Dry Hopping

[george303]

Hi,
Quick question about dry hopping. My APA has finished primary fermentation after 5 days. In a moment of madness (maybe) I decided to chuck in 100g of Cascade Hop Pellets not in a muslin bag, just loose. Will this become a problem when transferring to secondary for bottling in 4 days, or will they just sink to the bottom and join the trub?

 

[DocScott]

I always dry hop with loose pellets. The hops will eventually sink to the bottom and join the trub. If they aren't, consider putting the beer in a colder spot to help them drop. I would encourage you to leave your beer for a while longer than 9 days before bottling. It may be finished fermenting, but rushing the conditioning phase doesn't give the yeast time to clean up off flavors or settle out and leave clear beer.

 

[TyTanium]

No problem. A lot of us just put a muslin bag over the siphon tube to keep from sucking up hop particles, but most of them will sink eventually.

 

[cluckk]

Normally you would do that in secondary and you would wait until fermentation is done. I know you said it finished primary that probably just means the gravity has stabilized. The yeast still has a lot of clean up to do to get things back in balance and clean out some of the compounds you don't want left in your beer.

Pitching hops into the mix probably won't keep that from happening, but in the future hold off and remember that everything should be done in its own time. Since you've already dry hopped into your primary I would simply leave the beer in there for more time than the 4 days you meant.

You don't have to secondary.

 

[george303]

Thanks everyone, it's been a few days now and the hops are falling to the bottom nicely. If I leave it too long will there still be enough yeast for carbonation in the bottles, or will it all of dropped to the bottom as well?

George

 

[TyTanium]

There will still be more than enough yeast.

 

[george303]

It's a truly messy business dry hopping, my entire kitchen and bathroom is covered in the stuff. Guess that's a good thing as its not in my beer anymore! Still very cloudy after a week at low temps though 11 degress, should I leave for longer in the fermentor or bottle now?

 

[unionrdr]

Uuuh...the pic looks like you already racked it out. Did you use a hydrometer to check to see if it was at a stable FG 1st? In my experiences,at 5 days even Cooper's based batches are only done with initial fermentation. That is to say,when the airlock slows down or stops bubbling. But since you have the Cooper's DIY fermenter,no airlock to watch.
So you'd wait till krausen drops & the beer is clearing before bottling. But using the hydrometer for testing once the krausen drops.