Adding Fruit or Dry Hopping in Primary Fermentor

[BeerAddikt]

New to home brewing here and have a question regarding fruit and dry hop additions. I'm looking to buy an additional fermentor and don't know whether to buy a 6 gal primary or a 5 gal secondary.

I've read all over that racking to a secondary is not necessary in most cases. If I plan on dry hopping or adding fruit is it OK to do this in the primary 6 gal ferm after primary fermentation has completed (last batch this would have been after 4 days)? It seems that the extra head space could cause oxidization in the primary ferm when left for a few weeks, or does the extra fermentation that occurs with additions purge the O2 so I don't have to worry?

 

[Kharnynb]

for fruit additions, it seems to generally still be that people secondary, you can always add a gallon of sanitezed marbles to the bottom for less headspace.

for dryhopping, either just ditching the hops bare into the primary or adding a bag with a few sanitised marbles for weight works fine.

 

[rlonardo]

For fruit I wouldn't 100% eliminate head space anyway as refermentation could cause some blow off. After that subsides, a decent CO2 blanket should be in place, but what I usually do is take my sodastream and give er' a squirt.

 

[worlddivides]

I've dry hopped 100% of the time in primary. And I dry hop pretty often. Always works great for me.

On the other hand, fruits and more "heavy duty" post-fermentation additions, I've done about 75% in secondary with the other 25% in either primary or at the end of the boil (depending on what exactly I'm adding/what form it's taking).

 

[BeerAddikt]

Thanks for the advice guys! This place is awesome.

 

[PADave]

I dry hop all the time in primary. No hop sack or anything, just open up, dump hops, close back up.

By the way, your beer most likely is not done fermenting in 4 days. I personally follow a 3 weeks fermentation schedule. Dry hopping the third week if necessary. Give it time, you'll let the yeast clean up and let things settle out.