Dry Hops: Bottom of secondary or on top of beer

[Thehopguy]

Is it better to rack the beer directly on top of the hops or add them to the top of the beer? Im getting ready to rack to secondary and would like to know best method. Ive considered the great debate about secondary vs all primary and am just gonna do secondary for no particular reason.

 

[Seven]

I dry hop in the primary so I always add hops from the top... but either way should work fine.

 

[Hammy71]

I dry hop on top. I wouldn't think it would matter, but I have a nice layer of Starsan foam on the bottom of my secondary and I have a strange aversion to having the hops laying in the foam waiting for the beer. Probably wouldn't matter, but that's my process.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

Put the hops in a hop bag and put some sanitized marbles in. Then you can have your hops sitting wherever you prefer good sir.

 

[terrapinj]

pellets will probably break up and sink on their own so won't make much difference

leaf hops tend to float more IME so I would put them in 1st and rack on top if you are set on dry hopping in secondary but like others I prefer to dry hop in primary

 

[yosysfire]

If you rack onto of the hops, they'll just float up to the top, assuming you're using whole-leaf. Next time I'll use the advice above using a hop bag and marbles, it was a pain to clean all the loose hops from the carboy. Also my loose hops soaked up about 3/4 of a gallon which I was unable to get back. Maybe a squeeze of the hop bag could help. Hope this helps.

Adam

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I dry hop on top. I wouldn't think it would matter, but I have a nice layer of Starsan foam on the bottom of my secondary and I have a strange aversion to having the hops laying in the foam waiting for the beer. Probably wouldn't matter, but that's my process.

I feel the same way. I know it's ok, but the thought of dry hopping starsan foam seems odd. I always just dump 'em on top, pellets or whole. They'll either settle out or you can filter at bottling/kegging time.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

I dry hop my breakfast cereal so trust me when I say that the pellets will end up on top no matter what you do. Some of them may sink but for the most part they stay on top. Hop bag weighted down with marbles seems like the best play to me. I'm dry hopping an IPA right now with 2oz pellets and 2oz leaves in the bag with 50 marbles. Next time I'll use more marbles. It's not totally immersed but pretty close.

 

[Reidman]

I keg most of my brews and have found that dry-hopping right in the keg is easiest. I skip secondary and rack directly to keg and add large mesh bag loosely filled with hops.

Some may worry about length of time in the beer causing "grassy" or off flavors but I've never encountered this. I suppose if it's a concern one could tie the hop bag off to a valve stem on the inside so when the beer level drops a little the hops are suspended in air and no longer in the beer. Of course the faster it goes, the less of a concern of over-hopping

 

[unionrdr]

I dry hop in primary after FG is reached. I just let'em float on top. You ever watch sun tea brewing,right after you put in the tea bags? The tea bags float,but the liquid soaking out of them convects downward. That's why I let the hop sack(s) float.