Dry Hop in Primary Bucket

I've searched the internet and found many opposing opinions on what I should do for my first dry-hopped IPA. I have some whole leaf cascade already wrapped in cheesecloth/muslin bag.

I ferment in the plastic buckets. I used a starter for liquid yeast and was fermenting aggressively (if that's a thing) right away. It's still only been about 4 days in the fermenting bucket but I want to be prepared ahead of time.

I'm worried about popping off the lid to my bucket to put the hops in either too early (not get the full contribution of the hops if still fermenting) or too late (and with lid right off bucket to put bag of hops, co2 escapes)

Also, before I put the bag of hop leaves in, should I give the whole bag a squirt of starsan/water mix? That would be hitting the hops directly though, not sure if that would wreck anything.

I know some people talk of racking to secondary. I have another bucket to use for this but again, I'm scared by the possibility of too much oxygen mixing in while I have the lids off the buckets that long to transfer so I just wanted advice on sticking the bag into my primary I guess...

Thanks! Look forward to the answers/suggestions..

 

I typically brew with whole leaf. I bought a dedicated coffee grinder for my dry hops. I mill them very fine and I dry hop in primary. If you can get your fermenter in the fridge, they will drop down into the yeast cake in a day. I don't like the hop bags, but if I used one I would use the fine nylon bags that can be sanitized.

Don't worry about sanitizing hops or anything. Almost every brewery in the world that makes an IPA dry-hops and I've never heard about an infection from that

 

As a rule of thumb for me, I just wait 3 weeks and know it's done fermenting. That is if I had a nice 65 or so ambient temp for ales. I rarely use a hydrometer unless I'm under the 3 weeks.

For dry hopping I would sanitize that bag first. No need to sanitize the hops. Bacteria in hops just doesn't happen I've read.

 

Just lift the lid enough to throw them in. If you wanna use a bag go ahead but that's something that will need to be sanitized. You can just throw them in just like they are.

If these things concern you that much then I would suggest getting a hopback. You can skip the dry-hopping and infuse the hop aromas directly into the wort at chilling. It works great and you don't have any extra steps once you're fermenting. I don't know what kind of setup you have going but a hopback will require some kind of CFC or plate chiller to be effective and a pump if you want it to go faster.

 

Thanks all for the comments.

If I understand correctly, I would :

a) if I let ferment normally for 3 weeks/21 days (just saying a number) then at two weeks/14 days, pop the bucket lid and toss in the hops? (If I want a week/7 days of dry-hop)

I know some say they wait until fermentation is done, but I was hoping there was still a bit of activity left, and that way it would continue to produce co2 so wouldn't need to worry about having opened the bucket lid a week prior to racking to keg..

 

yes, exactly how I do it as well

 

CO2 is heavier than air so as long as you don't open the bucket out in the wind the CO2 will remain in the bucket.

 

I've dry-hopped in secondary, primary and in the keg before. Never really saw any difference. Whatever works easiest for u and your equipment is what matters.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about oxidation. It's very hard to do. Most of what you read on here is overkill about oxidizing your beer.

 

Apparently you don't judge beer....

 

I don't judge beer but I drink a lot of it. I have not ever tasted the flavors described from oxidation.

I must just brew that good I guess and every beer I've bought and tasted from other homebrewers.

The only off flavors I've had have been from bottle conditioned beer that was young and safeale US05.

 

I have always transferred to secondary and added dry hops then but tomorrow I will be dry hopping a Pale Ale and am going to remove the air lock, place a sanitized funnel into the grommet and pour the hop pellets in that way without removing the lid.
I expect I will have to coerce the pellets down the funnel with something but I figured this method is worth a try.
I suppose this wouldn't work with leaf hops unless you grind them rather well.

 

Depends in the grommet size. My fermenters all use #5-#7 stoppers, I just cut the tube off the funnel till it was just big enough to let flowers through. I use a sanitized silicon spoon handle to shove them through if the get a little stuck.

 

Just a follow up.
I dry hopped my American Pale Ale with 1oz. pellet hop through the grommet in 6.5 gal. Ale Pale in primary.
I purchased a funnel that fit snugly into the grommet, pulled the airlock, placed the funnel into the grommet and started pouring hops.
The funnel quickly plugged up so I took the sharp end of a digital thermometer and started poking the hops through the hole into my beer.
While this didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped, I would definitely do it again.
I didn't have to secondary and went right to a cold crash from primary. I racked 5 gallons of beautifully clear dry hopped beer into my bottling bucket.