Dry Hopping

[cpbergie]

Is there anything i need to take into consideration before adding pellet hops for a dry hop? I have 5 gallons in a 6.5 glass carboy, its been fermenting for a week, and the bubbles have died down to about 1 per minute. Is it ok to add them now, and any good techniques on adding them? Im a little worried about pulling the carboy hood off and the 3 piece airlock water sucking into the beer.

 

[the_bird]

Are you moving the beer to a secondary? I generally rack on top of the pellets when I move it.

 

[RichBrewer]

Are you moving the beer to a secondary? I generally rack on top of the pellets when I move it.

I would agree. The more your fermentation is finished the better. You won't lose as much hop aroma from the CO2 escaping.

 

[cpbergie]

I forgot to mention that. I only have the carboy and a bottling buck right now, so i wasnt planning on using a seconday (until i upgrade my equiment). Should i wait a little longer then?

 

[the_bird]

Personally, I would wait until it wasn't bubbling at all. Don't stress if a couple drops of the airlock liquid get in the brew, it happens all the time. Just drop the pellets in when the time comes. Give it a week to ten days, then bottle.

 

[Blender]

I would add them now if you are not transferring. I don't think it is fermenting to much to alter the effects as in fact some brewers add them at the last stage of fermentation. I suppose that you could transfer to the bottling bucket, clean the carboy and siphon back into the carboy with the hops. Its a bit of work and you will need to be carefull siphoning but it can be done.

 

[david_42]

Or you could use the bottling bucket as a clearing tank and bag the hops.

 

[cpbergie]

what do you mean by "clearing tank". use it as the secondary whith hops in a bag, and then bottle out of it after a couple weeks?

 

[Pumbaa]

what do you mean by "clearing tank". use it as the secondary whith hops in a bag, and then bottle out of it after a couple weeks?

Clearing tank and secondary fermentor are basicly the same thing, just a place to let the yeast fall out. If you put the hops into a hops bag it makes it easier to get them out (exspecially pellet hops) and wont have to worry about having chuncks of hops floating in your bottles. If you had a second carboy you could put the hops into then put the beer on top of those hops a bag would be a pita trying to get it in and out of the hole and you are probably going to use a siphon to get the beer out anyway so a bad isnt really needed, unless you are using pelet hops.

 

[roggae]

just keeping this thread alive. is there a good clean way to get whole hops into a glass carboy already filled? thanks a ton!