dry hopping w/pellets

i have racked into my secondary and dry hopped w/pellets about a week ago. was wondering when the hop matter would settle from the top so when i rack to bottle it wouldn't be there. i read on this forum somewhere that if you give it a gentle shake some will settle. i did this, and is working well. the next morning, there is still some there. so i gently shook again. looks like it going to work good, but my question is should i not do this every day? if it doesn't hurt the beer, i will do it everyday so as to clear it up some.
also, i was going to use some irish moss on my next batch to clarify, but if i dry hop, will it not just cloud up again. i'm not opposed to cloudy beer, just not beer that has alot settled in the bottom of my bottle.

When you rack from the secondary to the bottling bucket, you can just leave all that "stuff" from dryhopping behind. I wouldn't shake the secondary- you want the stuff to settle out. If it doesn't fall, I'd just rack underneath it. I've never had a ton of sediment in my bottles, but I usuallly wait to bottle until my beer is pretty clear. I try to use Irish moss in my brews, but forget about half the time!

Just give it a gentle shake, not enough to disturb the sediment, but enough to get the hops to settle. Don't worry about it too much, though. Just rack around it, if you need to.

Dry hopping probably will cloud the beer again, but your beer won't be as cloudy as if you didn't use the Irish moss. It's not the end of the world, either way. If you are that concerned, fine the beer before bottling. That's what I do, since I like a clear beer sooner.


TL

what do you mean by "fine" the beer? filter it somehow?

When I dry-hop it's normally for 7-10 days and I always try to give is a couple of shakes a day to get the pellet 'stuff' to fall. It makes it easier to siphon when you get towards the bottom.

How about using one of those little cooking bags. The ones with the drawstrings and their made of a mesh cloth material, I think they use them for tea or spices.

I have never dry hopped before and have picked up a few of these (their dirt cheap) and was planning on using them for my Dogfish Head 60min clone.

Would this work better or is it not worth the effort and just be careful when you siphon?

nchomebrew said:

what do you mean by "fine" the beer? filter it somehow?

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In fancy brewing speak, to "fine" a beer is to clarify it. Usually, one uses a fining agent, such as gelatin, isinglass, or one of several other commercially available agents. I've never heard the term "fining" refer to clarification by filtering, so I don't know if "fining" extends that far. Time also will fine a beer, especially when kept cold.

I've never filtered a beer, and I don't personally know any homebrewers that do. I think filtering isn't practical until you get to a commercial scale, but I've never really looked into it.


TL

bnutting said:

How about using one of those little cooking bags. The ones with the drawstrings and their made of a mesh cloth material, I think they use them for tea or spices.

I have never dry hopped before and have picked up a few of these (their dirt cheap) and was planning on using them for my Dogfish Head 60min clone.

Would this work better or is it not worth the effort and just be careful when you siphon?

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I tried to use those before, and they really are more hassle that help. For one thing, dry hopping depends on getting the surface of your hops against the beer and moving around a little. Those bags tend to restrict flow of beer around the hops, and that defeats the purpose. In the end, I got the best results with the least hassle by tossing the pellets in, naked, shaking the carboy a little to get the pellet stuff to settle, and racking carefully.


TL

Try this.

A 1 gallon piant strainer from Lowes ($1.50) wrapped around the end of your racking cane. Use a small zip tie to fasten it on.

Works for me every time I dry hop with pellets (which is rarely now cuz I use whole hops).

BierMuncher said:

Try this.

A 1 gallon piant strainer from Lowes ($1.50) wrapped around the end of your racking cane. Use a small zip tie to fasten it on.

Works for me every time I dry hop with pellets (which is rarely now cuz I use whole hops).

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I have done this as well (copied BierMuncher). Works great.

Beerrific said:

I have done this as well (copied BierMuncher). Works great.

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i tried the paint strainer bag on the intake of the autosiphon and ended up w very fine hop particles in my beer still oh well live and learn. i think im going to purchase a SureSreen--only $8. projected pros: stainless is more durable than nylon and also the SureScreen is used to dry hop directly in keg (finer mesh to keep debris out of lines). has anyone used a sure screen as an alternative to the paint strainer bag for dry hopping--or used one in their keg system when dry hopping?

I have dry hopped three times, so take my advice with a grain of "uh" hops. The first two times I did it I used the paint strainer bag and it worked great. The third time, I had so much hop sediment in the beer that I racked to a third carboy to clear the hops. It worked great. From there to the bottling bucket resulted in very clear beer.

BierMuncher said:

Try this.

A 1 gallon piant strainer from Lowes ($1.50) wrapped around the end of your racking cane. Use a small zip tie to fasten it on.

Works for me every time I dry hop with pellets (which is rarely now cuz I use whole hops).

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I have tried that with a hop bag on the end of my auto siphon and I think it created a lot of air bubbles while siphoning. It was the first time i did it and had that many bubbles while racking.

tbone said:

I have dry hopped three times, so take my advice with a grain of "uh" hops. The first two times I did it I used the paint strainer bag and it worked great. The third time, I had so much hop sediment in the beer that I racked to a third carboy to clear the hops. It worked great. From there to the bottling bucket resulted in very clear beer.

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i considered doing this, but i didnt feel like putting off bottling for a few days while priming sure was ate up so i could re-prime and bottle a few days later. next time im going to zip tie my hop bag on the intake (it has a lot finer mesh than paint bag) before committing to the SureScreen. it does a great job of keeping pellet hop particles out of wort during boil..imagine it would work good for filtering as well. still if anyone has any input on SureScreen id appreciate it.