How long to leave in primary before going to secondary for dry hopping?

[Nkliph]

This is my first self created recipe. BIAB IPA with 65 OG, and Ringwood yeast. It's a 2.5 gallon batch.

I usually use primary only, but with this, want to dry hop and so moving to secondary. I'm thinking 10-14 days in primary then 3-5 in secondary, but wanted opinions.

Thanks.

 

[Gavin C]

Dry hop in the primary. No reason not to. No fuss, no work, no downside.

Open fermentor, add hops, close fermentor. Leave for desired dry hop time.

 

[FortMillBrew]

A secondary is not necessary but it is fine if you want to do it. Consider that doing it can expose your beer to oxygen it no longer needs or will benefit from. Your time frame is fine. I will tell you that I leave my IPAs in Primary for 20 days, then move to secondary and DH for 5 days minimum.
If you are going to bottle, DH'ing in the primary is best IMHO.
Enjoy your brew!

 

[JustLooking]

Dry hop in the primary. I'm not aware of the reasons not to.

Fixed that for you. :cross:

 

[Gavin C]

Fixed that for you. :cross:

Aside from misquoting me, any chance you will share your heralded wisdom on this one or can we just expect your usual near monosyllabic grunting or ubiquitous emoticon response.

 

[JustLooking]

Aside from misquoting me [...]

 

[andrewmaixner]

I'd basically say that should dry hop as close to the final stage as possible: dry hop on day x-7, cold crash on x-2, keg or bottle on day x

Last IPAs I did, I dry-hopped in primary with loose pellets, then crashed it, and it worked pretty well. Alternately you can use a hop bag and do it in the keg, or the bucket.. not a huge issue as long as you do your best to avoid oxygen exposure.
I suppose that if possible, you would want to bulk age as much as needed before the dry hop, to retain as much flavor as possible -- it will fade some over time.

 

[Nkliph]

Dry hop in the primary. No reason not to. No fuss, no work, no downside.

Open fermentor, add hops, close fermentor. Leave for desired dry hop time.

Thanks. Do you usually hydrate hop pellets before adding, or just put in as they are?

 

[JustLooking]

Point is that dry hopping in the primary will produce a different flavor profile. You may like it better. You may not. To say there is no reason to use a secondary for dry hopping is short sighted.

 

[m00ps]

Just add them. Or use a hop bag if you want. Hops are basically sanitized from their oil content

 

[TheCADJockey]

Thanks. Do you usually hydrate hop pellets before adding, or just put in as they are?

I just dry hopped a SMaSH, in primary for the last few days. I opened up a few bags of whole leaf nugget from the freezer and filled the entire open space in the fermenter. Turned out wonderful.

Just dropping in pellets works fine.

 

[brew_ny]

Thanks. Do you usually hydrate hop pellets before adding, or just put in as they are?

I just put them in when I dry hop

 

[Gavin C]

Thanks. Do you usually hydrate hop pellets before adding, or just put in as they are?

No. Just add the hops as is.

Regarding differing favor profiles from dry hopping the fermented beer (gravity no longer changing being the definition of a complete ferment for the sake of argument)in primary secondary or keg, there are likely lots of differing opinions.

It was not my intent to steer you wrong in my shortsighted ignorance of the hard scientific evidence governing the extraction of the flavor molecules from the hops in fermenting vessel A or B or indeed keg C.

No doubt prior, less verbose posters, will elucidate their salient points and their supporting rationale. Perhaps not.

Smiley face, wink, confused, dancing banana, multicolored large haired smiley face, sad.... Beer-mug clunk.

 

[Psylocide]

No. Just add the hops as is.

Regarding differing favor profiles from dry hopping the fermented beer (gravity no longer changing being the definition of a complete ferment for the sake of argument)in primary secondary or keg, there are likely lots of differing opinions.

It was not my intent to steer you wrong in my shortsighted ignorance of the hard scientific evidence governing the extraction of the flavor molecules from the hops in fermenting vessel A or B or indeed keg C.

No doubt prior, less verbose posters, will elucidate their salient points and their supporting rationale. Perhaps not.

