Dry hopping whole leaf

[brantley]

Hey folks,

So, I was dry hopping an APA in my 6.5 gal glass carboy tonight for the first time. Read some techniques on dry hopping whole leaf (which is what I had). Tried using marbles and a hop sack to get it in there and it was more trouble than it was worth (or so we'll see). Anyway, I just ended up throwing the 1oz of cascade in whole leaf and gave the beer a small shake after stopping it up. Any advice on reducing the gunk in the bottling process? I use an auto-siphon that has a little rubber end so I don't think I'll be getting whole leaves stuck in it... Thanks for your help, and from now on I will not be using whole leaf - ugh!

 

[HopHoarder]

I prefer using a plastic bucket-type secondary fermenter when using whole leaf hops for dry-hopping. Before racking I use a sterilized strainer spoon and scoop up the hops into a sterilized nylon bag and then squeeze the juicy hoppy goodness out of the bag.

 

[duboman]

Slip a hop sack or nylon over the racking cane andirons will filter everything out as you rack to bottle

 

[Komocabo]

I also use a sanitized nylon hop sack over the racking cane. I only use carboys and its done the trick every time. If you have space in a fridge, you can cold crash by setting the carboy (or bucket) in there for a few days. It will help clear the beer and.of course, settle mostly everything to the bottom.

It does get a bit dirty getting the hops out of the carboy after you rack to your bottling bucket, but its doable for sure... i do it every other week or so. Infact, Ill be throwing 2 oz of hops at my RyePA this very evening after the little ones get to bed.

Cheers!

 

[thadius856]

I usually let my leaf Centennials just float on the top. Make sure they get thoroughly wet, then walk away. They tend to soak up a bit of water, then sink on their own for me. Has worked in both kegs and carboys so far using paint strainer bags. For more than 1 oz of leaves in a carboy, split it into multiple bags or different knotted sections so they aren't all trying to pass back out through the neck at the same time.

 

[Komocabo]

Thadius, have you ever dryhopped in a keg that you planned to serve from, or were you using one as a fermenter? I've been considering dryhopping in a serving keg just for fun... any success/failures from this?

 

[thadius856]

Thadius, have you ever dryhopped in a keg that you planned to serve from, or were you using one as a fermenter? I've been considering dryhopping in a serving keg just for fun... any success/failures from this?

The Franken-Ruination in my sig was dry-hopped for 6 days with pellet Centennials in the secondary keg, suspended in the liquid by a strand of unwaxed, unflavored dental floss (lid sealed, pressurized to 5 PSI warm).

I was going to pull out the dry-hop sack and push to a serving keg, but I figured I'd see what it was like without doing it. Force carbed at 3x serving pressure for 24 hours, bled off the pressure, and pushed out the first 1/3 pint, which went into the sink.

Been serving off the keg since. Yes, the dry-hop bag is still suspended in the keg. The last few glasses have started to lose that nice floral quality of the Centennials, so I think the liquid level has dropped low enough that the bag is suspended above the liquid now.

No off flavors noticed yet. In fact, the first half of the keg has tasted great and has been my most popular brew yet. BeerSmith notes say it was dry-hopped 03/14 - 03/21, force carbed 03/21, served 03/22. Had a few friends over, between the four of us hitting that keg hard, it's on pace to be the fastest empty keg yet.

 

[Komocabo]

Very nice! I will have to give that a try. Thanks!