DRY HOPPING Q?.. how can i remove the hops without risk of oxidizing my brew?

[yeoitsmatt]

Im dry hopping with 1oz. of whole simcoe, and 1oz. of warrior pellets...after 7 days in primary the yeast were almost done (near the FG i want) so i threw them in with no muslin bags, tea balls, etc.... i was just curious how to remove the hop pellets from the beer without risking oxidizing my brew... i have a few ideas but i was hoping someone would have a better, more efficient method????

 

[yeoitsmatt]

*without risk of oxidizing my brew

(had to correct it, my mom would be disappointed)

 

[mcaple1]

patience.....and then a little more patience. let the hops drop out of solution, and then rack off the top. works like a charm.

 

[dcp27]

some will float, some will sink, just start racking from the middle and lower the sypon as you go and you won't get much thru. you can also cold crash it for a day or so to get it all to sink. some people also tie a muslin bag to the tip of the cane to keep hops out. others fit a strainer bag into the next vessel and once you're done racking you can lift it out and take the hops along with it.

i highly suggest waiting at least a few days after fermentation is done before dry hopping next time.

 

[Yooper]

Exactly! I do that all the time. Start your siphon in the middle of the beer, and gradually lower it as the level of the beer drops. I'm going to keg a beer tomorrow that has two ounces of dryhops in the carboy. Most of the leaf hops are floating, or at least soggy but floating under the surface. I'll just rack from the middle of the carboy, and lower the siphon as the top lowers.

I always dryhop for 3-7 days, so I add the dryhops 3-7 days before packaging.

 

[theonetrueruss]

let it settle for a few days after it is done. If you can cold crash. It will help everything drop down and compact. If you are using a freezer for temp control it is super easy to crash for a few days. Everything compacts very well. I think others do it in an ice bath but I've never tried that method. Anyhow, once it is cold and sits for a few days it will settle out very well. Anything else that gets into your bottles or keg will just be part of any sediment you have. It won't be a problem.

Note: this advice is mostly applicable to pellet hops.. I rarely use whole hops.

 

[shattstar03]

I used pellet hops once, the beer nearly exploded in my secondary, I'm thinking my head space was too small.

 

[calpyro]

Im dry hopping with 1oz. of whole simcoe, and 1oz. of warrior pellets...after 7 days in primary the yeast were almost done (near the FG i want) so i threw them in with no muslin bags, tea balls, etc.... i was just curious how to remove the hop pellets from the beer without risking oxidizing my brew... i have a few ideas but i was hoping someone would have a better, more efficient method????

If you put a Surescreen: Surescreen : Northern Brewer over the racking cane, i will filter the whole hops out perfectly. Combined with a carboy cap with CO2 port, you will be set.
I use the Surescreen for dry-hopping in a Corney keg. They work great.

 

[BrewKnurd]

i highly suggest waiting at least a few days after fermentation is done before dry hopping next time.

I have an alternate viewpoint to add to this. I've done it both ways, but never side by side with otherwise identical beers, so I can't say anything conclusive. But the other side of this argument is that adding hops is going to almost certainly introduce some oxygen to your beer. If you add at the very tail end of fermentation (i.e. <10% of fermentation left), the yeast are still active and may consume some of that O2, in addition to the scrubbing action provided by the CO2.

I believe the point that dcp27 was making is that waiting a couple days helps make sure that your hop aroma doesn't get carried out of solution with CO2.

So there's pros and cons to either. Like I said, I've tried both, and was not disappointed with the result either way. Its not so much HOW you dry hop, its THAT you dry hop, that matters.