Pellet Dry Hopping

[user 574]

I racked my 1st IPA to the secondary last night that called for dry-hopping and I have a question. It called for 1oz Cascade and I did this with pellets. So now I have a 1/2" of pellet goo hanging out on the top of the brew. Does this settle to the bottom eventually and any special issues to address when its time to rack to the bottle bucket? Hoping I wasn't supposed to bag it or anything...

 

[river rat]

That's funny, I just got on the board with the same exact problem. Anyone know what this stuff is supposed to do? It's been about 4 days and it's still floating around on top.

 

[Janx]

I imagine they'll settle, but sorry, I never use pellets, so I really don't know. Probably the biggest reason I like whole hops better is they are easier to filter out than pellets. For some reason, the industry has spread the word that pellets are easier, but they have been nothing but trouble to me. Plus they taste inferior.

I can tell you for future reference, whole hops used for dry hopping will sink and you can rack off them easily. Good luck!

 

[Tony]

Well ya got me convinced.

 

[user 574]

It is heading down to the bottom after 6 days but it is a mess; still a fair amount of crap floating on the top and along the bottom/sides of the carboy. It'll be ok once moved over to the bottling bucket if I'm careful. I'm spreading my wings for the next brew and going away from pre-made kits. Still be doing DME and grain steeping for now but am going to start using fresh hops and liq yeast going forward.

 

[D-brewmeister]

It is heading down to the bottom after 6 days but it is a mess; still a fair amount of crap floating on the top and along the bottom/sides of the carboy. It'll be ok once moved over to the bottling bucket if I'm careful.

I wonder if using some finings, like polyclar would help at all?

 

[user 574]

I wonder if using some finings, like polyclar would help at all?

Hmm, haven't used that before but it's not really floating around suspended in the beer just clinging to the sides of the carboy. I'm not really worried but think dry-hopping would be much better with whole hops IMO.

 

[NUCC98]

How much more IBUs do you think you'd get out of dry hopping, as opposed to, say, just adding the hops into the last 15 minutes of the boil?

 

[uglygoat]

i gotta try some of those whole hops... i'll have to buy them online though.

but yes, those hops will eventually sink or settle into the rest of the trub.. it may take a while. i wouldn't worry about the pelets becoming infected if you maintained sanitation throughout.

try a small bit of screen or some mesh on the bottom of your racking cane. even if the hop floaties don't settle, you should be able to rack without stirring up the bottom trub, and you'll only be exposed to the scuzz on the top when you first break the surface...

 

[trekv2]

try shaking the carboy a little they will go down thats what i do. dry hopping does not ad any IBU's just aroma

 

[Dude]

How much more IBUs do you think you'd get out of dry hopping, as opposed to, say, just adding the hops into the last 15 minutes of the boil?

With dry-hopping, you won't get any additional bittering "taste" in your beer, hence no additional IBU counts. You'll only get aroma. However that aroma can go a long way in making that beer seem more hoppy.