First time dry hop and secondary

[nwbeer]

Hey guys I am a few days into my first IPA and have some questions about dry hopping and secondary.

The recipe calls for racking to secondary and 3-5 days of dry hopping at the end. I have never dry hopped and I have only transferred to secondary once and it was the worst beer ive brewed so far. Kinda skeptical and on the fence about secondary. I have read lots of threads by people that do and don't secondary.

What are your thoughts???

-Should i do a 14 day Primary?
-Should i rack into Secondary??
-Is pouring the pellets into the carboy ok for dry hopping?

Thanks,
J

 

[darby_ross]

Some people will put there dry hops in primary instead of transferring to the secondary. A lot of people have told me that they use secondary as way to clear there beer better or if they want to age it a little bit more. Personally I just use my primary to dry hop. It's one less thing to clean in my opinion and less risk of infection.

 

[joshesmusica]

there are some people who adamantly demand the use of secondary as a way to clear or condition their beer before packaging. It's been common practice for a very long time in the homebrew world, mostly because it was done at the professional level. the difference is the scale that we're brewing at home compared to the professionals. the differences in the final product for ales that don't need long conditioning times before packaging are so minimal that even bjcp judges can't tell the difference between the exact same brew side by side, one that was in primary only and one that was racked to a secondary. the vessel is not what clears up the beer, time and fining agents do that. also there's no concern about dry-hopping in the primary. if you're going to wash and harvest your yeast from primary, you can just dry hop in a weighted bag (weighted enough to have it floating in the middle of the wort, not letting it sink to the yeast cake).

when you say the worst beer you've brewed so far, how many times have you brewed now? it could be that you picked up an infection in the secondary vessel, or that you oxygenated it when transferring.

 

[RM-MN]

No, no, and maybe. I tend to do 21 to 30 day primary. I find that I get beer that has had the yeast cleanup any intermediate products and off odors and then drop out to get clearer beer. It's been shown that racking to secondary has little effect on clearing the beer but it does open up the possibility for infections. Unless you are doing something with your beer that absolutely requires that the beer be moved to secondary, skip it. Dry hopping is not sufficient to require secondary as many of us have found that dry hopping in the primary works just as well, eliminates the chance for infections, and leaves us with one less vessel to wash. At the end of the fermentation (2 to 3 weeks for me) I'll open the fermenter and drop in the hop pellets. About a week later I will bottle the beer, using my hydrometer to verify that the beer is done.

 

[madscientist451]

I use a hop bag and some stainless steel washers from the hardware store to weight the bag and keep the hops from floating. Clean the washers good and boil for a while. I use heavy monofilament fishing line to suspend the hop bag in the beer.
I also soak the hop bag, washers and fishing line in star san. I use a new sealed package of hops for dry hopping. All this might be overkill, but it works for me.
I think its important to taste your beer so you can decide when to pull the hops.
The hop character will fade with time, but if you really over do it, you can't get it out.
A wine thief is useful for this. I think its better to have the beer in a carboy for tasting, if you use a bucket, you'll have to take the whole lid off to get a taste.
Some brewers toss the hops right in the bucket, snap the lid back on don't taste it at all, but go with a schedule from the recipe, and their beer comes out great. So there's no right or wrong way, just the way that works best for you.

 

[TheMattTrain]

I dry hop in secondary. I clean and sanitize anything that's going to touch my beer, run the sanitizer through my auto siphon into my secondary, put the bung on and shake it for a good 10 seconds, let it sit for 3-4 minutes, shake again, let it sit another 3-4 minutes, then pour that sanitizer all over all of my equipment that's sitting in my sanitizing bucket. I start my siphon then use a hose clamp to stop the flow of beer, open it up again while it's in a graduated cylinder to collect a sample, close it, then let it drain the rest of the way into secondary. Once I'm done with my siphon, I'll toss my hops on top and close it up. No bag. Every time I walk past the beer I'll rock it slightly to get the hops to fall off the top.

When I'm kegging it, I boil a piece of pantyhose for about 10 minutes, add it to my sanitizer bucket, attach it to the end of my siphon hose with a sanitized hose clamp, then put that pantyhose covered end into my keg. I'll siphon the beer down to the keg collecting any hop matter in the pantyhose. Also works as a filter a little bit. Have done this many times with great success.

Good luck to you! Dry hopping is awesome.

 

[sixxpoint]

For IPAs:

-3 to 4 week primary, including dryhop
-Drop the dryhop pellets in the carboy and reseal
-After 5 days, carefully rack with a mesh bag secured around the siphon to keep out any hop matter

Racking to secondary carries the risks of oxygenation and infection. It is also an unnecessary step in most cases that just wastes time and resources.

There are much more effective ways to attain clarity than relying on a secondary, such as letting time and gravity work for you, not disturbing the trub, careful racking, adequate hot break and water chemistry, and the use of clarifying agents.

 

[firerat]

I keg and usually just dry hop in the keg.

A piece of fishing line make removing the hop sock easy.

