Dry Hopping and Secondary Fermenters

[hiphops]

I am going to dry hop my first beer. The recipe calls for dry hopping it for about 7 days. I am told from a reputable source that I should add the hops into the primary fermenter for the first seven days. After that, I should go with the secondary.

That sounds reasonable. But, I guess I just want to be a little lazy and bypass going through with the secondary. What about these two options, all of which bypass the secondary.

Option 1. Forget the 7 day thing. Just keep the hops in the fermenter until its time to bottle the stuff.

Option 2. Let the beer ferment out and, after getting a stable gravity reading, add in the hops and give it another 7 days, at which time you then bottle the beer.

I never used a secondary and am just feeling lazy about it. Is the secondary necessary for dry hopping? If so, i'll get over my laziness and use a secondary.

 

[devilishprune]

Go with option 2. Apparently, fermentation can scrub some of that delicious hop aroma that you're looking for. I always dry hop in primary after fermentation is over and I have had great results with this method.

 

[jerryalan]

Don't put it in the primary for the first seven days. You'll lose hop aroma from the fermentation gassing. Wait until fermentation is complete, then dry-hop. If you use a secondary, dry-hop there. If you don't, then simply add your hops when fermentation is complete. I've left hops in the secondary for three weeks with good results.

 

[Revvy]

If I dry hop in primary I do it for the last 7 days of my month long primary.

 

[hiphops]

Thanks. That's exactly what i wanted to hear.

 

[hiberntepaths]

Yeah, don't keep the hops in there too long.

 

[hiphops]

oh actually, i forgot to ask one more question . . . i'm going to be dry hopping using hop pellets. don't these create a tremendous amount of trub? that being the case, whats the best way to siphon it into the bottling bucket, using the autosiphon, to minimize the trub that gets into the bottling bucket? would it make sense to siphon the beer into some form of a screen or sieve and then letting it pour into the bottling bucket?

 

[scottland]

I personally don't ever transfer to a secondary to dry hop, unless i want to wash and re-use the yeast cake the beer is sitting on. Your Option 2 is the correct one.

If you add the hops too early during fermentation, the escaping CO2 will take much of the hop aroma with it out the airlock. You want to add your hops after the bulk of fermentation is complete. I add mine when i'm close to FG or at FG (a couple points won't matter).

Basically you want to work backwards. You want to dry hop your beer 7-10 days before you rack it to keg or bottles, so primary or primary/secondary how every long you normally would, and with 7-10 days left, dry hop, then bottle or keg.

 

[jerryalan]

oh actually, i forgot to ask one more question . . . i'm going to be dry hopping using hop pellets. don't these create a tremendous amount of trub? that being the case, whats the best way to siphon it into the bottling bucket, using the autosiphon, to minimize the trub that gets into the bottling bucket? would it make sense to siphon the beer into some form of a screen or sieve and then letting it pour into the bottling bucket?

Don't use a sieve. You'll introduce a lot of oxygen to your beer doing that unless you keep the sieve below the beer level. Either put your dry-hops in a muslin bag or keep the end of your autosiphon above the trub when racking to the bottling bucket.

 

[tcory77]

I have reuseable nylon mesh hop bags that I sanitize and tie on the end of my auto siphen. It really does a good job of keeping the hop trub out of my keg/bottling bucket.

Just tie it on and rack as you normally would.

enjoy!!!!!

 

[mattldm]

oh actually, i forgot to ask one more question . . . i'm going to be dry hopping using hop pellets. don't these create a tremendous amount of trub? that being the case, whats the best way to siphon it into the bottling bucket, using the autosiphon, to minimize the trub that gets into the bottling bucket? would it make sense to siphon the beer into some form of a screen or sieve and then letting it pour into the bottling bucket?

I use a large fine mesh hop bag wrapped around the end of the racking cane tube. This will catch most of the hops that get sucked up when racking.

 

[thepipesarecall]

Won't the buildup of organic hop matter on the mesh potentially remove a significant portion of the yeast as well?

 

[tcory77]

Not really. Keep the end of the auto-siphen up off the bottom until I need it down that far. At that point most of the beer is already in the keg and/or bottling bucket.