dry hopping absorption

[LostHopper]

How much beer does an ounce of dry leaf hops absorb in 3-4 days?

I'm doing a split batch with and without dry hopping (I've never dry hopped) and wanted to know if I will lose much or any beer to the soaked hops when transferring to the bottling bucket. Each beer will be about 2 gallons.

Thanks

 

[IslandLizard]

Only a few ounces.

 

[slym2none]

I was personally surprised by how much wort the whole-cone hops absorbed, but I was using a good amount of hops in only 2.5 gallons. For my next brews using the whole-cone hops, I will make a 3.0G batch and expect to lose a half a gallon for 4-5 oz of whole-cone hops.

Seriously.

 

[KyleWolf]

The general calculation I was taught was 1oz of hops absorbs 16oz of liquid. This is regardless of cone or pellet

That being said, which I am about to post in the "confession time" thread, I squeeze my hop bags to reduce loss. I can normally get 75% of the lost beer/wort back.*Note, I have only done this with pellet hops, I don't know if it will be the same with cone/whole leaf.*

 

[zacster]

The general calculation I was taught was 1oz of hops absorbs 16oz of liquid. This is regardless of cone or pellet
*

That doesn't sound right at all. Imagine a 16oz bottle of coke, and the tiny 1oz bag of hops. Do you really think it could absorb all that liquid?

 

[Johow]

I put 3 ounces of dry whole Citra in 5 gallons of beer for 5 days and I lost about a gallon of beer. I'm gonna start brewing 6 gallon batches. I may switch to pellets as well.

 

[slym2none]

That doesn't sound right at all. Imagine a 16oz bottle of coke, and the tiny 1oz bag of hops. Do you really think it could absorb all that liquid?

Pellets, no.

Whole-cone? Yes. Yes I could believe that.

 

[KyleWolf]

That doesn't sound right at all. Imagine a 16oz bottle of coke, and the tiny 1oz bag of hops. Do you really think it could absorb all that liquid?

It may not be able to absorb all of it persay, but it would turn a vast majority of it into a hop sludge. That being said, because of the small debris-like character of hop pellets, I do find it is much easier to regain a good portion of the liquid absorbed liquid after squeezing the hop debris (I use a hop spider) from pellets compared to whole cone hops.

 

[Calder]

It may not be able to absorb all of it persay, but it would turn a vast majority of it into a hop sludge. That being said, because of the small debris-like character of hop pellets, I do find it is much easier to regain a good portion of the liquid absorbed liquid after squeezing the hop debris (I use a hop spider) from pellets compared to whole cone hops.

Minimal loss with pellets. They settle out and all you lose is what they can absorb, which is about 4x their weight. 4 ozs will absorb about a pint.

I agree with you on leaf; about a pint per ounce, or more.

 

[moreb33rplz]

I used whole cone exclusively for about a year (16 batches).

They absorb precisely one metric **** ton.