Smiley face, wink, confused, dancing banana, multicolored large haired smiley face, sad.... Beer-mug clunk.

Bro... do you even brew?

 

[Gavin C]

Bro... do you even brew?

I red a book about it once. Twice ACTUALLY. Most of it anyway. Got a bit blah blah ya know. I think it was a broowing buk. I'm pretty sure it was.

 

[Gavin C]

Originally Posted by slym2none View Post
Yes, it's fine. I call it "going commando."

And by our resident quote revisionist

@Justlooking
Fixed that for you.

He either just made that up, or believed it when someone else made a joke.

But on topic, just toss them in loose. Better utilization.



(The above is from a similar post referring to dry-hopping in primary. It seems some posters on HBT are just out to confuse an OP's legit question and think nothing of it. Speaking from both sides of their mouths in their efforts to avoid adding anything of value to the forum it would seem).

Anyway, sorry to hijack a perfectly rational thread and question. My apologies to the OP, it's just I find this this type of poster's attitude irksome. By all means do further reading to allow you to decide how to proceed. It matters not a jot to me. FWIW, I stand by my original advice albeit subject to my less than complete brew-science wisdom.

 

[JustLooking]

The above is from a similar post referring to dry-hopping in primary. It seems some posters on HBT are just out to confuse an OP's legit question and think nothing of it. Speaking from both sides of their mouths in their efforts to avoid adding anything of value to the forum it would seem.

Uhmm . . . the topic in that thread was about using (or not using) a hop sock. Not the use of a secondary as in this thread.

It seems some posters on HBT do a pretty good job of confusing themselves and in the process contribute nothing of value.

Hello, Dry hopping for the first time tonight. I'll be adding 2oz of cascade to an amber ale. Anything I should know? I was going to just dump em in without a sock. That ok?

So yes, my reply to just toss them in loose will give him better utilization than using a sock.



And just for you, here's a bouncing banana.

 

[andrewmaixner]

Point is that dry hopping in the primary will produce a different flavor profile. You may like it better. You may not. To say there is no reason to use a secondary for dry hopping is short sighted.

When you say "in the primary" do you actually mean "during active fermentation" (which makes sense due to CO2 gas activity) or are you claiming that after fermentation has completed, there is a flavor difference between just dumping in hops versus racking to secondary before dumping in the same hops?

 

[JustLooking]

[...] or are you claiming that after fermentation has completed, there is a flavor difference between just dumping in hops versus racking to secondary before dumping in the same hops?

After fermentation is complete.

Quote from Denny Conn referencing Stan Hieronymous, author of "For the Love of Hops".

Denny wrote:
After reading Stan Hieronymous's article about the effects of yeast on hops in the latest Zymurgy, I've decided to go back to using a secondary when I dry hop. It appears the interaction between yeast and hops significantly affects the hop aroma, making it more estery and floral.

I'd have to say it made a definite difference. I just kegged the new batch and compared it to another batch that was exactly the same, only it didn't use a secondary. The new batch (with a secondary) clearly has a much hoppier, less floral profile. I intend to try this a few more times to verify it.

I have personally had the same experience using both methods. But some people like the more floral character from dry hopping on the yeast cake. You really have to try it both ways yourself and not make blanket statements about one way being better than the other or there being no difference. Depending on your palate, you may not notice the change.

 

[andrewmaixner]

Interesting, thanks for that info. I like the more fruity and floral, I think.

 

[JustLooking]

I like the more fruity and floral, I think.

For me it's style dependent.

I like my American IPA's with a cleaner hop profile. English IPA's can benefit from a little floral, fruity aroma and flavor.

 

[Nkliph]

So to recap: Either way seems to work. It seems agreed that dry hopping in primary gives a more fruity/ester taste, whereas dry hopping in secondary seems to taste 'cleaner'.

I'd still like to see opinions regarding how long to dry hop for, and more importantly, at what point would you rack to secondary if doing so? EX: I typically bottle from primary fermentation after 2-2.5 weeks. Should I wait that long to go to secondary, then wait longer, or rack to secondary sooner, like after ~10 days?