Moving to secondary for dry hopping

[MissStBrewDawg]

I am moving my beer tonight into my secondary to begin dry hopping and I have a question about racking. What is the disadvantage/advantage of using an auto siphon instead of hooking directly onto the spout at the bottom end of the fermentation bucket?

Every video and thread I have read shows people using an auto siphon but why not just hook on to the spout itself? Thanks for the input!

 

[JustLooking]

Most fermentation buckets don't have a spigot. Bottling buckets normally do. No problem using it if you are confident that it's sanitized and that it draws from above the trub.

 

[MissStBrewDawg]

Most fermentation buckets don't have a spigot. Bottling buckets normally do. No problem using it if you are confident that it's sanitized and that it draws from above the trub.

Awesome, thanks JustLooking. I started using the bottling bucket for primary so I can take the gravity reading without having to open the top.

Not sure if that was a bad idea....seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[LLBeanJ]

The next question should be: What are the advantages/disadvantages of transferring to secondary for dry hopping?

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

P.S. Using the spigot is fine, but it must be well sanitized and it must drawn from above the liquid/trub line, or else you are defeating the purpose (although most of the people here will agree, a secondary does not serve a purpose!)

I'm just one guy, but I make delicious beers with tons of dry hops and would never bother transferring the precious liquid gold to another vessel. Just dump them in. Cheers

 

[dokken5]

Ive dry hopped one time and I got so much stuff floating in my beer that I kind of messed it up. I am going to try again but I am going to rack it on to a grain bag filled with hops. Anyone ever try this?

 

[SwissRico]

My starter equipment kit came with two fermentation buckets, both with spigots. I just racked to secondary to dry-hop through the spigot too (will try without the secondary next time). You will still need some tubing from the spigot to the bottom of the second fermenter - you don't want to aerate as you transfer.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Ive dry hopped one time and I got so much stuff floating in my beer that I kind of messed it up. I am going to try again but I am going to rack it on to a grain bag filled with hops. Anyone ever try this?

I've never racked to another vessel (except a keg) for dry hopping, but I do use a bag to keep them contained. Also, after several brews that were dry hopped with pellets only marginally cleared over time, I started using leaf hops exclusively for the dry hop and now get crystal clear beer after a couple of weeks of putting on tap.

My dry hopping process is as follows:

1) After the krausen begins to clear in primary, add bag o' leaf hops to the ferementer.
2) In 5-7 days, with hops still in the fermenter, transfer the beer to a keg. Add 2nd bag o' leaf hops to keg and tap it. The hops remain in the keg for the duration. If I'm not going to tap within 2 weeks of kegging, I wait and do all of my dry hopping in the keg, starting when I'm about one week away from putting it on tap, though I still do two rounds of dry hop additions (one at basement temp for 5-7 days (remove when done) and the second just prior to refrigerating (stays in keg until it kicks)). If I were bottling, I would still do two rounds of dry hopping, but would do them both while the beer was in primary, then transfer to the bottling bucket.

 

[Mexibilly]

I wouldn't rack it off to a secondary, regardless of what the kit instructions might say.
I'd pop the top, drop the hops and give it a week.
That being said, I use a spray bottle of sanitizer to spray around the underside of the lid's lip/bucket connection before opening, and then spray the entire underside of the lid before closing it up.
This has worked for me every time

 

[Mexibilly]

I wouldn't rack it off to a secondary, regardless of what the kit instructions might say.
I'd pop the top, drop the hops and give it a week.
That being said, I use a spray bottle of sanitizer to spray around the underside of the lid's lip/bucket connection before opening, and then spray the entire underside of the lid before closing it up.
This has worked for me every time

 

[ndinh]

Secondary...what's that? j/k
I use to transfer to 2nd-ary and dry hop there but it really didn't make any difference and then one time I believe my beer oxidized quicker because of the transfer so I stopped doing that for IPA's, etc. Now, I just toss in my dry hops and my beers have a much more pronounced hop nose, IMO. I only transfer to 2nd-ary when I'm doing Belgian styles to get it off the yeast. I clear my beer by using a mesh strainer bag tied to the end of my tubing. Works like a charm. Also, spigot is fine but make sure it's sanitized and even tilted up slightly so you won't get tons of gunk transferring with your beer.