Adding hope pellets directly in the primary fermenter a good method?

[grasshopper1917]

Hi, I have never dry hopped before. Picked up a Festabrew to knock out a quick beer for after the holidays. It has been fermenting in the primary bucket for 11 days and i tossed in on ounce of cascade pellets to add some hop flavor. I just took the lid off and threw them right in. I plan on racking to my bottling bucket to batch prime and bottle in 3 days. Is this a decent method? I guess I should have asked before doing it lol

 

[PCABrewing]

Hi, I have never dry hopped before. Picked up a Festabrew to knock out a quick beer for after the holidays. It has been fermenting in the primary bucket for 11 days and i tossed in on ounce of cascade pellets to add some hop flavor. I just took the lid off and threw them right in. I plan on racking to my bottling bucket to batch prime and bottle in 3 days. Is this a decent method? I guess I should have asked before doing it lol

Many do it the same way. I use a bag others prefer Au-naturale to maximize contact.
And I think we all put some "hope" in there as well.

 

[lumpher]

I usually use a hop bag to make it a little easier to keep the hops out when kegging, but if I don't have a bag handy, I just dump the hops in, too.

 

[NSMikeD]

Your method is good. Dry hopping is part science and part personal taste. When and how you dry hop will determine how the final beer will taste. Some folks like the grassy notes others a more clean finish. This is the fun part as you can manipulate this depending on the dry hopping method.

There are a number of articles (as well as the default timing in my brewing software) that say dry hop at about day 4 of fermenting. The reason stated is that dry hopping earlier can cause bitter flavor and scrub sone desired flavors for the CO2 activity and the lower Ph limits contamination from whatever is on the hops . But I haven't read why not waiting later than that. I presume there isn't a down side, but this gets you bottled or kegged earlier. A note on dry hopping during the initial fermentation is this is a technique used by NEIPA brewers who are seeking to bitter their beer during fermentation and as opposed to doing so in the boil.

hops should settle to the bottom when you rack, just be careful not to stir things up. Ive used a hop mesh bag but I find that limits the exposure of the beer to the hops a little. If you find have too much hops in the bottle boy all means use a bag and after sampling adjust the quantity if hops accordingly. Also, in the very same article I was reading in dry hopping they said 24-72 hours but in their side by side tests, they dry hopped for 5 days. So consider 5 days to encourage more hop settlement before you rack.