Bottling after dry hopping.

[BrewddhistDrunk]

Hey everyone, i'm getting ready to bottle my first batch here really soon. It was dry hopped with pellets about two weeks ago and i've been waiting for them to settle to the bottom. It took a bit of swirling to get them to unstick from each other and drop, but i'm still left with some film and pellets i cant get to fall. Will i still be fine to bottle it now, and do i need to attatch a mesh bag or something to keep particles out of the bottles? Thanks for the help, cheers!

 

[el_pollo_diablo]

If you can stuff your carboy into the fridge, it'll clear up nicely

 

[mike_in_ak]

If not, use mesh grain bag or nylon paint strainer back or something similar. Boil the bag first to sanitize.

 

[Snisup]

^both of these

 

[BlackGoat]

If not, use mesh grain bag or nylon paint strainer back or something similar. Boil the bag first to sanitize.

This... and to make it simple, if you are transferring to a bottling bucket just wrap the sanitized bag around the end of your siphon and you have yourself a nice little strainer. Congrats on your first batch

 

[BrewddhistDrunk]

thanks guys. no room in the fridge but if i leave the carboy outside for a couple days will that do the trick? temp will be around 30-40's. after the cold crash i bottle and leave them at room temp, not in the fridge correct?

 

[BlackGoat]

the colder the better for cold crashing, but if your temps are at those levels it sounds like it would work. I'd just make sure you keep whatever your fermenter is out of direct sunlight. After bottling, just leave them in a nice dark place at 70 degrees for 3 weeks and that should do the trick.

 

[Snisup]

Sounds perfect. Make sure it's covered!

Yes. Bottle condition at room temperature for 2-3 weeks to let the yeast work on the priming sugar.

 

[BrewddhistDrunk]

thanks for the fast responses. good brew vibes and blessings be upon you all

 

[Peruvian802]

I will be bottling a Pliny clone on Sunday.

I understand why cold crashing works, but I'm not sure I understand why this doesn't 'skunk' beer when you then condition it at higher temps. Maybe it's just not cold for long enough.

Anyway, I don't have a fridge or freezer to put my carboy into so I thought I would put a paint strainer into a 5 gallon bucket and rack into it. I can then pull the strainer with all the hops out and use my auto-siphon and bottling wand to rack to bottles. Is there any downside to this method? I haven't heard folks using it.

 

[BlackGoat]

I will be bottling a Pliny clone on Sunday.

I understand why cold crashing works, but I'm not sure I understand why this doesn't 'skunk' beer when you then condition it at higher temps. Maybe it's just not cold for long enough.

Anyway, I don't have a fridge or freezer to put my carboy into so I thought I would put a paint strainer into a 5 gallon bucket and rack into it. I can then pull the strainer with all the hops out and use my auto-siphon and bottling wand to rack to bottles. Is there any downside to this method? I haven't heard folks using it.

Couple things, the term skunk is used for different things, and there are lots of reasons why a beer can taste bad... but usually when someone refers to their beer as "skunking" they are typically referring to the effect that UV light has on the beer in the bottle. This is why we prefer to use amber bottles vs. clear/green ones, so temperature isn't really as much of an issue here unless you're storing them somewhere that is really hot or where there are huge fluctuations in temps.

Second, your method could work but isn't ideal. The downside is that you're racking more than you need to which can lead to oxidation. If you are careful not to suck up the hops when racking you should be able to rack the beer off the hops without the need for a strainer or anything else. If you really need to strain, the preferred method would be to wrap the (sanitized) strainer bag around the end of the racking cane/siphon then rack from the carboy per the usual methods. You can just use a small portion of the strainer bag and a zip tie to get a nice fit.

 

[Peruvian802]

I'm not sure that 8 oz of hops in the secondary will be carefully avoided. I'm thinking I'm going to need to put a filter on the racking cane, another in the bucket, and then consider if my autosiphon needs another.

 

[Peruvian802]

I bottled the Pliny clone tonight and wrapped the racking cane in a hop bag and put a paint strainer in the bottling bucket. The hop bag worked great and the paint strainer wasn't even necessary.

 

[BlackGoat]

I bottled the Pliny clone tonight and wrapped the racking cane in a hop bag and put a paint strainer in the bottling bucket. The hop bag worked great and the paint strainer wasn't even necessary.

awesome! That is about what I expected, glad to hear that it worked.