Dry Hopping disaster.....grrrrr

[FxdGrMind]

Ok, M&J clone recipe has 1 oz Cascade Hops in Dry hop 5-7 days in Secondary after 10 day Primary firmentation where I added Hops late also (semi Dry Hopped, as I boiled some wort and added hops (2 cups) to primary as I forgot to add them in the last 15 min of boil).

Primary had a nice compact yeast and hop bed but I still lost about 1/2 gallon trying not to fill my secondary with yeast.

Now my secondary, where I dry hoped 1 oz of Cascades (pelets is all I could get my hands on locally).

I put them in thinking come racking they would have fallen out of suspension and formed a nice cake with the remaining yeast falling out just like the Primary.

Alas NOT, they were floating all through the beer and there was a thick mass at the bottom 1" of fluff that stirred up instantly when secondary was moved creating a "Storm" in the carboy.

So thinking positively, I'll just filter it during transfer to keg. and tied a hop bag to my racking cane to filter it out.

The first 1 1/2 gal was fine and relatively clear.... then it started. the filter clogged and the transfer rats slowed adding in air bubbles to the racking cane. it fully stopped with 2 gal left in 2ndary. I removed it and primed the cane again with fluid (my normal start to siphon) and started again to get the last 2 gal... with still over a gallon left it plugged again and I gave up.

During the siphoning I noticed lots of hops residue flowing through the tube... by the end it was 50/50 Just a mud flow.

I anticipate I'll loose at least another gallon now in the keg waiting for this mess to fall out so I can transfer again to another keg after I figure out how to filter the "NASTY" hop residue out of it.

I'm never using Pellet hops again..... this stuff is crap...not to mention expensive at nearly$5 for 2 oz. And to loose beer on top of that.

Well it will be 3 gal when done as I figure now and at over $50 for ingredients.... well that's just crazy talk. The Pellet hops have ruined this attempt at a M&J clone. I'm just completely disgusted by it.

So How to I salvage what little beer is left? Or is this 'Silt Hops" just destined to ruin my beer?

 

[ifishsum]

I did the same thing once and haven't used pellet hops since, at least for dry hopping. Whole hops just float up there and are very easy to rack from beneath them.

IIRC I used a hop steeping bag (sanitized) rubber banded onto the end of the racking cane. It was slow and I had to restart the siphon a few times, but in the end I got most of the beer away from the sludge. It was quite frustrating and I swore I wouldn't use pellets again because of it.

 

[enderwig]

Get you one of these



Northern Brewer Hop Steeping Ball

 

[Skins_Brew]

or a paint strainer bag and a zip tie. Works like a charm for me. I dry hopped with pellets straight into the carboy once and there was indeed hop matter on the surface and suspended after two weeks. Someone on here recommended rocking the carboy back and forth and gently tapping it against the floor. I did that and sure enough stuff began to slowly fall. I did that every day for a few days and presto, clear beer.

 

[nosmatt]

and/or crash cool the secondary a few days before kegging.
EVERYthing drops to the bottom for me. even my whole hops are on the cake.

 

[Eastside Brewer]

+ 1 on cold crashing. I only use pellet hops and I don't use hope bags. Getting the beer as cold as the fridge will get it (35-40) and then use Gelatin and your beer will be chrystal clear.

Eastside

 

[Buford]

I've dry hopped with pellet before but I don't intend to do that again. The sludge just makes a mess. For the batch I have right now that I intend on dry hopping, I'm going to put the beer into a keg with a surescreen on the tube and throw some leaf hops in, then transfer to a serving keg after a week under CO2 pressure.

 

[Cougfan]

I went through this a week ago. It drove me crazy too. The hops were all throughout the keg. When I went to keg it, I put the racking cane and siphon tube into the carboy as normal. I then put the hop bag on the outlet of the siphon tube. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

 

[steelerguy]

Dry hopped in secondary and rocked it a bit each day and they all fell. Didn't have any issues when I moved to bottling bucket.

 

[FxdGrMind]

The Sludge it too small for a tea ball to filter it out as even my filter strainer on my racking cane couldn't filter it out.

