Dry Hopping in Secondary

[roadtodenali]

I racked my IPA to a secondary and dry hopped 3oz of pellets. It has been in the secondary for almost 2 weeks now. Since the second day there has been a quarter inch green layer on top of the brew which I assumed was the dissolved pellets floating. I was under the assumption that these would eventually drop and cake at the bottom. I'm starting to wonder. Is it normal for these guys to float like this for so long?

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

For the future what you should have done is put the hops in a muslin or nylon bag and weighed it down with a SS washer or glass marbles in order to contain that mess. I dry hopped a small batch of cider once without a bag and it did end up dropped but it definitely did not cake. It was very easy to stir up and it made me waste a lot of cider in order to not bring any up. That's all muddy hopping experience so far so I'm sure someone else will post and help.

 

[hilts]

Dry hopping for two weeks with three ounces is a lot for a long time. You may want to rack into another vessel for week to let things settle out and clarify. I usually dry hop 5-7 days. After that it gets 'grassy'.

 

[roadtodenali]

Thanks guys. I have handful of bags and were going to use them but most advice I received was "oh with pellets don't worry about it, they just settle out". I am sure the fermentation is done, the only reason I haven't racked for bottling yet is because I’m hoping I come home one day and this crap is on the bottom of the carboy. I think I read once about siphoning with a bag covering the end of the auto siphon. Maybe I’ll give that a shot.
What I’m really wondering is, for anyone one out there who has directly dry hopped with pellets, Is this what you have seen? Pellet mash floating for days on end?

 

[kombat]

What I’m really wondering is, for anyone one out there who has directly dry hopped with pellets, Is this what you have seen? Pellet mash floating for days on end?

Yes, that's consistent with my own experience.

Some of the pellets sink, some remain on the surface. I just rack from beneath the top layer and try not to pick up too much of the stuff at the bottom. However, if some make it through, it's no big deal. It just makes your IPA more "authentic."

 

[Jayhem]

All you have to do is sanitize a zip tie and a small paint strainer bag and put the strainer over the end of your siphon and rack away, the floating hops will remain in the fermenter.

 

[Spartangreen]

Yes, that's consistent with my own experience.

Some of the pellets sink, some remain on the surface. I just rack from beneath the top layer and try not to pick up too much of the stuff at the bottom. However, if some make it through, it's no big deal. It just makes your IPA more "authentic."

I dry hop by just adding to the primary. And I use this method as well.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

All you have to do is sanitize a zip tie and a small paint strainer bag and put the strainer over the end of your siphon and rack away, the floating hops will remain in the fermenter.

Bingo. In addition what I've learned to do is move the carboy to where it will be when I rack to my bottling bucket and let it sit over night. Generally the move rocks the carboy just enough to get everything to sink and by the next day its all settled to the bottom.

Though honestly I try to avoid pellets as much as possible and go for whole cones. Solves this whole problem.

 

[zdbrown1]

I dry hop by just adding to the primary. And I use this method as well.

I do both as well. No issues with dry hopping in the primary



Sent from my Nexus 5 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[kharper6]

I would dry hop in a bag as discussed here. Also I only dry hop for 24 hours and have seen no difference in 1 day and 3+ days in side by side comparisons of the exact same beer.

What I used to come to this conclusion :

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/34093/Wolfe_thesis.pdf

Granted I can't match the laboratory settings, it still works in my homebrew system.

 

[roadtodenali]

Just wanted to tack onto this in case anyone comes across it. I racked to the bottling bucket using with the bag over my siphon. It worked horribly at first. The siphon could not hold pressure and I kept getting all kinds of air. Suspecting that the bag was causing too much loss of volume through the siphon, I inspected the end. Remember that this IPA had all kinds of dry hop gunk in the secondary. I have two different kinds of nylon bags from Midwest and Morebeer. The one from Midwest seems to be significantly finer and it did seem to be clogging enough that the siphon couldn’t maintain pressure. I switched to the slightly more porous bag and it worked great!:rockin: Just something to keep in mind.
On a side note, I chilled and cracked a beer a few days ago (after 1 week priming) and it is fantastic. It was from the Ferocious IPA kit from Midwest. What a great beer.

 

[AnOldUR]

Dry hopping in a carboy, as the OP did, and using bags is a bad idea. Pulling a swollen bag through the skinny opening is a PITA. Just toss them in. Use the proper size carboy, so you can fill it up to the neck so that the hops have no place to float. Cold crash after a few days and they will drop.

In this picture there's only about 2 1/2 ounces of hops, but you can see how well they've settled to the bottom.