AG: First IPA, dry hop / yeast question

[jlc767]

Hey guys!

Here is a video of my first AG brew fermenting in the carboy. I'm glad to see the air plug pumping away, but there is some crazy stuff going on beneath the surface (have a look)!

[ame]http://www.vimeo.com/14154505[/ame]

I've never dry-hopped before and I'm curious... is the 1oz of dry hop on the surface supposed to look like this? I was sure to aerate the HELL out of it. Also, I was planning to eventually rack to a 5-gallon secondary (to, I suppose, filter out the dry hops); how many weeks should I give this in primary / secondary? It's a Bell's Two Hearted Clone, FYI.

Thx!

 

[joebagodonuts]

i always thought that you weren't supposed to dry hop until the active fermentation stopped.
I'm curious to read what people have to say on this.

 

[jlc767]

Hrmmm.

Well, this was my first AG brew. Had some hurdles. Definitely wasn't sure about the exact procedure for dry hopping. After I siphoned to the carboy (with filter), I just dropped the hops and pitched the yeast and aerated the hell out of it for a good 10 minutes or so. Wasn't very active last night, seems to be very active this morning. Lots happening beneath the surface.

I have an empty carboy I can use if the group here thinks the current setup is bad and something needs to change...

 

[joebagodonuts]

It's probably not bad - I'm sure it will be fine.
I've heard more advanced brewers - like Jamil and Palmer say that you use a secondary only for dry hopping (and adding fruits) - because the hop resins will coat the yeast and inhibit activity - but I think you don't have to worry about that. The beer will be fine - there are just always things that you can do to make it better.

 

[joebagodonuts]

And for the record - I haven't dry hopped anything myself yet. (I will in my next batch when i do a stone IPA clone)

 

[frazier]

I love watching the yeast churn the beer.

Dry-hopping at this stage will result in much of the hop aroma being outgassed with the CO2 - you'd rather have that aroma stay with the beer. This is why it's better to wait until fermentation has died down before adding the dry-hops.

If you have more hops lying around, you could toss them in at that time, i.e. when you rack to secondary. No worries, I'm sure you'll have lovely beer in either case. And I bet the room smells wonderful....

 

[Yooper]

Dryhopping is done after fermentation. The co2 blowing off from active fermenation blows away much of the aroma of these dryhops. It's not a big deal, you just won't get much out of the hops you added. You can wait until fermentation is over, then add fresh dryhops about a week before bottling, or rack onto the fresh dryhops if you use a secndary.

 

[jlc767]

Ok, thanks guys! I do have more hops I can use during secondary. =)

 

[Yooper]

Ok, thanks guys! I do have more hops I can use during secondary. =)

Perfect! No worries, then.

 

[jlc767]

Hey guys, quick update... and possible problem.

When I ordered the Safale US-05, I was given two packets. Without thinking, I pitched both. In hind sight, my hop order was doubled (for unknown reasons), hence why I have leftover dry and pellet hops. Today I realized I may have been given double my yeast order. And I can't remember if I pitched one or two packets on my Belgian Tripel extract kit.

So... If I added an extra yeast packet, what are my options?

I really botched this first AG brew! ><

 

[Yooper]

Hey guys, quick update... and possible problem.

When I ordered the Safale US-05, I was given two packets. Without thinking, I pitched both. In hind sight, my hop order was doubled (for unknown reasons), hence why I have leftover dry and pellet hops. Today I realized I may have been given double my yeast order. And I can't remember if I pitched one or two packets on my Belgian Tripel extract kit.

So... If I added an extra yeast packet, what are my options?

I really botched this first AG brew! ><

Overpitching yeast isn't usually a problem at all. Any yeast not working on fermentation will just fall to the bottom with the rest of the trub.

Ideally, you'd pitch the perfect amount of yeast for the OG of your wort. But if you didn't, it's still fine. Don't worry about it!

 

[frazier]

So... If I added an extra yeast packet, what are my options?

I'm afraid you have no option but to buy another packet of yeast for your next brew. Sorry.

 

[dedhedjed]

I'd suggest starting a notebook so you can take detailed, step by step notes about your process, ingredients, etc for each brew. That way you will know exactly which yeast and how much you pitched. It will also help to be able to look back at recipes to tweak them in the future. Just my two cents...

 

[joebagodonuts]

More yeast might mean lazy yeast - but it will still ferment just fine.
In their anaerobic state they are going to multiply anyway and the should be more than you pitched -if you pitched so much that they don't need to multiply, you'll miss out on some of the flavors that are caused by that cell division (budding) - but your beer will still be fine.
I wouldn't say it's botched - just some simple mistakes that we've all made.
You won't know until you check for FG to see if you missed anything - keep us posted so we can all learn from this.

 

[jlc767]

Thank you all!