Dry hopping

[JDesquire]

I just put 16 oz of various aroma hops for dry hopping in my maharaja clone which has been fermenting for over 3 weeks (meant to start dry hopping 10 days ago, but it was still actively fermenting and getting bubbles all the way until yesterday).



Question for the forum: last time I dry hopped with this much hops I put them all directly in fermenter and it was a pain to bottle because so much of the hop pellets kept getting clogged in bottling wand. As a result, this time I boiled a few mesh hop bags in boiling water for ten minutes (to sanitize) then put the hops in these bags and then added to fermenter. I'm planning on dry hopping for 7 days like this then bottling. Has anyone used mesh bags like this before? How did batch turn out? Any issues or off flavors?



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[goovaerl92]

So let me get this straight....you put 1 pound of hops in your fermenter for dry hopping?! To me that seems like a massive overkill and something that might produce some very grassy off flavors, but hey....it might be really good too!

As for the hop bags, Ive never done it that way but it might work pretty well. My only concern is that it might be a pain to remove the bags after you rack the beer off of them. What I usually do is just put a hop bag over the end of my autosiphon to keep most of the particulate matter out of the final product...it works well for me.

A word on the amount of time you dry hop: In my experience, dry hopping for seven days with large amounts of hops will result in very grassy flavors that don't really dissipate as the beer ages. I usually stick to the 5 day dry hop in order to maximize aroma but minimize stuff you dont want.

Cheers!

 

[David_Trucks]

Umm, 16 ounces?! That has to be a typo. We used hop bags for dry hopping, but did this in a bucket for secondary. We also only used 3 ounces of hops.


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[goovaerl92]

well three ounces sounds about right for sure...I would still stick to the 5 day dry hopping though, like I said before ive made some pretty gross beers largely by letting it go to long during dry hopping.

Cheers!

 

[The_Glue]

I've read that the temperature of Pliny is 60F-66F during dryhopping. Maybe that is why i got grassy tastes/smells after a week of roomtemp/~70F dryhopping.

 

[lousbrews]

If you do bags I found muslin bags to be the way to go and cheap for dry hopping. Also are you racking into a bottling bucker afterwards or not that will help a lot in minimizing particulates for getting in your bottles.

 

[Calichusetts]

Hop bags are super cheap...I add marbles to ensure they sink and create some space in there to let the beer flow through. There is no way you are going to get a good utilization of the aroma with a pound...too little of the hops will be exposed to your beer or it will expand so big that bottling will certainly be troublesome

As for the pound of hops: consider multiple dry hop. Maybe a small dose for 5-6 days but add a larger portion halfway through. Transfer, repeat. Will probably give you more of a pop of hop aroma.

I regularly use 1-2 ounces in my 1 gallon batches with no grassy notes. I think grassy notes are the new boogeyman around here. People associate it with everything: length of dry hop, amount, temp, etc. On nearly every post I read where someone says "doing x led to grassy notes." A day later, someone posts that they did the exact same thing with no ill affects.

Good luck

 

[unionrdr]

I dry hop 7 days with 3-4ozs of hops in muslin hop socks that I soak in Starsan & wring out lightly. No grassy notes so far.

 

[BierGut]

I have to assume that the 16 oz. were fresh hop cones, in which case the muslin bag would work great as long as you were dry hopping in a bucket or keg. I've had issues fishing them out of my 5g glass carboy after they swell a bit.

 

[Queequeg]

I use a tea infuser, it works amazingly well. Easy to sanitize, easy to clean, forces all the hop material to the bottom of the bucket, filters out most of the pellet. Its wicked.

 

[ericbw]

That sounds like a lot of hops, but the OP didn't mention the size of the batch.

 

[Calichusetts]

That sounds like a lot of hops, but the OP didn't mention the size of the batch.

I assume 5 gallons. When most don't mention their batch size, its 5 gallons or around it (5.5, etc)

 

[julioardz]

First of all, I've never dry hopped with 1 pound of hops. The most I have done at one time is 5 ounces for 5 gallons, and this is what has worked for me. I use to put the hops in sanitized muslin bags, then pull the sacks and ring them out after a few days of dry hopping. That worked great. Now I just put the loose pellets into the fermenter after I have reached a stable final gravity. I cold crash for a couple days, add gelatin, and hold at near freezing for a couple more days. All the hop matter compacts down with the trub and I get clear beer with not problems whatsoever when siphoning. However, I can only guess how 16 ounces of hops would do. I imagine it would work just the same with a bit more loss of beer to the hop and trub. It may require cold crashing for a bit longer as well.

 

[JDesquire]

What kind of "gelatin" are you referring to and how much do you use?


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[JDesquire]

What kind of "gelatin" are you referring to and how much do you use?



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[julioardz]

Regular unflavored gelatin from the grocery store works. I buy Knox brand and have successfully used the process in the link below countless times.

http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2012/06/how-to-clear-your-beer-with-gelatin.html

 

[Kate00]

I also use nylon hop bags. I weigh them down with marbles, soaking the marbles and bags in star san, then adding the pellets. I drop them straight in to the primary fermentor

 

[govner1]

I dry hop in secondary. I use SS mesh tubes from Arbor Fabricating.
I just put either whole leaf or pellet hops in for 3-7 days depending on the recipe.
When it's time to keg I slowly pull out the tube to allow it to drain.
Clean up is easy & the results are great.


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