Dry Hopping

[ricshayne]

Noob here, about to start my second brew. I want to do a nice strong IPA. question is can I dry hop in my primary? or do I need to go get a carboy to use as a secondary and dry hop in that?

 

[rodwha]

Primary is just fine.

 

[rodwha]

I use a small reusable hop back that I sanitize prior to using, and clip the lid on the string for easy retrieval.

 

[Setesh]

No need to secondary. You have a couple of options on how to do it:

Method 1 - Boil a muslin bag in some water for 5 minutes, fill it with hops and a few sanitized glass marbles. Tie a knot in the top, as high as possible. You want as much area for the hops to expand as possible. Tie fishing line below the knot. Feed the whole thing into the fermentor, the fishing line is held in place by the bung, and allows you to retrieve the package.

Method 2 - Just toss the hops in, no bag. The downside of this method is that you can suck up bits of hops pretty easily when you are racking to a keg or your bottling bucket. The upside is that the hops are much more exposed to your beer, and more of their flavor is carried over because of this.

The only time I use a secondary is to age on oak. If I made fruit beers that would be another reason to secondary, but I don't, sooooooo

 

[unionrdr]

I dry hop in primary as well. I dip hop sacks in Starsan,fill & tie off at the top. Drop it in for a week.

 

[knelson13A]

I dry hopped in primary for my first IPA, but I'll probably dry hop in secondary for my IIPA that's currently in my primary. I want to brew my Magic Hat #9 clone this weekend, and I need the primary back for that! I only have one 6gal and one 5gal carboy at this time.