pellet dry hop question.

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mxwrench

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I am using pellet hops for the first time in my secondary for dry hopping, how many days can I expect until they settle to the bottom?
 
I'd usually dry hop for about 2 weeks, depending on what you're looking for in your beer. As far as them settling, it should be fine after a few days. Don't worry too much, though, as it shouldn't make too much a difference in the final product. I personally put my hops in the fermenter and THEN rack onto them, to help them get a little better assimilated with the beer.

Cheers!
 
They may never settle to the bottom. That's ok, just rack from under the floaties and above the trub layer.

I dryhop for 3-7 days for best hops flavor and aroma. And then just rack when I'm packaging the beer. It's easiest to just start from the middle with the siphon, and lower the racking cane as the level of the beer drops. That way I don't suck up any floating stuff, and avoid the trub layer on the bottom.
 
They may never settle to the bottom. That's ok, just rack from under the floaties and above the trub layer.

I dryhop for 3-7 days for best hops flavor and aroma. And then just rack when I'm packaging the beer. It's easiest to just start from the middle with the siphon, and lower the racking cane as the level of the beer drops. That way I don't suck up any floating stuff, and avoid the trub layer on the bottom.

I did this the other day, but still managed to suck up a lot of hops. As soon as I stuck the siphon in, the hop layer that formed on the top just broke. A lot of the floating stuff slowly started to fall and I couldn't avoid siphoning it. Any tips?
 
I did this the other day, but still managed to suck up a lot of hops. As soon as I stuck the siphon in, the hop layer that formed on the top just broke. A lot of the floating stuff slowly started to fall and I couldn't avoid siphoning it. Any tips?

I don't seem to have any problems at all. I know that some brewers have used "paint strainer" bags (sanitized) over the bottom of the racking cane and strained out the extra hops debris that way. That clogged for me, and I did better without the strainer. But it might work for you.
 
I was thinking of putting the strainer on the other end of the racking cane before it enters the botteling bucket or keg... just an idea to try and filter out any pellet trub.
 
This works perfectly if you are worried about sucking a lot of debris in.

I also will slightly "thump" the fermenter by tilting it up on edge slightly, then putting it back down a couple of times during dry hop. This will get some of the hop flakes to fall to the bottom before racking time. Then, the really buoyant flakes will float on the bottling bucket, and don't make it into the bottles, so I generally don't bother to filter through the mesh any more.
 
I leave them in for 10 days to 2 weeks. They seem to drop in that time. I don't have any problems racking.
 
fwiw, after 2 weeks of dry hopping I give the carboy a 3-4 day crash cooling which for whatever reason ends up with all the pellet hop bits firmly on the bottom. Then I sanitize a 3" square of nylon paint strainer material and a rubber band in Iodophor, then band the square around the tip of my autosiphon, and rack to a keg. Works very well...

Cheers!
 
I use a jumbo size grain bag (from AHS) as a liner in my bottling bucket. I boil the bag to sanitize it, then insert it into the sanitized bucket and drape the excess bag material over the edge of the bucket, securing it with a bungee cord around the outside of the bucket. Rack into the bucket, then remove the bag and all the hop residue with it. I purge the bucket head space with CO2 from my cylinder and then add the priming solution and gently stir it in, because I'm worried it wouldn't mix well due to the bag. This works great (if you dont' have a CO2 bottle, don't worry about it, just stir in the priming solution very gently to avoid oxygenation). Be sure to have an empty bucket or whatever next to your bottling bucket so you'll have a place to put the wet, dripping bag when you pull it out.
 
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