I've always done my dry hopping after racking to a clean carboy. I'm wondering though, if this is at all needed. Why not just wait for airlock activity to stop (or FG reading) and just toss them in the primary? Seems like it would save you a step, and I can't think of any problems.
Dry hopping in primary
- Thread starter phuzle
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a10t2
Well-Known Member
Dry-hopping in the fermenter is SOP at most brewpubs. You do want to wait for most of the yeast to flocculate (or cold crash first) so that it won't carry all that hoppy goodness out of suspension with it.
wolverinebrewer
Well-Known Member
I always dry hop in primary and always buckets. Ferment for 21 days and then drop in the pellets or leaf hops for day 21-28, then bottle.
any difference between suspending the hops in a weighted bag and just chuckin' them in?
BillyBeer
Well-Known Member
I have been dry hopping in the primary for years now and I have to say no noticeable difference except less hassle - less chance of infection - more time to drink beer :S
Cool, thanks for all the input. I never understood why people would say "don't do a secondary unless you're doing dry hops" because there was no reason why you shouldn't toss it into the primary and only have to rack once.
Lenny2884
Well-Known Member
FWIW, the first 6-7 times I dry-hopped I did it only in the primary for many of the reasons stated above, it's easier, less chance for oxygen pickup or infection, etc.. However, recently I've read a lot information and heard on the BN about how hop oils attach themselves to yeast cell walls hence decreasing the amount of hop oils in solution. I've since changed to dry-hopping in the a secondary or keg and have noticed a significant increase in overall hop flavor and aroma. I consider myself a pretty lazy brewer so I rarely find myself using a secondary, but the increased benefits from dry-hopping that I'm now finding make it an easy decision for me to secondary. Granted, this is only what I know from my own experience so this may not be true for everyone. The only way you'll know if it has a benefit in your system is to try it. At the end of day I'd rather have better tasting beer than save myself some time by dry-hopping in the primary.
how long were you waiting before dry hopping?
Lenny2884
Well-Known Member
About a week. I usually wait till it looks like most of the yeast has fallen out of suspension but still have some airlock activity. It also depends how the ferment goes. I did a Stone IPA clone a couple months ago using WLP007 and that yeast fermented out in 3-4 days, so by day 5 I racked to a secondary and dry-hopped and it worked out great. Ideally I'd prefer to rack it when its within 1 or 2 points of terminal gravity so that any oxygen introduced from the dry-hop will be pushed out by the last bit of activity but I usually don't time it right. Either way I haven't had any oxydation problems since changing to a secondary for dry-hopping.
Lenny2884
Well-Known Member
Definitely. I've waited up to two weeks and still had good results. The one thing I would caution against is dry-hopping in the keg with pellet hops. The results came out very nice in terms of flavor and aroma, but there was just way too much hop matter at the bottom of the keg and in each pour. I've read on here that some people have had great results doing this, but again I'm just going off my own experience. Try different things and see what works best for you. Either way you'll have beer.
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