ErkenneDichSelbst
Active Member
I'm currently making my first IPA and I have a couple of questions about dry hopping. It's been in the primary (plastic bucket) for two weeks today and I was getting ready to rack to the secondary (glass carboy) and dry hop today when I realized that I had seriously over looked exactly how I was going to make it work (which believe it or not is pretty uncharacteristic for me, I'm usually overly methodical). I have a nylon mesh bag filled with two oz. of whole leaf hops when I realize that there's no way it will fit through the mouth of the carboy to rack on top of. I tried putting the bag into the carboy and then stuffing the hops in but there's so little room to work and it's a lot of hops, I tried rolling the bag really tightly and stuffing it in but couldn't get it narrow enough. So...I ended up adding the bag to the primary, and that's where I am at currently.
My questions are, is there any way I haven't thought of to get two oz. of whole leaf hops in a mesh bag fed through the neck of the carboy, do people usually use pellets or a tool I'm not familiar with? rack into another plastic bucket for secondary to accommodate dry hopping? Will 14 days fermenting and then seven dry hopping in the primary result in a less than ideal tasting IPA? Is there some other method that I'm totally oblivious to? I racked my brain trying to figure out how to get that nylon bag into the glass carboy and I'm pretty sure it isn't happening...
My wife said she can sew a nylon bag with draw-string identical to the one I bought at my local shop about an inch and a half wide and a foot or more long that I feel I could use in the future. It seems it would allow me to snake the bag with two ounces or more all the way down to the bottom of the carboy, are there any issues with how much liquid would be in contact with the hops if I tried this? does it sound worthwhile?
I know that's a tad long for a first post and any and all feedback is appreciated. I'm located in Kingwood, TX. right outside of Houston, I've got a couple batches of simple ales under my belt, but am completely new to dry hopping. My gravity readings have the IPA at 8.2% ABV and it smells absolutely ridiculous, just not sure what I should do about secondary/dry hopping, so as it stands I'll rack to the carboy to bottle out of in a week after 14 days in the primary with another seven in the primary dry-hopping unless I pick up some other ideas, thoughts?
I'm happy to provide more info (as if that wasn't a little much) to get help.
Thanks in advance,
JG
My questions are, is there any way I haven't thought of to get two oz. of whole leaf hops in a mesh bag fed through the neck of the carboy, do people usually use pellets or a tool I'm not familiar with? rack into another plastic bucket for secondary to accommodate dry hopping? Will 14 days fermenting and then seven dry hopping in the primary result in a less than ideal tasting IPA? Is there some other method that I'm totally oblivious to? I racked my brain trying to figure out how to get that nylon bag into the glass carboy and I'm pretty sure it isn't happening...
My wife said she can sew a nylon bag with draw-string identical to the one I bought at my local shop about an inch and a half wide and a foot or more long that I feel I could use in the future. It seems it would allow me to snake the bag with two ounces or more all the way down to the bottom of the carboy, are there any issues with how much liquid would be in contact with the hops if I tried this? does it sound worthwhile?
I know that's a tad long for a first post and any and all feedback is appreciated. I'm located in Kingwood, TX. right outside of Houston, I've got a couple batches of simple ales under my belt, but am completely new to dry hopping. My gravity readings have the IPA at 8.2% ABV and it smells absolutely ridiculous, just not sure what I should do about secondary/dry hopping, so as it stands I'll rack to the carboy to bottle out of in a week after 14 days in the primary with another seven in the primary dry-hopping unless I pick up some other ideas, thoughts?
I'm happy to provide more info (as if that wasn't a little much) to get help.
Thanks in advance,
JG