Dry hopping question

[Bruiz54]

Quick question. Has anyone ever had any problems with dry hopping? Just currious as to what issues can come up with dry hoping and how to avoid them? Also isn't there always A risk of contamination with dry hoping?

Well thanks everyone

 

[weirdboy]

I personally haven't experienced it, but I have heard that if you dry hop for long periods, like greater than 2 or 3 weeks, you can get grassy flavors coming from the hops. I have also heard anecdotally that using an abnormally large amount of dry hops can cause a similar effect.

So far as contamination goes, hops are a natural preservative anyway, and by the time you're dry hopping you should have a good amount of alcohol in your brew. I've never heard of anyone getting a contamination from dry hopping.

 

[Grinder12000]

The only thing I have ever heard are people dry hopping for a very very long time (like a month).

 

[ol' rummie]

I once made a double batch of an amber, 1 carboy I dry hopped, the other i didn't, the one that I dry hopped ended up tasting like plastic. I'm still not sure where the infection came from, the hops were frozen, but make sure everything is sanitized(measuring equipment etc.). The alternitive is to make a "hop tea" and add it to secondary.

 

[SeamusMac]

Hops acts as a preservative in beer, that's why IPA's are so heavily hopped because the beer needs to be kept in storage for a longer period of time. Having said that, I'm not going to say that all hops are perfectly sanitary but I've dry-hopped 4 beers to date and never had a problem with infection.

I don't let my beers dry-hop for longer than 10 days as I believe that is optimal.

 

[HughBrooks]

I have dry hopped several beers and the only problem I have come across is dry hopping for too long. I think that there is no real risk with dry hopping as long as you dry hop for 2 weeks or less. I like to like to shoot for about a week. Happy brewing!!

 

[Bruiz54]

Wow this i all really good in site thanks guys. I have only dry hoped once before myself. Doing it again now so well see

 

[Beer:30]

I dry hopped my last batch of IPA with whole leaf, and then got super busy and didn't get to rack to keg for about a month. The smell is awesome, the taste has yet to be determined. I will report back.

 

[Denny]

I've dry hopped dozens of batches of beer and never gotten an infection from it. As to "grassiness", that's more related to the type of hop you use than the length of dry hopping. I dry hop in the serving keg and the hops sgtay in there for months sometimes and there is no "grassiness".

 

[Beer:30]

Ahhh, then perhaps its another one of those homebrew myths!

 

[oldschool]

Hops acts as a preservative in beer, that's why IPA's are so heavily hopped because the beer needs to be kept in storage for a longer period of time. Having said that, I'm not going to say that all hops are perfectly sanitary but I've dry-hopped 4 beers to date and never had a problem with infection.

I don't let my beers dry-hop for longer than 10 days as I believe that is optimal.

It is my understanding that IPAs were traditionally "hopped up" because of the long journeys they made by boat and stored in poor containers, not because they need to be stored for long periods.

 

[CaptYesterday]

Temperature has a lot to do with the characteristics the hops impart to the beer. You are better off trying to dryhop at or around your ferment temp.

Dryhopping at 40 degrees is going to give you slightly different effects than the same amount of hops at 60 or 70 degrees. Perhaps this is why the beer dryhopped in the keg never became grassy, grassiness could be an affect of dryhopping for too long at warmer temps.

 

[Wild Duk]

I've always dry hopped in the keg and was never really impressed....My current brew I'm gonna DH in the carboy......If I just dump whole hops and rack on top of them, how much of a pain in the a@s is it to get the hops out after the carboy is empty???

 

[Bruiz54]

Depends on the types of hops that you use. But I have used both types before and the whole leaf stuff just kinda floats on top. With the pellet hops you might want a strainer.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

I've always dry hopped in the keg and was never really impressed....My current brew I'm gonna DH in the carboy......If I just dump whole hops and rack on top of them, how much of a pain in the a@s is it to get the hops out after the carboy is empty???

It will be somewhat time consuming to get those hops out. I use a 6 Gallon SS stock pot as my Secondary, and dry hopping is really easy with the big lid. You can just toss in your hops with or without a hop bag and they are super easy to get out.5 gallon food grade bucket will work fine as well.

 

[2bluewagons]

I've always dry hopped in the keg and was never really impressed....My current brew I'm gonna DH in the carboy......If I just dump whole hops and rack on top of them, how much of a pain in the a@s is it to get the hops out after the carboy is empty???

I don't think it's that big a deal, a few rinse and swirls with water and pour out into the compost pile. The hops will be water-logged (beer-logged actually) so if you get a good swirl going and dump quickly they will mostly come out. Not all that much different that getting out trub and yeast.

Getting them in is certainly a pain, though and the last two times I've done it in the primary, putting whole hops in one by one. The first time I did it in the secondary, adding hops first, purging with CO2, and then racking beer in. That made me feel a little better about any possible contamination/oxidation issues, but not really sure if it made any diff.