How to dry hop

[Nicknack]

On my third batch of brew and this IPA recipe instructs me to dry hop after active fermentation has taken place (which would be today). Therefore, after work today, I plan to dry hop. However, I have some questions before doing this. I have a five gallon extract batch (using a big mouth bubbler) which I will be bottling.

If you would, please respond to my questions like I'm a first grader.

1. Based on the reading I've done here, I can just toss the dry hop pellets into my primary directly (I'm not using a secondary). Correct? So... open up the lid, drop in the pellets from the pouch and then close lid. No stirring. Does this all sound about right?

2. Some have recommended putting a nylon type bag over the auto-siphon when transferring the brew from the primary to the bottling bucket. This is to prevent pellets from going through the siphon and into the bottling bucket? Wouldn't this be a good idea to do regardless of whether you dry hop in an effort to minimize the amount of trub from getting in your beer?

3. If I use a nylon type bag over my siphon, would the mesh bags used to hold grains when steeping work?

4. Wouldn't it be easier to just put the hop pellets in a mesh/nylon bag? With my big mouth bubbler, it would be simple to drop in and take out. It would seem that this method would reduce the amount of undesirable stuff in my primary when dry hopping.

5. I understand that I should dry hop for 5-7 days. Would it do anything positive by dry hopping longer, say 10-14 days?

 

[m00ps]

You cna use bags to minimize suck up from the siphon but its a trade off with reduced extraction. You cna combat this with using a sanitized marble or something to weight the hop bag down. If you dump them in loose, just be sure they settle to the bottom before racking to a bottle bucket. Cold crashing will help this if needed

definitely dont dry hop for too long. Its actually mostly recommended to stay under 7 days now. Some people report than most hop oils are extracted in less than 1 day. Id say 3-4 days would be good. After that, you wont get any benefit and then can get off flavor by going too long

 

[slym2none]

1) that's it!
2) it prevents "stuff" from getting in, but I would never say "pellets" - they break up pretty quickly in the beer.
3) I can't answer that, as I have never used a racking cane before
4) you can do that, but some people say you don't get as much out of the hops that way
5) I would say no - the current thinking is that the hops give up almost all the have in 2-3 days, and some claim that going longer than 5-7 days raises the possibility of "grassy" and/or "vegetal" flavours.

I dry-hop "commando" myself, and only for 4-5 days.

 

[Nicknack]

If you use a mesh bag over the siphon to prevent hops (and other stuff) to get into your siphon, why not use a mesh bag always - dry hoping or not? This is coming from someone who just used a primary by the way.

 

[m00ps]

carboys make getting the bag back out of them near impossible without cutting the bag. For buckets, if youd got a large enough bag so they have a decent amount of room, go ahead

 

[Nicknack]

Large enough bag like a muslin mesh grain/hop bag? Those things are long and I have several extras.

If I would likely get more out of tossing the hops into my primary directly rather than using the bag, then that's what I'll do. However, if I can get just as much out of using my grain/hop bag and also benefit from less "stuff" in the primary when racking to the bottling bucket, that would be nice.

 

[slym2none]

The problem with a hop-bag in a narrow-necked carboy is the hops swell. That's why it is difficult to get it back out.

Besides, didn't you know?



#hopsgocommando

 

[CRoth36]

Toss them in around day 10 and wait about 5 days. Cold crash if you can. If not don't worry about it.