can i add things to the primary?

[bottomofthebarrel]

i hears someone talking about it being ok to dry hop in the primary.
can you add other things?
like if i was going to do a coffee stout, could i add the coffee to the primary or is that a no go?

 

[Jsmith82]

Dry hopping in primary is just fine, I do it, many others as well. Let your beer ferment out, add your hops 7-10 days before bottling. About the coffee stout, I would imagine you could add beans to your primary after fermentation to help get the aroma but I'm unsure the most practical and safe process or what would be best recommended, I have yet to play with coffee and beer at the same time yet.. I have added oranges (the fruit AND zest), lemon zest, hops, sugars, and apricot extract directly to the primary before with no issues if that tells you something..

 

[Slowfro]

If you want to add coffee there are a couple of ways. Some people add beans at the end of the boil similar to a late hop addition. A lot of people will cold-brew coffee a few days ahead of bottling then filter/strain the cold coffee into the bottling bucket. I've done the bottling method, never added coffee to the boil.

Jsmith is right about the fruit/zest too - that can be added to primary. Search thread for blood orange hefe and you'll see a good recipe that explains what to do for it.

 

[LKABrewer]

Just remember that anything added to the primary should be after primary fermentation is complete. If you add hops (or coffee, fruit, etc.) before fermentation is complete the aromatics will blow off with the co2 produced.

 

[Germelli1]

I grind the coffee up, add them to a small bowl of vodka, and cold brew them in the fridge for a day or to. After that I add the whole thing to the beer and don't care if it is in the primary or secondary.

 

[Bikerbrewgal]

I have an Oberon clone in primary (wheat beer w/ hints of spice and orange). To kick up the orange taste a notch, how much should I use? This is a 5 gallon batch. Should I use orange zest or can I simply cut up some oranges (how many?) and throw them in?

Tks.

 

[nordoe]

I have an Oberon clone in primary (wheat beer w/ hints of spice and orange). To kick up the orange taste a notch, how much should I use? This is a 5 gallon batch. Should I use orange zest or can I simply cut up some oranges (how many?) and throw them in?

Tks.

I just did a wit and used oragne zest but i did it during the last five minutes of the boil. I used the zest of like 5 oranges for a five gallon batch.

 

[birvine]

After my lengthy primary if I am going to dry hop, it is added to the primary. At this point, I would only use a secondary for fruit additions.

B

 

[joeldp144]

I have dry hopped in the primary (I never secondary.....unless you count kegs). I also have added Belgian Candy sugar and licorice (in different beers not together) in the primary as well. They have all come out great.