wont fit into my kegerator.

Few questions:

1. Can you cold crash in the keg before carbonating? If so, I could drain the conical to the keg then throw the corny in the kegerator.

2. Should I just not worry about the cold crash at all? I did use irish moss during the boil.

3. Aside from perhaps gaining some clarity out of moving to secondary, is there any other benefit of racking to a secondary other than freeing up the conical for my next batch?

4. Lastly, with dryhopping, I have to add 3oz of citra today for dryhopping. i have pellets and currently do not have a hop bag. Would I just remove the lid from the conical and sprinkle the pellets evenly across the top of the beer then put the lid back?

This was my first all grain batch ever, and I missed on my efficiency, so I am not expecting perfection at this point. That being said, I am more inclined to just drop the pellets directly and "let it happen". Hopefully with the conical, they will mostly drop anyway.

Thoughts?

 

[fartinmartin]

On point four, the pellets will sink, then disintegrate, then float to the top forming a thick layer, in their own time they will sink back into the brew and eventually sediment on top of the yeast bed.
And smell terrific in the beer

I see airlock activity gets going again when the hops go in

 

[MichaelBD]

Wow cpferris, we're pretty much on the same boat equipment and timeframe wise.

This is my life's first batch of beer, and here's what I've done and what I'm planning to do:

I'm making an IPA with pilsner malt and a bit of Vienna. Hops was just a combination of Chinook and Cascade. Used Safale US 05 yeast (pitched 11.5g dry without hydration, but aerated wort with pure oxygen for approximately 1min).

Note: Since this is my first time brewing, I did forget to let the wort settle, cool down to fermentation temp after chilling, and dumping the cold break before pitching. I pitched after a single pass with the Therminator (did not take a temp reading, but I would estimate the wort to be at 25C after feeling the hose at the chiller's outlet)

List of things done
1. primary fermentation in the conical (7 days) @ 18C
2. dumped trub (right after primary is done) and dry hopped 0.5oz of cascade (I know I should've hopped much more...)
3. secondary fermentation in the conical (7days) @ 17C
4. cold crashing the conical @ 0C (just set the temp controller last night and right now it has cooled down to 8C)

List of things about to do
1. leave the conical at cold crashing temp for 3 days and then dump material
2. rack to keg and force carbonate with CO2 (shaking method)
3. store keg in the fridge @ 0-5 degrees for a 2-3 days
4. DRINK!

I hope your beer turns out great!

 

[cpferris]

Wow cpferris, we're pretty much on the same boat equipment and timeframe wise.

This is my life's first batch of beer, and here's what I've done and what I'm planning to do:

I'm making an IPA with pilsner malt and a bit of Vienna. Hops was just a combination of Chinook and Cascade. Used Safale US 05 yeast (pitched 11.5g dry without hydration, but aerated wort with pure oxygen for approximately 1min).

Note: Since this is my first time brewing, I did forget to let the wort settle, cool down to fermentation temp after chilling, and dumping the cold break before pitching. I pitched after a single pass with the Therminator (did not take a temp reading, but I would estimate the wort to be at 25C after feeling the hose at the chiller's outlet)

List of things done
1. primary fermentation in the conical (7 days) @ 18C
2. dumped trub (right after primary is done) and dry hopped 0.5oz of cascade (I know I should've hopped much more...)
3. secondary fermentation in the conical (7days) @ 17C
4. cold crashing the conical @ 0C (just set the temp controller last night and right now it has cooled down to 8C)

List of things about to do
1. leave the conical at cold crashing temp for 3 days and then dump material
2. rack to keg and force carbonate with CO2 (shaking method)
3. store keg in the fridge @ 0-5 degrees for a 2-3 days
4. DRINK!

I hope your beer turns out great!

Michael, it does look like we are on the same path. I was attempting all citra ipa, but missed on my efficiency, so I am probably dealing more with a lighter bodied IPA or session ale at this point. I also pitched Safale US05.

Couple quick questions, why did you dump the trub after primary fermentation? I am assuming you just opened the bottom valve on your conical until it poured clear? I did not do this step, but just figured I would rack to keg directly from the side valve on the conical to hopefully avoid the trub.

Secondly, how are you cold crashing the conical? There is no way I could get it into my refridgerator. Which makes me think...here in Indiana it is about 25F, I wonder if I could just put my fermenter in my garage for a couple nights in order to cold crash? At night it may get as low as 5F though so I don't know if that is TOO cold or not.

Thanks for the reply and hope the ipa turns out great!

 

[MichaelBD]

I dumped the trub because since I already have a conical, it allows me to do a secondary fermentation within the same vessel. Also by dumping the trub abit on the early side makes it easier to dump post-dry hopping because my dump valve (the one at the bottom) is not a butterfly valve and it can get clogged. Nevertheless, there are several opinions out there with regard to secondary fermentation. Some say it makes a difference (i.e. clarity, taste, basically avoid autolysis), some say its not necessary due to the quality yeasts available in today's market and only increases the chance of infection and oxidation. But since we already have conical fermenters, I think we should just use it... may be good practice to start harvesting yeast in the future as well!

As for the cold crash, I'm lucky enough to have spare fridge which can JUST fit my conical inside. I checked last night and the temp is down to 5C (I doubt it can go further down, but I think it'll do)