Dry hopping question

[NicoleBrewer]

When dry hopping in the secondary can I just toss the hop pellets in loose or do I have to use a mesh bag?

 

[CBMbrewer]

You can do both just fine. I just toss them in. When you rack to keg or bottling bucket you can tie a mesh bag around the bottom of the racking cane to prevent hop particles from being transferred over.

 

[worksnorth]

you can do both just fine. I just toss them in. When you rack to keg or bottling bucket you can tie a mesh bag around the bottom of the racking cane to prevent hop particles from being transferred over.

+1

 

[Wolfbayne]

Mesh bag is a winner! Best to use whole leaf instead of pellets if not using mesh or muslin.

 

[Foosier]

Save yourself even more time and effort and dry hop in the primary.

I just throw the pellets straight in when I am ready. Hops end up in the trub when it is all done. Makes it a bit easier to rack without picking them up.

Not sure how it would work with whole leaf, but the muslin bag over the cane should solve that problem too.

 

[NicoleBrewer]

I've always read not to put them in the primary because the rigorous fermentation can "blow out" all of the aroma

 

[sybesbrew]

I've always read not to put them in the primary because the rigorous fermentation can "blow out" all of the aroma

If you wait for fermentation to be complete you should not have any trouble dry hopping in the primary.

 

[Hang Glider]

Save yourself even more time and effort and dry hop in the primary.

I've been brewing a long time now, (12 years) and I have absolutely discerned a difference in my beers when I dry hop my Pales and IPAs. I am certain some of the dry hop flavors get trapped in the trub...so I use a secondary ONLY when I'm dry hopping.

your methods/results may vary, of course.

 

[NicoleBrewer]

I've been brewing a long time now, (12 years) and I have absolutely discerned a difference in my beers when I dry hop my Pales and IPAs. I am certain some of the dry hop flavors get trapped in the trub...so I use a secondary ONLY when I'm dry hopping.

your methods/results may vary, of course.

thats what I thought. Plus if im going to dry hop when fermentation is done it makes more sense to do it in a secondary so its racked off the trub

 

[worksnorth]

I've been brewing a long time now, (12 years) and I have absolutely discerned a difference in my beers when I dry hop my Pales and IPAs. I am certain some of the dry hop flavors get trapped in the trub...so I use a secondary ONLY when I'm dry hopping.

your methods/results may vary, of course.

Have you tried dry hopping in the keg, Hang Glider? It works wonderfully too

 

[Hang Glider]

Have you tried dry hopping in the keg, Hang Glider? It works wonderfully too

yes, I have - in fact, I have added 'hooks' inside the lids of my kegs, to suspend/retrieve muslin hop bags !

 

[stpug]

I've been brewing a long time now, (12 years) and I have absolutely discerned a difference in my beers when I dry hop my Pales and IPAs. I am certain some of the dry hop flavors get trapped in the trub...so I use a secondary ONLY when I'm dry hopping.

your methods/results may vary, of course.

Are you saying that dry hopping in primary AT ANY POINT yields less flavor/aroma, in your opinion? I'm looking to dry hop in primary after fermentation has completed and hopefully some settling has subsided, but don't want it to end up worthless. What would be the difference of flavor/aroma that you would say you notice? Simply, less flavor/aroma? The reason I'm looking to dry hop my primary is because I also plan on dry hopping the keg later on and would prefer not to transfer to secondary.

 

[Hang Glider]

You only dry hop after fermentation - that is a given.

so...yes, in my humble opinion, the hop flavor is less strong when I dry hop in my primary, which I attribute to hops settling into the trub and that trub absorbing some of my intended flavors. Therefore, I choose to use a secondary, and as Worksnorth alluded to, I often also dry hop with a muslin bag hanging in the keg.

 

[stpug]

You only dry hop after fermentation - that is a given.

so...yes, in my humble opinion, the hop flavor is less strong when I dry hop in my primary, which I attribute to hops settling into the trub and that trub absorbing some of my intended flavors. Therefore, I choose to use a secondary, and as Worksnorth alluded to, I often also dry hop with a muslin bag hanging in the keg.

Very good, thank you for that. I have also experienced the loss of hop character due to sedimentation (something like hop oils attaching to yeast and falling out of suspension, thus taking the hop characteristics with it).

Regarding fermenter dry hopping times, there is a very interesting article in the latest zymurgy talking about some potential changes that take place in hop oils when allowed to "intermingle" with the fermenting yeast activity - a "biotransformation" as they called it - whereby some compounds are converted into different compounts while others are broken apart to release aromatics. I don't know; the whole idea is pretty scientific and I'd have to think on it for a long while to begin to wrap my head around it. The point I'm getting at is that there seems to be some movement in the fact that dry hopping during fermentation might lead to new results (and good results too!).