Dry Hopping and High FG

[Johnwongfat]

I have a 2 part question: I am making a very hoppy IPA that requires dry hopping (Vinnie's Blind Pig IPA from morebeer) and I was wondering if there is a suggested method to clear it out. My buddy made the Pliny the Elder and he dry hopped that as well and you pretty much can't drink the last 1/4" of the glass due to all the hop particles. Should I move it too a tertiary fermenter? I've read that you can use unflavored gelatin to settle it out as well, but I've never done that and don't know the procedure. The second part of my question is both batches we have dry hopped have stalled out 1.030. Is this due to the dry hopping or is there something else at work here? With the Pliny the Elder we added more yeast and I put it out on my kitchen counter and it dropped down to 1.020. We didn't use a starter with the first batch and I did with this one hoping it would help that very problem. Should I add more yeast at this point? The beer is still a bit sweeter than I like, not to mention my ABV is lower than I was hoping to get. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

[Cheesefood]

Did your friend use hop bag?

 

[david_42]

This is exactly why I purchased a filtering setup. Without one, your best bet is to rack to another vessel. There are products collectively called finings that are intended to remove protein haze and fine particles. I don't believe they would help with hop particles. This might be a good place to use a nylon knee sock as a filter.

Re-pitch before you transfer.

 

[Johnwongfat]

No, no hop bag. I thought that they wouldn't work with pellet hops.

 

[croba50]

use a grain/hop bag (nylon bag) than what i do is use cheese cloth around the sphion tube this will filler most of the hops out/ let stand 1/2 hour before bottling. or an hour i have done both no problems yet.

 

[Nwcw2001]

When ever I do my Belgian Tripple I always dryhop as well as spice the secondary fermenter.

I had a fine mess strainer and cheesecloth at my disposal when I transferred from the carboy to the bottling bucket. If you don't have that you can always tie your grain bag to the end of your shiphon hose going into your bottling bucket or the keg you are going into, that way the only place the really big stuff gets into is the bag and not the beer.


hth

John

 

[Cheesefood]

No, no hop bag. I thought that they wouldn't work with pellet hops.

Works fine for me. The bought a very fine one and used it when I last brewed. I was happy to see a big, green ball of hop-trub in it at the end of a 60 minute boil. I think it's best to dedicate a bag for hops to ensure that your grains don't rip a hole that will allow the hops to leak through.

 

[Shambolic]

I just chuck pellet hops in the primary, and by the time I rack to the secondary, all the particulate stuff has settled into the trub.

If you're patient, and don't bottle too early, you shouldn't end up with any hops in your bottles.

In fact, I don't even strain my beer very well into the primary, so a lot of my bittering hops go in there too. I haven't had a problem with it - they all settle out within the week or so in the primary, and they haven't had any adverse effect on the flavour...

That's my experience.

 

[Rhoobarb]

... Should I move it too a tertiary fermenter?

I've done that only once - with Janx' Hop Rod Rye clone, which I dry hopped. It worked well.

I've read that you can use unflavored gelatin...

You can. I've alse read that you can use Isinglass, which is made from fish bladders or Polyclar, which are plastic pellets. All should be available at most LHBS's. But, outside of that one tertiary, I've never used anything other than Irish Moss in the last 15-20 mins. of the boil to clarify my beer.

The second part of my question is both batches we have dry hopped have stalled out 1.030.

Hard to say without seeing the actual recipe (I've heard of this recipe, but can't recall seeing it in quite awhile), but I'm guessing a longer primary fermentation might be in order. If it's still sweeter than you want, I would think that would be the case. Otherwise, maybe your hop bill is too low for either the system you have or the brewng method you're using.

Just my 2 centavos.