Like...OMG!! yet another Dry Hop thread....

[CHUM_]

Alrighty then...

I know when to dry hop.
I know how long to dry hop.
I know how many hops to dry hop.


I do not know what is going to happen when I drop my hops (4oz of pellets) into my carboy. In my very limited experience that last time I popped in pellets my beer got 'angry'...it was not done fermenting. I will not make that mistake again.

so, am i going to run into problems of green beer foamy sludge gushing everywhere? If so, how do I avoid the 'angry' beer phase?

Thanks!

 

[DisturbdChemist]

Looks like 4oz of hops might over flow it being that close to the top. You can wait an extra week for most of the yeast to drop out and go dormant then you can dryhop or transfer to a bucket to dryhop which should not over flow because of the bigger openings.

 

[kingmatt]

Is that your primary? It looks like you have a yeast cake at the bottom but I can't imagine you were able to primary with that little headspace and no blowoff...

Dry hopping with that many hops in the little headspace isn't going to work, even if you are done fermenting...I'd transfer to a slightly larger secondary or the same sized one but leave yourself more headspace.

 

[CHUM_]

Looks like 4oz of hops might over flow it being that close to the top. You can wait an extra week for most of the yeast to drop out and go dormant then you can dryhop or transfer to a bucket to dryhop which should not over flow because of the bigger openings.

Is that your primary? It looks like you have a yeast cake at the bottom but I can't imagine you were able to primary with that little headspace and no blowoff...

Dry hopping with that many hops in the little headspace isn't going to work, even if you are done fermenting...I'd transfer to a slightly larger secondary or the same sized one but leave yourself more headspace.

that's what I was afraid of

This is in the secondary (to free up my primary for another batch).

I do have a 1 gallon carboy I could transfer a gallon to - keep 4 gallons of the original recipe and try different dry hops in the 1 gallon to experiment....

does that make sense to mitigate any additional risks of exposing to oxygen when transferring?

 

[glugglug]

A gallon might be too much.

I would just drop the level down to where carboy curves toward the top. You could put the excess in a bomber if you just had to save it. I would wrap the top of the bomber with some sanitized aluminum foil, and then use a some sugar, preferably one of those carbonation drops when it's done in secondary, and cap it. That would then be the first beer I would open to try it out.