I've had a Cascade APA in the fermenter for three weeks, with a dry hops addition a week ago, and today was bottling day. This was my first time dry hopping, and I just dumped about an ounce of Cascade pellets into the fermenter last week. The hops soaked up the beer, but they just settled in a mat on top of the beer. Is that normal? I was expecting them to "flocculate" out and settle to the bottom. When I moved my fermeneter from my chamber to my workbench today to rack to my bottling bucket, that mat of hops decided to drop from the surface. I gave it 5-10 minutes to settle to the bottom, but I probably should have given it longer, because I ended up with a ton of hops in my bottling bucket. I figured that was OK, because any hops should settle to the bottom of the bottle like the yeast, right? The problem came with my bottling wand. The hops choked my wand so that It was just a trickle. It took forever to fill each bottle, and then it would completely stop after 4-6 bottles, so I had to take it apart to clear, re-sanitize, and continue filling. I spilled a lot of beer in the process, and I only ended up with 42 bottles. I think I'll try a nylon stocking over the end of my auto-siphon next time. Any other tips?
This was my first self-designed recipe, so I'm still super-excited to try it in 2-3 weeks. I'm just frustrated that I left a six-pack in the fermenter, bottling bucket, on the floor, etc.
This was my first self-designed recipe, so I'm still super-excited to try it in 2-3 weeks. I'm just frustrated that I left a six-pack in the fermenter, bottling bucket, on the floor, etc.