Dry Hopping

[bluesman]

Hi everyone....I'm about the dry hop for the first time and had a few questions - I'm going to add hop pellets to my secondary fermenter. I typically like to leave things in the secondary for 4 weeks before bottling.

- how long should I leave the hops in the fermenter?
- any risk of just removing the airlock, adding the hops and then replacing the airlock

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rhoobarb]

...any risk of just removing the airlock, adding the hops and then replacing the airlock...

Nope. As long as you follow normal sanitation procedures, you'll be fine. That's how I did my first dry hop.

IMHO, I think you get better aroma from dry hopping with whole leaf hops instead of pellets. I've done both and now, only dry hop with leaf.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I have never dry hopped with leaf hops, but it sounds plausible that you would get more aroma from them. I, personally, find the best results (using pellets) when I add the hops to the secondary about 3-4 days prior to packaging. I have added them in the past about 2-3 weeks prior to packaging and didn't notice the nice hop aroma was as strong as adding a few days before bottling. Give it a try both ways and see what works best for you.

 

[Baunno]

I am sitting here drinking a fine (somewhat piney hop flavored home brew) thanks to 2nd stage dry hopping with the mighty Simcoe! I 2nd staged for 10days and my what a change from the other Yellow Dog Pale kits from the "Home Brewery" that I've brewed....very hoppy, which makes me very happy!
I simply put the hop pellets in the 2nd stage when I bunged it with the air lock and let 'er sit. I filtered the debris out when going into the bottling bucket and again filtered when bottling. Somewhat of a pain, but well worth it! Good luck with your dry hop!
Cheers!

 

[bluesman]

Thanks for the comments...I just added 1.5 oz of pellet hops to the secondary last night (glass carboy) and noticed a lot of activity in the beer. It actaully pushed some of the hops up the neck of the carboy and into the airlock. This is 2 weeks after racking the beer. This morning there is a fair bit of the hops stuck to the side of the neck

Any suggestions as to how to get the hops back into the fermenter (thinking of just pushing it back into the beer with a sanitized plastic spoon)? Also, any suggestions how to avoid this for future brews?

Thanks!

 

[Trencher]

Adding the hops to your secondary provides cavitation points that cause CO2 to come out of solution. So you'll see more airlock activity but it isn't fermentation as you might think.

Just give your carboy a gentle swirl and wash the hops back down into the beer. Lately I've been hearing people talk about rousing their dry-hopped beers every few days to help the infusion. Don't worry, all the CO2 you're pushing out will keep the beer safe.

Enjoy!

 

[NWernBrewer]

Lately I've been hearing people talk about rousing their dry-hopped beers every few days to help the infusion.

When I dry-hop I usually give the carboy a gentle tilt and rock to cause the beer to move around a bit - gentle enough where I do not disturb the trub bed. I do that once a day for a couple of days then just let it sir for a couple of more. I use leaf hops and they float around on top - I have a photo of my first IPA in the gallery.

I don't know that it helps, but its never hurt and it gives my an excuse to take a peek.

Good luck with your dry-hopping Bluesman.

 

[bluesman]

Done, I've washed the hops back into the carboy and will wait for the results! Thanks for the advice and replies.