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?



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[govner1]

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?



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

How are you going to get the bags out of your fermenter?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[bigdaddybrew]

I've done this. It worked well, no problems.

 

[JDesquire]

To get the bags out probably use pliers. I purposely divided the hops up into 3 bags vs. putting the whole 16 oz in one bag


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[masonsjax]

A full pound of dry hops? Wow! I imagine that will suck up a good portion of the beer, but whatever's left will smell amazing!

 

[brewmeister13]

You can save yourself the trouble of getting them out and just send 3/4 of the hops you would have used to me :fro:. On a serious note, when using this many hops, have you noticed a grassy or vegetal quality to it?

 

[JDesquire]

The last time no grassy or off flavors and I dry hopped 8 days. The batch I bottled, however, failed to carbonate properly (not 100% sure what went wrong, but I suspect I either did not use enough priming sugar to bottle and/or the majority of the priming sugar solution was at the bottom of the bottling bucket, which I discarded after getting frustrated with having to clean out hop debris from bottling wand ever few seconds) so I ended up with a big batch of what I've been referring to as "beer juice". Taste is good but not exactly "beer" IMO.

I will say, I just checked my recipe and I overstated how much hops used in dry hopping. Actually used 8 oz during boil/flameout and am dry hopping with 8 oz. (I am following a mish-mash of two extract versions of the maharaja recipe provided by Avery, with some additional corn sugar added to the boil to increase OG and ultimate ABV-- fell short last time of the 1.090 OG was shooting for; this time I hit it).

Not sure how this batch will ultimately turn out. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep the fermentation temp as constant as I was hoping and had a few days where it was fermenting at 70-72 degrees, which I think is too hot.

Will know in a few more days how the flavor turns out. Hopefully by bagging the hop pellets I can cut down on debris during bottling and end up with a more carbonated brew.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Shred]

Tie unwaxed dental floss to the bags and snap your lid/bung over the ends for easy retrieval.

 

[Brewtus_Maximus]

I've never had any issues of "off flavors" when using mesh bags to contain my dry hop additions. I have, however, noticed that dry hopping in mesh bags significantly reduces the aroma/flavor imparted by the hops. The last time I used a hop sock for dry hopping I noticed that when I took the hop sock out, IT smelled amazing, but the beer barely absorbed any of the flavor/aroma...

I've always had the best dry hopping results by adding hop pellets directly to the secondary fermenter. I say secondary because when I've added hops to the primary, it also seems to reduce the effectiveness of dry hopping.

I know opinions are like :cross: ... Everyone has them. But IMO the best way to dry hop is:

1) Only dry hop in secondary
2) Use PELLETS and not whole hops for dry hopping
3) Add pellets directly to the fermenter (no hop sock)
4) Use multiple dry hop additions

When I do multiple dry hop additions I usually split them up by about 5 days.. For example add 2 oz of pellet hops when it goes into the secondary, and then 2 more ozs 5 days later, dry hopping for a total of about 10 days..

Good luck and brew on brutha! :rockin: