Olá from Belo Horizonte, Brasil sil sil!!!

Chico_Invisivel · Oct 11, 2015

Hi! I'm on my way to my fourth brew... First one nedded more days aging, but was surprisingly drinkable! Now I have a Dubbel aging and a Belgian Pale Ale at the end of fermentation. I'm plannig a dry hopping and I need some tips about it (materials for hop bags, how long, hop weight for 20 liters or 5,3 gals... things like that).
I'm also interested in cold crashing. Is it always needed or are there any knd of beers that I can skip this phase?

Thank you!
Cheers!
Chico

passedpawn · Oct 11, 2015

Welcome to the forum Chico. You found the right place. However, you'll get much better answers to your brewing questions if you post them in the brewing-related forums.

Check out the Beginner's Forum, and other brewing forums here; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10

ncbrewer · Oct 11, 2015

I can't help with the dry hopping question because I don't dry hop (concerns about contamination), but welcome to HBT.

passedpawn · Oct 11, 2015

I can help with dryhopping I guess. Dryhop with as much as you can. If you want hop aroma, 2 ounces per 5 gallon (sorry, you'll have to do the conversion to metric). Add dry hops about 5 days before you plan to bottle. Don't use a hop bag, they are the source of many infections. Use hop pellets, which won't float and post no infection danger. In my opinion, more dry hops are always better. There's not an upper limit

Cold crashing: it is a great way to clear your beer quickly. It's also completely unnecessary. If you don't cold crash, your beers will just take a lot longer to become clear, but they will. Once your beer is finished fermenting (~ 10 days), drop the temperature to around 32F (0C). Leave it there for a day or two, then bottle. Don't worry, there's still plenty of yeast in suspension to carbonate your beer - no need for more yeast. Use gelatin (unflavored Knox) for even clearer beer.

Chico_Invisivel · Oct 12, 2015

Thank you so much Andrew!
You are the first to advise me to quit the bags... But if hop pellets are less "infectious", how can I take it off at the end of the process? I hope gelatin is not the only way...

Chico