Dry Hopping - grinding your pellets first?

[TrojanAnteater]

I tried to do some searching regarding this topic, but came up empty.

Listening to a podcast yesterday on a pretty routine dry hop technique used in commercial breweries- that is, to blow some CO2 into the tank from the bottom to blow the hops back up into solution, increasing the contact time of the hop particles... I know most in this forum will be aware of this technique.

SO, from the standpoint of someone adding pellents into a carboy- what about softly grinding up the pellets and then adding them as a sort of powder so they disperse themselves at the very start and get more contact time right when added and while falling to the bottom, rather then if they were solid pellets they'd fall straight down much faster and just sit. I'd imagine this would make for some small difference if there weren't any negative aspects to it. Thoughts?

 

[SnakeRidge]

My hop pellets fall apart pretty quick when I drop them in. I don't know that there would be a benefit to grinding them up. You can always gently swirl your fermenter to get things stirred back up if you want.

 

[day_trippr]

Not only is there no reason to grind pellets, there's good reason not to: hop resins will stick to the grinder instead of ending up in the beer.

I almost always dry hop with pellets, and within an hour for sure they've turned into mush, most of which will take days to sink (though some types do sink faster). My ferm fridge is near my keezer so when I pour a beer if I have anything dry hopping I'll rock the fermenter enough to re-sink the mush.

After five days of that I cold-crash it all to the bottom and CO2 push to a keg.
Easy as pie...

Cheers!

 

[bierhaus15]

SO, from the standpoint of someone adding pellents into a carboy- what about softly grinding up the pellets and then adding them as a sort of powder so they disperse themselves at the very start and get more contact time right when added and while falling to the bottom, rather then if they were solid pellets they'd fall straight down much faster and just sit. I'd imagine this would make for some small difference if there weren't any negative aspects to it. Thoughts?

Many breweries do exactly that for numerous reasons, one of which is (significantly) increased hop character. However, unless you know what you are doing and have control over your process (like being able to remove hops via centrifuge, ect) there is a definite risk of ending up with pretty bad tasting beer. Excessive astringency, via polyphenol uptake, is usually the big issue.

If adding powderized hop pellets to beer is something you'd like to experiment with, I'd recommend trying it out on small scale and go from there. Total dry hop time with this method is usually short, often no more than 24 to 48 hours, especially if any type of recirculation is involved.

 

[jturman35]

Bringing this up from the dead. Bet I don’t have any issues with this dry hop getting in the beer.

 

[day_trippr]

Glad you resurrected this thread as it gives me the opportunity to note I have changed my mind about pitching pulverized pellets.

When I started brewing again in February I switched my dry-hopping practice to following "cool and quick" process touted by Scott Janish, doing a soft-crash to 50°F for a couple of days then adding the hops for just a couple of days before hard crashing and packaging.

First time I did this the pellets all went straight to the bottom and stayed largely intact. As I ferment and dry hop in carboys I didn't (don't) want to swirl the beer to break up the pellets, but as the beer definitely didn't sport its usual in-your-face hoppyness I made note to pulverize them the next time, which made a ton of difference.

I use a Cuisinart steel blade, which barely accumulates any resin in the process, so minimal losses...

Cheers!

 

[jturman35]

This is the first time I have ever used a coffee bean grinder to pulverize the hops. I have the exact process as you mentioned above. One thing people forget frozen hop pellets will drop like a rock.

I did a soft crash for 24hrs and shooting for 2-3 day dry hop of Citra/Amarillo at 55 degrees followed by a cold crash before racking to the keg.

 

[JAReeves]

Intriguing. Since I dry-hop at 40F (also from Janish), this is something I need to consider.

 

[odie]

I dry hop in the keg. I put the pellets in a stocking so they all stay together. I have a floating dip tube and there is a ping pong ball in the stocking so the hop bag stays up near the pickup. I suppose I might get overly hopped pours for a while until it all attenuates.

 

[passedpawn]

I use the Northern Brewer Depth Charge for my Big Mouth Bubblers when I know I'll be dry-hopping. That long stainless steel plunger allows you to periodically churn the pellet hops without disturbing the rest of the beer in the fermentor. Cons: some O2 exposure, no easy way to do pressure transfer to keg.

https://a.co/d/gD4RxFD

 

[Bassman2003]

I have been doing pressure fermentation with a large amount of CO2 starting pressure (2 bar) and this really brings out the hop character. It also creates a challenge for dry hopping. I am on my third design with magnets in a food sealer bag inside a hop sock and it worked well this time. I am transferring the beer today, so I will see how strong the aroma turned out.

So while I can't participate in much hop prep, I feel the pressure makes up for a lot.