Adding hops to secondary

[mysterio]

Hi there,

I've just started using a secondary fermenter and i'm going to try and spice things up a bit for my next brew, possibly by adding hops 'cause I like a hoppy beer. My question is how should I go about this with minimal risk of messing it up. Do I boil the hops first or should I just throw some in the secondary? Also, what sort of hops should I use? I'm using a Coopers brewmaster IPA this time around - Obviously theres already some hop extract in there so I don't want to make it too hoppy.

Thanks

 

[david_42]

In the PWN, all IPA's are dry hopped with Cascades, anything else and they make you drink a six pack of PBR. An oz. of Goldings will give your IPA a nice nose without being too rough. Just toss them in.

 

[Lounge Lizard]

Hops added to the secondary are only supposed to add aroma or nose.

A lot of people just put the whole (leaf) hops into the secondary before racking over. No need to boil them. It is supposed to be near impossible for hops by themselves to cause an infection. If you want to put the hops in a bag with some marbles, that is fine too. It takes quite a few marbles. Just soak the bag and marbles in some very hot water before adding the hops and tying the top. Don't have everything packed too tightly, or the circualtion will be diminished

Now the fun part is trying to get the hop bag with the marbles in and out of the carboy.... lol

I'm not sure I'm fond of the citrus flavor of Cascades. The Goldings idea sounds like a good one.

 

[Janx]

You can't make a beer overly bitter with dry hopping. It adds aroma. Use a lot.

Use whole hops. No bag. No marbles. Just toss em in. Putting them in before you rack may help them absorb liquid. In any event, it'll work great and you'll get a ton of hop aroma out of it (which adds to the perception of hop flavor).

Cascade is, IMHO, kind of an insipid and overused hop whose time has come and gone. A lot of PNW brewers haven't cottoned onto this fact The best dry hops I have ever used are Amarillo. Centennial is also awesome. They're what Cascade wants to be.

Cheers

 

[Porter fan]

You can't make a beer overly bitter with dry hopping. It adds aroma. Use a lot.

Use whole hops. No bag. No marbles. Just toss em in. Putting them in before you rack may help them absorb liquid. In any event, it'll work great and you'll get a ton of hop aroma out of it (which adds to the perception of hop flavor).

Cascade is, IMHO, kind of an insipid and overused hop whose time has come and gone. A lot of PNW brewers haven't cottoned onto this fact The best dry hops I have ever used are Amarillo. Centennial is also awesome. They're what Cascade wants to be.

Cheers

+1 one for centennial hops I did a dry hop with these all my friends tell me its the best beer I've ever brewed.

 

[AllHoppedUp]

I dry hopped for the first time a few weeks ago. Just added the whole leaf to the secondary - no sanitation necessary. Only challenge was trying to siphon all the beer out without sucking trub off the bottom or clogging screen with hops from the top.

Couldn't tell you results yet - still conditioning.

AHU

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Only challenge was trying to siphon all the beer out without sucking trub off the bottom or clogging screen with hops from the top.

A cheap and quite effective solution that I use is to tie a mesh hopbag around my racking cane before siphoning. No hops get in, and it has ample surface area so as not to get clogged. And it's cheap.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

I tried this recently with an Edme IPA Kit, I used 1 ox of Cascade pellet hops in a cheesecloth sack and just dropped it in the secondary. racking into the bottling bucket was not a problem due to the hop sock. And I was very happy with the results. If you like Hoppy beers, I definitely recomend this. As far as cascade vs other hops, I just used the hops the LHBS recomended, so I don't know if other hops would have been better, but I was happy with the results with cascade

 

[budbo]

I dropped a half oz of hallertau pellets in mine... The Aroma was a bit more than I wanter but tastes fine