How do I dry hops to my primary???

[gtnutz]

Ok first thanks to everyone who participated in my post from yesterday. I’ve spent the better portion of my work day reading about the joys and benefits about not using a secondary and I’m ready to give it a try this weekend on a beer I made for my second batch.

Is it as simple as leaving everything in the primary for 4’ish weeks and place the hops in grain sock the last 1-2 weeks or has the majority had better luck transferring to a secondary and then adding the hops?

Thanks

 

[AnthonyC]

I leave my beer in the primary. After 3 weeks or so I'll toss in the hop pellets directly into the primary (no hop sock or anything) and let sit for 5 days. Then I cool it down to 38-40 degrees to help drop everything out of suspension. I'll reconstitute some Knox gelatin and dump that into the primary the next day. 2 days later, I'm transferring clear, hoppy beer to my keg.

 

[unionrdr]

Just leave it in primary till you get a stable FG & it's well settled. Then put hops in a muslin sack & drop'em in for 7-10 days.

 

[ScoRas]

I'm currently having the same dilemma. I really wanted to use a hop bag as I have enough sediment as it is (wasn't careful enough transferring my wort), but it seems difficult to fit it through the carboy mouth relatively aseptically. I think I might transfer to secondary just to reduce the total sediment, it's not all yeast in there, had a good inch and a half of sediment from my boil.

Or to keep it short: thread bump

 

[unionrdr]

That's why I pour my chilled wort & top off water through a fine mesh strainer into my plastic fermenters. Wide openning allows for a larger strainer than those funnel ones. Aerates nice too. But less than 1/2" of trub at bottling time. Lately,more like 1/4-5/16" deep. More beer in the bottling bucket for me,& way clearer.

 

[ScoRas]

That's why I pour my chilled wort & top off water through a fine mesh strainer into my plastic fermenters. Wide openning allows for a larger strainer than those funnel ones. Aerates nice too. But less than 1/2" of trub at bottling time. Lately,more like 1/4-5/16" deep. More beer in the bottling bucket for me,& way clearer.

That makes sense, and the aeration from going through the strainer sounds like a good thing too. For some reason my morebeer kit was adamantly against straining the wort. To be honest, I would have done a lot better if I swirled the cooled wort and siphoned it to the carboy, but I followed the directions and poured.

I'm sure all is well. Sorry to Hijack OP, it sounds like we have the same questions.

 

[DubBrew]

For dry hopping I just toss them I'm the primary with no sock or anything and let them sit for seven days or so. After which I transfer to a keg and cold crash. Let it door for two Weeks and carb and it will clear nicely. You can use finings puff you want it to happen faster.

 

[unionrdr]

I prefer to use hop sacks to keep the mess contained. Dry hopping loose seems to act as a lubricant for the settled yeast. Easier to suck up when racking to the bottling bucket.

 

[TTB-J]

I prefer to use hop sacks to keep the mess contained. Dry hopping loose seems to act as a lubricant for the settled yeast. Easier to suck up when racking to the bottling bucket.

Definitely a personal preference thing - I just like having one less piece of equipment to clean, so I just dump them all in. For what it's worth, I've never had much of an issue pulling up hop particles when siphoning.

 

[unionrdr]

The point I'm trying to make is the hop particles seem to keep the surface of the yeast cake looser than it would be otherwise. Especially if added loose in the boil & transfered. Since some oils are still present in the hop dregs,it acts as a lubricant to keep the yeast from packing down as tightly as it would otherwise,ime.

 

[TTB-J]

The point I'm trying to make is the hop particles seem to keep the surface of the yeast cake looser than it would be otherwise. Especially if added loose in the boil & transfered. Since some oils are still present in the hop dregs,it acts as a lubricant to keep the yeast from packing down as tightly as it would otherwise,ime.

Hmmmm, I guess I don't understand. There are hop oils in your wort whether you have hop sediment from the boil or not - that's why we add late boil hops in the first place, is to release essential oils for flavor and aroma. I guess I don't see how having hop sediment at the bottom of your carboy is going to change dramatically the essential oil content in your fermenter. The vast majority if oils will have been released due to the boil - you're talking about a fairly arbitrary amount from the sediment. As for dry hopping, the oils will be released whether you put them in a sack or not.

Either way, my yeast cake is generally packed very tight after two weeks unless I'm not using a very flocculent strain, in which case cold crashing does the trick.

 

[chumpsteak]

Toss the pellets straight into the primary and when youre ready to rack put a paint strainer bag over your racking cane. Works great for me.

 

[gtnutz]

If I choose to place the hops in a grain sock is there any cleaning or sterilization I should do to the sock?

Everything I read says to make sure everything that touches the beer has been sterilized or am I reading to much into it??

Thanks

 

[unionrdr]

Hmmmm, I guess I don't understand. There are hop oils in your wort whether you have hop sediment from the boil or not - that's why we add late boil hops in the first place, is to release essential oils for flavor and aroma. I guess I don't see how having hop sediment at the bottom of your carboy is going to change dramatically the essential oil content in your fermenter. The vast majority if oils will have been released due to the boil - you're talking about a fairly arbitrary amount from the sediment. As for dry hopping, the oils will be released whether you put them in a sack or not.

Either way, my yeast cake is generally packed very tight after two weeks unless I'm not using a very flocculent strain, in which case cold crashing does the trick.

I'm probably not expressing this adequetly. The hop particles still contain a little of it...or it's there physical properties. But they seem to not allow the yeast to pack down as tight when used loose,ime. I went back to using hop sacks,& the high flocculation yeast I use seems to be packing down tighter again. Hop this clears it up. Having a time trying to describe my observations. On my Sunset Gold APA I just bottled a hair over a week ago,I used hop sacks as well,& the yeast packed down so tight I got all but maybe 2oz off it to the bottling bucket.