First brew (Belgian IPA) questions

lordrath1069 · Jan 11, 2015

Howdy all,

I am working on my first home brew, Brewer's Best Belgian IPA, and I have some questions on how to proceed.

It is currently in the primary fermenter, has been for 2 days. I have 2 different friends giving me different advice on how to proceed from here.

Friend 1: stick to primary fermenter, after 7 days add dry hops (1 oz Chinook) and let sit for 10 days, then bottle. carbonate in bottle for 2 weeks, condition in fridge for 1 month, enjoy.

Friend 2: after 5 days total rack to secondary fermenter, dry hop for 3 weeks, bottle for 2 weeks and condition for another 2 weeks in a cooler part of my house (ie. the basement) and enjoy.

tl/dr version: should I rack to secondary fermenter, online concensus seems to be no. If not, is dry hopping in primary fine? And how long should I dry hop and condition for? Thanks guys, I think I'm already addicted

Sammy86 · Jan 11, 2015

Personally, I would never dry hop for three weeks...EVER!

Go with friend one on this one...just my .02

tdbc2011 · Jan 11, 2015

I normally dry hop for 5-7 days. I have done so in both primary and secondary. IMHO I would go with #1 too.

Calder · Jan 11, 2015

lordrath1069 said:
Howdy all,

I am working on my first home brew, Brewer's Best Belgian IPA, and I have some questions on how to proceed.

It is currently in the primary fermenter, has been for 2 days. I have 2 different friends giving me different advice on how to proceed from here.

So 2 different directions is not enough for you. You want more!!!!!!

My recommendation:

After about 3 or 4 days, move fermenter to warmest part of house. It helps Belgian yeast strains get the last few points. I will warm mine up to 80+F over a few days in a heated swamp cooler.

I'd leave it at least 2 weeks before dry hopping. The longer you leave it, the clearer it will be going into the bottle. Also, some Belgian yeasts can take a while to get the last few points of gravity.

You can dry hop in either Primary or Secondary. I usually secondary my beers as I like to harvest the yeast to use for another beer, and it is cleaner to take before you add dry hops. There is no problem adding the dry hops to the primary fermenter.

How long to dry hop? You will get many answers to that question. I usually leave them in for 7 to 10 days. Some people go less time. I think general consensus is don't leave them in longer than 14 days as you might (and it is only a 'might') get some grassy flavors from the hops.

Leave for at least 3 weeks to condition in the bottle (maybe sneak a bottle at 1 and 2 weeks to see how it is going). You can leave it for as long as you like at room temperature. I often just place it in the fridge the day before I drink it (sometimes the same day). Once conditioned, treat it like you would any beer you buy from the store. Just be careful when pouring as it will have some yeast on the bottom of the bottle.

lordrath1069 · Jan 11, 2015

Thanks for the advice! Does the conditioning time start once bottled or after the bottles have fermented for a couple weeks to create some carbonation? And I won't be saving the yeast, so sticking to just the primary fermenter sounds like the way to go. Thanks for the quick replies! If anyone has any more advice I would love to hear it.

kirbcheck · Jan 11, 2015

The conditioning time will start from day one of bottling. I would expect to be drinking this at about 2 weeks from bottling. Beer is typically meant to be fresh. Especially Hop forward beer. So enjoy it at it's peak. Congrats on completing your first brew day. Enjoy the hobby.