Pellet Dry Hop Explosion = Ruined?

[BigCatBrewery]

I added an ounce of pelletized "Goldlings) dry hops to my Pale Ale in my secondary and had a serious carbonation explosion. Basically every time pellets hit the beer, it foamed up past the neck. This happened a couple times because I figured I lost all the hops out the top and had to re-apply them. Finally got it to simmer down with some hops sitting on top of the suds at the top, only to come down the next day and find out that once they had fallen through it had happened again, and the one/way valve (proper name escapes me) was full of not so great smelling suds and it's reduction.

Think it's ruined? Or should I rack, bottle, hope, and potentially waste 2 weeks of bottle time?

 

[petep1980]

How much did you throw in that thing?

 

[Yooper]

It won't be ruined, but it may not have all the hops aroma that you were expecting.

Next time, either a) put the hops into a carboy and then rack the beer into them, or b) use a carboy with much more headspace.

It looks like you had a bunch of nucleation points, which happens when you add a solid into a liquid full of co2.

 

[SavageSteve]

It's most likely not ruined. Rack, bottle and wait. You're not wasting any time while it carbonates, and it'll probably be just fine. Beats dumping it.

-Steve

p.s. Airlock.

 

[Zen_Brew]

It looks like you had a bunch of nucleation points, which happens when you add a solid into a liquid full of co2.

Yooper is an amazing woman. I just love it that she brews beer, enjoys drinking it, then with buzz can talk about nucleation points of a solid in co2.

Hell I don't even know what that means, but I still think it's awesome.

 

[ifishsum]

I like to leave my beer in secondary for a full week before adding dry hops (or after 3 weeks in primary if you don't secondary) - by then most of the CO2 has already gassed out and I don't get the foaming. Besides that, the CO2 that's being released is also carrying away the dry hop aroma that I'm trying to keep in there. You'll get more flavor and aroma from your dry hops if you wait until the beer has gone completely quiet before adding them.

Don't give up on the batch, you've got nothing to lose by bottling it. It's probably just fine.

 

[Yooper]

Yooper is an amazing woman. I just love it that she brews beer, enjoys drinking it, then with buzz can talk about nucleation points of a solid in co2.

Hell I don't even know what that means, but I still think it's awesome.

And................I heard she has big boobs!

 

[ifishsum]

Lmao! 12345

 

[Zen_Brew]

And................I heard she has big boobs!

Oh, yeah and a great sense of humor.

Actually I think I heard that too, but you know.....

No pictures and it didn't happen.

 

[craven_morhead]

I assume this is the same sort of thing that happens when you drop mentos into diet coke, right? A very carbonated liquid comes into contact with something that has a lot of tiny pockets and a lot of surface area, and the co2 forms bubbles at all the contact points.

 

[Yooper]

I assume this is the same sort of thing that happens when you drop mentos into diet coke, right? A very carbonated liquid comes into contact with something that has a lot of tiny pockets and a lot of surface area, and the co2 forms bubbles at all the contact points.

Well, yes, if you want to get technical!

Even a lightly carbonated liquid (such as a fermenting beer or wine) will do that. When folks are making mead, and the instructions say, "add such-and-such" and don't make mention of this effect, I've had many people post on here about volcanoes.

Anyway, for dryhopping, the keys would be to wait until fermentation is completely finished, and the beer is fairly warm (co2 is more easily in solution in cold liquids), and to rack the beer onto the dryhops. Or, to use a container with much more headspace so even if it does bubble up, it won't go anywhere.

 

[BigCatBrewery]

Great answers. Thanks Yooper. Headspace was at a minimum - hence the easy explosion. We'll see how she turn out!

 

[mr_clean]

And................I heard she has big boobs!

Prove it:cross: