This is my first time dry hopping. I know it is recommended to rack into a secondary when dry hopping, I also know there are some who don't, and for a couple of different reasons (I'm ashamed to say the biggest one is I didn't have an appropriately-sized fermenter free) I decided to try just adding the hops to the primary; it had been 13 days. I am still a total n00b and still figuring out my own style/preferences, so I figured at the very worst it would be a worthwhile experiment. In the future I'll just be doing it in the secondary -- I think that is more my "style" (and besides, if I don't have a free fermenter at the right time, that just means I can tell my wife I just absolutely have to buy another carboy, right? Right? )
Another "style" thing I am still figuring out is how to go about transferring the wort into the primary. On this batch I ended up trying to decant it, but since the kettle had quite a bit of whole hops in it, I ended up getting a lot of hops in the primary anyway. I know people say that is just fine; I don't think I like it. But what's done is done.
So on to the problem at hand: The kettle hops kind of created a floating layer of hop fragments on top of the fermenting wort. When I dumped my dry hops in through a funnel, they made like a little pile on top of the floating hops that were already in there. I took my (sanitized) bottle wand (it was handy) and kinda stirred it around in there, and I did manage to break up the mound, but it still looks like most of the dry hops are just sorta sitting on top of the existing layer. I let it sit like that overnight, and it still looks the same.
I was thinking of picking the whole thing up and giving the carboy a vigorous shake. Sound like a good idea? JUST KIDDING!
My question is twofold: First, has anybody who has dry-hopped in the primary experienced this who could tell me if they still got an effective dry hop? And second, does anybody have any innovative suggestions for getting the dry hops to mix in a little better without aerating the crap out of the beer? It's in a glass carboy so.... access is limited.
I was sorta thinking about racking to a secondary now, but I picture doing that and I figure the dry hops will just sink into the trub. I suppose I could add the whole thing to the secondary, trub and all, and just wait another couple weeks for it to fully clear... but something about that just seems "wrong" to me.
I tasted a hydro sample before dry hopping and loved it... so I figure absolute worst case scenario, the dry hops don't work and I wasted a few bucks worth of good hops to get an awesome-tasting-but-not-quite-as-awesome-as-it-could-have-been IPA. Worse things have happened...
(Edit: Please don't make this a "ditch your glass carboy, that &*%! will cut your hand off yo -- buckets/Better Bottles FTW!" thread. I know all the arguments. For now, I use glass because a) I think it looks awesome, and b) glass just "feels cleaner" to me, probably because I am subconsciously fearing scratches. I freely admit that if I were being 100% rational I would switch to Better Bottles or some other non-glass alternative. I'm choosing not to be rational in this circumstance. If I break a carboy, or if I get sick of paying the extra $$$ on additional fermenters, I could see my mind changing really quick. But that ain't what this thread's about. Thanks!)
Another "style" thing I am still figuring out is how to go about transferring the wort into the primary. On this batch I ended up trying to decant it, but since the kettle had quite a bit of whole hops in it, I ended up getting a lot of hops in the primary anyway. I know people say that is just fine; I don't think I like it. But what's done is done.
So on to the problem at hand: The kettle hops kind of created a floating layer of hop fragments on top of the fermenting wort. When I dumped my dry hops in through a funnel, they made like a little pile on top of the floating hops that were already in there. I took my (sanitized) bottle wand (it was handy) and kinda stirred it around in there, and I did manage to break up the mound, but it still looks like most of the dry hops are just sorta sitting on top of the existing layer. I let it sit like that overnight, and it still looks the same.
I was thinking of picking the whole thing up and giving the carboy a vigorous shake. Sound like a good idea? JUST KIDDING!
My question is twofold: First, has anybody who has dry-hopped in the primary experienced this who could tell me if they still got an effective dry hop? And second, does anybody have any innovative suggestions for getting the dry hops to mix in a little better without aerating the crap out of the beer? It's in a glass carboy so.... access is limited.
I was sorta thinking about racking to a secondary now, but I picture doing that and I figure the dry hops will just sink into the trub. I suppose I could add the whole thing to the secondary, trub and all, and just wait another couple weeks for it to fully clear... but something about that just seems "wrong" to me.
I tasted a hydro sample before dry hopping and loved it... so I figure absolute worst case scenario, the dry hops don't work and I wasted a few bucks worth of good hops to get an awesome-tasting-but-not-quite-as-awesome-as-it-could-have-been IPA. Worse things have happened...
(Edit: Please don't make this a "ditch your glass carboy, that &*%! will cut your hand off yo -- buckets/Better Bottles FTW!" thread. I know all the arguments. For now, I use glass because a) I think it looks awesome, and b) glass just "feels cleaner" to me, probably because I am subconsciously fearing scratches. I freely admit that if I were being 100% rational I would switch to Better Bottles or some other non-glass alternative. I'm choosing not to be rational in this circumstance. If I break a carboy, or if I get sick of paying the extra $$$ on additional fermenters, I could see my mind changing really quick. But that ain't what this thread's about. Thanks!)