I guess I'll have to try a Coffee filter on the output end of my racking cane when I rack it from this keg into another one next weekend.

The problem with all this racking and straining is that I fear this is airaiting the beer and it will go nasty very soon due to this. I don't drink beer that fast....


So should force rack it with CO2 as it's now in a keg... I could just pressurize the keg and filter the out put from the picknic tap into another container .. then when it clears return the beer back to the keg and call it good.

Does that sound plausable? I suppose to get this to work best I should cold crash it first to get the "Garbage" to the bottom so I don't have to filter all of it.

 

[david_42]

You'll never get coffee filters to work. You need something like this:

 

[missing link]

Just keg it and serve. You you will get hop residue in the first few pints but they will be drinkable, then it will clear after that.

Linc

 

[FxdGrMind]

Thanks David42!

Thats what I need. I use something similar for my Whole house filter (as I live on a well) and I use a faucet Carbon filter at the sink.

I'll just have to pick up another and some fittings to link the kegs together.

I take the flow is CO2 into the keg out then through the filter and into the next keg via the OUT (so as to minimise the airation) and then a picknic tap on the 2nd keg "IN" to control flow?

Am I missing anything with your picture?

Cheers and thanks! you might just be a life saver if this works as think it does.
:rockin:

 

[mZnthebend]

I've had good luck with the muslin steeping bags. I boil them for a few minutes, load up the pellets, coffee beans, etc. tie a knot and let them soak. Since I'm doing long primaries now, I have been just throwing the "hop sack" directly into the keg instead of the secondary, and let it sit there for the entire keg. You get a few bits and pieces but nothing worth getting upset about. With the coffee I have tied the sack to a piece of unscented dental floss and let the dental floss come out of the main hatch. The keg still sealed even with the dental floss. When it tastes good, I just vent the keg pop the hatch, remove, and re-pressurize.

 

[TopDog]

Just keg it and serve. You you will get hop residue in the first few pints but they will be drinkable, then it will clear after that.

Linc

+1. That's what I do and you get the added bonus of hop flavor throughout the day from the hops stuck in your teeth!

 

[bdnoona]

I put a large, sanitized paint strainer into my keg and quietly siphon into it, and then remove it when done. It catches 99% of the hop sludge. I have dry hopped with pellets and filtered it this way several times and my beer is very clear.

 

[BrewDey]

Get you one of these



Northern Brewer Hop Steeping Ball

My only experience of dry-hopping with one of these was fantastic. Right into the keg and it just reeked of Amarillos...before I kegged, I'd dry-dry hope by stuffing a muslin bag odf them into the carboy..seemed to work OK

 

[Panzermann]

I never have any issues dry hopping with pellets. I just throw them in and rack on top of them. I use an auto siphon no problems. I actually have to bottle another batchof DFH when I get home, its been dry hopping for a week now.

 

[Donthoseme]

I just dry hopped my Belgian IPA with 2oz's of EKG pellet hops and it came out great. I was really surprised at the way they dropped with the exception of a green film on the top. I have had great success dry hopping for a few reasons i think.

1. long primary - because of a long primary i get as much fermentation as i can out of my yeast, they get to clean themselves up, and most drop out of suspension making it easier to rack clear beer to secondary.

2. cool secondary - i keep my secondary ferment at 60 to let the yeast finish out and drop easily. I guess my secondary is more like a hop conditioning stage.

3. COLD CRASH - i mean wow! i just put it outside (i live in AK) and all my yeast will drop out making a nice compact yeast cake. I strongly suggest cold crashing if you don't already.

 

[FxdGrMind]

Thanks Zombie brewing.
My primary was 10 days, dry hopped at 60-61 deg. There was no change in FG from end of primary to end of 2ndary. The beer was really nice and clear when I racked to 2ndary... then I added the hops.. they floated/swam through the beer and only a fraction setteled out and even that was stirred up by even careful moving.
I transfered to Keg(while trying to filter) I can only hope now that the cold crash after aging.
If I can't get it to clear, then I'll have to filter... just don't know how I'll do that when it's carbonated....??