Dry Hopping

[jaytee]

I currently have a pale ale in secondary fermentation in a carboy. I decided to dry hop the brew and added about 1/2 oz of cascade pellets. Being a beginner, I just dumped in the pellets. They disintegrated and are now floating in the top 1/4 to 1/2 inch of the brew.

WIll they ever drop out? If they stay there, I suppose I can carefully rack to the bottling bucket and avoid most of the hops (while losing a minimal amount of brew). Should I have used a 'hop bag'?

 

[cweston]

RDWHAHB.

Most of the pellet material will fall to the bottom--some may remain floating on top. Either way, it's not hard to avoid it when racking. You could try clamping a small hop bag over either the intake or output of your siphon if you're concerned about trub getting into the bottling bucket.

 

[mbreen01]

I definitely would NOT use a hop bag when dry hopping; you'll have one hellova time getting it out of the carboy after you've bottled (esp w/ whole hops that absorb beer and swell--much like my belly).

Marc.

 

[Exo]

I did the same thing...dry-hopped my PA with pellets. Don't worry, they will fall. A few chunks might get stuck to the glass, but that's just all the less you have to worry about transfering.

 

[jaytee]

Yay! Thanks all. It's got a while to sit there in secondary. I'll just let the hops fall where they may

 

[Passload]

How long is a while? How long can they stay in there? Does it need to be bottled before the aromomatics of the hops fade?

Cheers!
Justin

 

[Brewsmith]

Two weeks in the secondary is fine. Sometimes it takes several days, even a week or so, for the pellets to get hydrated and sink.

 

[Fatabbot]

Yay! Thanks all. It's got a while to sit there in secondary. I'll just let the hops fall where they may

If you rock the carboy very gently once a day, the hops will fall faster. Don't slosh anything around, but you'll be able to see the hop particles falling immediately after you rock it.