Single Stage Dry Hopping?

I only have equipment for single stage fermentation, and want to brew a recipe that calls for dry hopping. Any suggestions or should I just forget the dry hop?

 

I have opened a primary after 7 days and then thrown the hops in for dry hopping. I have also just thrown them in on the day i put in primary. Its all about the taste your going for. Alot of us dont even use a secondary if we are keeping the beer"in house". Its your call but i think dry hopping at day seven in primary will have the same effect, and the desired effect you are looking for. Maybe one of the more experienced guys know why this isnt posssible.

 

You can dry hop in the primary, it's no problem.

 

I dry-hopped my last batch (APA) for 8 days in primary. The next time I will use a hop bag because the racking cane got clogged with hop debris when transferring to bottling bucket.

 

get a couple stainless steel herb balls, Wal-Mart sells them cheap and put your hops in them. No mess.

 

I don't think you can dry hop in the primary in GA, TN, or MS.

Kidding...

Dry hopping in the primary is fine. Just make sure that the hops make good contact with the beer and that fermentation is pretty much complete, with in 0.005 of expected FG.

Watch it with the herb balls. I haven't used them but they may be heavy enough to sink your hops into the yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter. If you can rig for them to be suspended off the bottom you should be in good shape. Lots of brewers use hop bags (muslin or nylon or panty hose) weighted down with marbles or stainless steel washers. Just make sure to sanitize anything going into your beer. No, you do not need to sanitize hops.

 

I'm looking at doing an IPA for my third batch soon, and am planning on dry hopping. What is the difference between using the herb balls, and weighting down a hop bag? Won't they both sink into the trub?

 

If I were to dry hop in the primary, I would wait at least two weeks before adding the dry hops, probably closer to three. You want the krausen to have fallen, and have no significant fermentation happening at the point. If there's still some bubbling going on, that aroma you're trying to add from the dry hops will just be scrubbed out and expelled from the airlock. I have put them in at day 7 before and by the time the bottles were ready, I could no longer smell or taste any of the dry hops. Even if fermentation is mostly done, there's often still significant activity going on during the second week.

I don't generally bag them or weigh them down (whole hops). By the end of the first day or so they are usually floating just under the surface and I've always felt like I was getting what I needed from them that way. If I was using an ounce or more though, I can see trying to sink them somehow because the ones on top would not otherwise get pushed down into the beer.

Herb ball or weighted bag wouldn't matter much, they're both aimed to accomplish the same thing. Just don't put too many in one ball/bag. I haven't used the herb ball myself, but I'd think that 3/4 ounce in a muslin hop bag is about the max for getting good circulation around the hops. If they're stuffed too full the flavor won't get out as it should IMO, so use multiple bags if adding a bunch of dry hops.

 

Oh man this is refreshing.

Two years ago you would have never had people telling you you can dryhop in primary. Freaked people right out.

I'm a big proponent of using pellets for dry hopping. They sink right to the bottom after a few days.

 

I actually just brewed my first APA yesterday, and I was going to ask the same about dry hopping in the primary, I do have a secondary vessel, but I'd rather not rack to it because it is alot more work for minor results.

When using muslin bags with pellets, is it necessary to weigh them down, or will they just naturally fall after they soak up some wort?

And is it better to keep them suspended in the wort or should they be on the top or the bottom?

 

I always just throw them in the primary 5-7 before I am gonna rack it. At this point the krausen has fallen and after a week of so the hops will usually drop out and get buried in the yeast cake.

 

just did an ipa and primry dryhopped as well

waited 7 days

 

Are you able to get good clarity using pellets?

 

Crystal. Judges commented on my pale ale's clarity that I entered in competition back in March. I dry hopped that with Centennial pellets.

As a previous poster just said, the pellets usually drop out after a few day and get buried in the yeast cake. I usually swirl the fermenter once a day until they drop. Just be careful racking and you'll be all good.

 

I'm new to home brewing, I see some recipes on here that call for dry hopping for (x) amount of time. Does that basically mean I chuck some hops into the batch for the specified time? What is the idea behind that process?

Thanks!

 

i dry hopped my pale ale just last week. 2 weeks in primary, opened top, tossed in 2oz. of pellets and this weekend i'll be bottling it. smells incredible!

 

i think this may be in practice more often than you might think. some clone recipes (given by the actual brewers) call for starting the dry hop before reaching FG. founders reds rye and epic pale ale are just a couple off the top of my head...

 

Dry hopping brings out the aroma of the particular hop or flavor of hop you are brewing with. For example, Simcoe and Citra (citrus like) dry hop well with Cascade (citrus like). Cascade is just cheaper, lower in AA but really brings a new depth to the aroma of you IPA. If you are in doubt, I would suggest rack off a gallon when you are ready to bottle to a small carboy and add some hops. Taste the difference. Usually I like to get the hops off the beer before 7 days. Longer may impart a 'grass' like aroma. Just experiment.

 

Thanks for the information and suggestion to experimentation, I like to tell my wife that it is okay to experiment, I guess the same goes for beer, Right?

Thanks