Brewed an India Black Ale last weekend and now have questions.

[Rys06Tbss]

I ended up using my extra primary for the wine last night. I'll just transfer to to he secondary for dry hopping.

 

[Rys06Tbss]

So I'm going to have to wait a little longer. It's at 1.020 right now nd needs to get to 1.016 to .014. Maybe next weekend. It is tasty though. I let my wife sample and she said that's NASTY! It must be good then!

 

[Effingbeer]

Not to throw you a curve, but sometimes I like to dry hop in the primary. Pros: you can take this opportunity to rouse the yeast. Drop the hops in, cap it,give the thing some careful yet vigorous swirling action and it can help with your last few gravity points. The yeast cake will drop back down quick enough. And with a black beer, clarity isn't necessarily your goal anyway. Plus, one less transfer! Cons: the dry hop effect might be a little lower. You can adjust up by an oz or so.

 

[C-Rider]

I still say dry hop in the primary. Never had a problem. Never used a secondary as I don't add fruity stuffs to my beer. Why risk contamination just to dry hop. I just pop the bung, and pour the pellets in then replace the bung.

 

[Rys06Tbss]

I dry hopped in the primary. Is it normal for the hops to stay up top? Or are they going to fall out? Its only been 3 days.

 

[rodwha]

I have a little polished stone I'll sanitize and use in the hop bag, but I'll try to attach the strings to something so it's suspended. I've yet to try this out yet...

 

[Effingbeer]

I dry hopped in the primary. Is it normal for the hops to stay up top? Or are they going to fall out? Its only been 3 days.

Yes it is normal. Most of them will fall out, but you will still have floaters. Don't be alarmed when it looks oily on top sometimes even with weird looking soapy/oily bubbles. When I rack to a bottling bucket or keg, I wrap a hop bag around the out-end of the hose to keep any big bits out.

 

[DonMagee]

I used to put glass marbles in my hop sock when dry hopping to keep the hops submerged. I'm not really sure it makes a difference.

 

[the_trout]

I dry hopped in the primary. Is it normal for the hops to stay up top? Or are they going to fall out? Its only been 3 days.

Definitley normal and nothing to worry about. As noted some people put them into a weighted bag and try and suspend them in the brew and some also rack thru a strainer during transfer to bottling bucket/keg to help keep the finished beer clear. You can also cold crash your brew for a few days before bottleing. It will help in dropping more matter out of the solution.

 

[Rys06Tbss]

I just took another reading. Im only at 1.017. which is fairly close to the finished final. Im going to bottle on sunday. The hops are still hanging out up top for the most part. Ill use a bag next time. Im still a rookie. Right now what I have is a hoppy dark beer. I really like it. Tell me about this cold crashing. I just put the carboy in the fridge? Also If I strain the siphon to prevent debris, wont that aerate the beer? Is that a bad thing when bottling and transfering

 

[Effingbeer]

Cold crashing takes a few days on the fridge and is really good for dropping out yeast and some protein and starch haze. I don't think you want to drop out too much yeast if you are doing natural carbonation In the bottle. I haven't had a problem with straining the hop bits out using a bag, but in early years I tried a funnel with a screen in it and it clogged up to quick. The bag you can move around a bit to an area that's not plugged up and keep going. In the bottle, the yeast will use up any small amount of o2. And you can cold crash in the bottle before drinking. Plus an IPA is typically consumed fresh before the hop flavor begins to drop off, so long term oxidation really doesn't factor in as much.