Dry Hopping Tips

[ukbrewhaha]

Hi there!

I dry hopped my first beer about a month ago. Drinking it this weekend, I've managed to get a notable amount of hop matter in the final product!

Basically I ferment in a primary, and then normally bottle off the primary (bad idea I know), which I've had no problems with before, until I've dry hopped.

I used pellets and have heard they are supposed to drop out, but it seems they didn't - and a lot of them remained floating. I now have the capability to rack to a second (new purchase), but cannot cold crash due to lack of a fridge.

Should I in future do any or all of these?:

A) secondary and wait
B) some sort of filter when bottling
C) bag up the hop pellets (v fine muslin)
D) SOME TIPS I MIGHT BE MISSING

any suggestions welcomed

cheers

 

[CRoth36]

Don't worry about bottle off primary. That's the only way I do it. Well I do siphon it to a bucket first (siphon carboy to clean bucket). So yeah if you ferment in a bucket then transfer to a new one for bottling. As far as dry hopping goes there are several things you can do. I always just drop the pellets in there and then when I siphon I attach a hop bag or something to the end to help filter. You still might get a tiny bit in but no worries. I've heard of people also putting them in a hop bag and using a stainless steel nut in the bag to help sink it. Ill be trying this tonight with my IPA I got going. I would say just experiment with some things and see what works best for you.

 

[jstraight]

I dry hop in secondary with whole hops in a bag. I don't use pellets anymore at anytime as there was always too much residue even in a bag or sack.

 

[ukbrewhaha]

Yea it's strange, I was told that pellets were the easy solution, that they dropped really nicely, but definitely not the case for me.

I'm going to add an 'L' shape piece of tube onto my bottling bucket, so that it almost touches the bottom, maybe a piece of gauze there will work well?

 

[slippery]

I Like to transfer to secondary , use pellets , then cold crash for 48 hrs. Crystal clear beer !

 

[day_trippr]

When dry hopping in a fermentation vessel I always use pellets, and just dump them in and let them swim free. After five days or so I crash cool everything straight to the bottom (it does take a couple of days to hit 34°F) and then rack off to a keg. Easy as pie.

Otoh, when I dry hop in a serving keg I use whole cones in muslin bags. Toss the bag in an already chilled and carbed keg, leave it 'til the keg kicks...

Cheers!

 

[govner1]

I dry hop in secondary & have started using a SS mesh tube from Chad to control the gunk. I also use one if his hop baskets in the boil. Almost totally eliminates the gunk all around!

 

[Stauffbier]

Yea it's strange, I was told that pellets were the easy solution, that they dropped really nicely

Pellets will drop out nicely if you cold crash. I dry hop with pellets (sometimes I use a bag sometimes I don't) in the primary, then cold crash, then rack to bottle bucket. I don't use a filter, but since you can't cold crash it's a good option for you. I would also use a hop bag to dry hop if I were in your shoes.

I get some floaties in a few bottles, but I don't mind. Usually after the bottles sit in the fridge for a week everything drops and clears up.

 

[ukbrewhaha]

I guess until I can cold crash I should avoid pellets and stick to whole hops in a hop bag. Lesson learned right there haha.

 

[Boy]

Pellets and cold crashing work really well. You can also cold condition your beer in the fridge. After it is done carbing leave it in the fridge for a week. Should come out perfect.

 

[ukbrewhaha]

yea i've been doing that recently, I realised I don't plan when I'm going to drink my beer, and only pop it in the fridge an hour or so before I drink it. Will definitely start keeping a collection in the fridge and see if that makes a massive difference

 

[ricksam]

I recently tried a paint straining bag in the bottling bucket and it did catch the larger floating stuff but I don't know if it was really worth the hassle or the increased risk of exposing your beer to another potential contaminant.

 

[Boy]

I've thought about using a strainer or paint strainer, but heard(urban legend?) that the beer passing through the holes in the strainer or bag could cause oxidation. Really not certain about this but it seems to make sense.

 

[Stauffbier]

I've thought about using a strainer or paint strainer, but heard(urban legend?) that the beer passing through the holes in the strainer or bag could cause oxidation. Really not certain about this but it seems to make sense.

Urban legend for sure!

I use paint strainer bags for my dry hops in the primary all of the time. Just dunk the bag in star-san solution, ring it out by hand, fill it with hops, tie a knot on the top of the bag, and toss it in the soup. After a day or two I sanitize a set of tongs and grab the bag and dunk, swirl, spin and drop it back in. Then after a total of 7 days of dry hopping I pull out the bag with the same set of sanitized tongs. Then I package it up. Bottle or keg... Either way it's kind of cloudy on day one, but then it all drops out nice and clear after cold conditioning.

Easy peazy and delicious!

 

[Pappers_]

All you need to do is rack from your dry hopping vessel to a bottling vessel, leaving the hop matter behind.

 

[Stauffbier]

All you need to do is rack from your dry hopping vessel to a bottling vessel, leaving the hop matter behind.

While this is definitely true I like using a bag, because I can squeeze out all the hoppy goodness from the hops with my tongs.

 

[Shuasha]

After my dry hopping with pellets in my secondary, I just purge my keg with CO2, then filter the beer with a funnel and filter on the way into the keg. There's usually not much that gets picked up if I properly cold crash the secondary. I like the idea of the paint strainers, I'll probably look into doing that instead in the future.