I don't care much about cloudy beer.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

My thoughts are: Don't transfer to a secondary. Add dry hops directly to primary with no bag. The pellets will get wetted and drop out on their own after a few days. Swirl the carboy to get them to drop faster. If you want, cold crash for increased clarity, although in my experience dry hopping in primary does not make beers very hazy in the end. Haziness depends more strongly on other factors like wort chilling, in my opinion at least

 

[Canuck137]

Noob here, but I just did an IPA that I dry hopped in the primary. Did not rack to secondary as advised to me from people on here.

It worked very well, my IPA is the best beer I have done so far. I wont be racking to a secondary for the foreseeable future.

 

[jethro55]

One of the most frequent questions. It does not matter, the beer will be just as good either way. Neither way is easier, nor is the risk of infection higher in either method. It is all up to you.

What you need to know for either method is how do you get clear good tasting beer into the bottle. There are key steps in each method that you need to do. And it is about the same amount of work either way.

 

[nwbeer]

Thanks guys. You all have been a big help.

I think i am going to go against the recipe and not transfer to secondary. Screw the "potential" cloudiness. I dont want to risk contamination.

I am going to leave the beer in primary until the fermentation is through, remove the exhaust tube and drop in/ float the hop pellets a few days before i plan to bottle, sanitize tube and put it back in the carboy. Sound good???

Thanks again HomeBrewTalk

 

[grevengrevs]

I am currently fermenting a 60 minute clone and an Irish Red. I plan to leave both in primary until time to keg and will dry hop in primary. Every other batch I have done has been transferred to secondary but I decided this time to try and eliminate the secondary. Honestly, I want good tasting beer. It could be as murky as swamp water and as dark as night as long as it tastes good. That is my goal right now. Let me get that down and then we will work on clarity. Baby steps!

 

[nwbeer]

Agreed. Thanks grevs. let me know how she turns out. I think im gonna bail on the secondary for now. even though the recipe advises secondary.

I need to get into kegging... i get alot of flack from the brewsupply guys because i havent converted yet. Im a broke college kid. lol

 

[jethro55]

One item that it took me a number of batches to learn about good taste was the amount and health of yeast that is pitched. Have been using Beersmith to help with that.

 

[joshesmusica]

+1 on yeast amount and health, but i would add to that temps.

the thing about the cloudy yeast myth from primary only:
the same amount of yeast will settle out in your primary vessel! it doesn't make any sense to believe that more yeast will settle out in a different vessel.
if i ferment for 1 week, then put into secondary for 1 week, i will have let's say 1 inch of yeast drop out in secondary.
if i ferment in primary only for 2 weeks, i will have the normal yeast cake, plus an extra 1 inch layer from that extra week.
if you do things properly you won't have murky beer from primary only. i have only done primary only because i'm a broke guy as well, so i only stick with beers that don't need long-term aging, and i'm getting perfectly clear beers.
here's an experiment done to show the difference:
http://brulosophy.com/2014/08/12/primary-only-vs-transfer-to-secondary-exbeeriment-results/

plus if you're bottle conditioning, you should be letting it sit for 3 weeks to allow the yeast to floc out. then if you make sure to chill in the fridge for 2-3 days before drinking, even more yeast will drop out. as long as you make sure to not let the yeast get into your glass, there's no reason you should have murky beer if you've done all of your other steps correctly.

 

[RM-MN]

Agreed. Thanks grevs. let me know how she turns out. I think im gonna bail on the secondary for now. even though the recipe advises secondary.

I need to get into kegging... i get alot of flack from the brewsupply guys because i havent converted yet. Im a broke college kid. lol

Don't listen to them. You don't need to get into kegging...ever. Kegs are a great way for them to make more money off you because they will sell you the kegs ($$$) and the taps ($$) and the CO2 tank ($$) and with that keg setup you will drink more beer. That means you have to brew more often and they will sell you the supplies ($$). I prefer to bottle because I like a lot of variety in my beers that I drink. I'll make smaller batches more often so I can have all these varieties on hand for when I want them. I currently have 5 varieties of beer in my refrigerator with choices or another dozen.

 

[firerat]

Agreed. Thanks grevs. let me know how she turns out. I think im gonna bail on the secondary for now. even though the recipe advises secondary.

That's a good plan!!

I need to get into kegging... i get alot of flack from the brewsupply guys because i havent converted yet. Im a broke college kid. lol

As much as I love kegging and will never go back to traditional bottling, it certainly is not a necessity.

Dial in your processes and focus on making beer you like.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

I need to get into kegging... i get alot of flack from the brewsupply guys because i havent converted yet. Im a broke college kid. lol

If you're college-age trying to make dank ales then you're already ahead of the game. At the same time, kegs do make a difference and if they're giving you crap about it it might be because they want your hoppy beers to be as good as they can You don't "need" to keg ever, and for some styles a bottle conditioned brew is what you want, but if we are talking HOPS then kegging and force carbonating is more reliable than bottle conditioning for producing a fresh-tasting final product. Plus, you can add fresh hops to the keg, game over

 

[nwbeer]

Awesome. Thanks guys.

THANKS JOSH, that link was badass, I read the whole thing.

I like the views on kegging too guys. I knew joining this forum was a good idea. I have gotten lots of great feed back from you guys and have learned alot. I greatly appreciate the support.

Brew on guys, and tight lines to ya.

Thanks,
J