Question on bottling a dry hopped beer

[TxBigHops]

My first home brew was dry hopped about 7 days ago. I did not use a hop bag. Per LHBS instructions, I crushed up the pellets a bit, dropped them into the secondary, then racked my beer on top of them. Currently, all these hop bits are still mostly floating on the top of my beer, with a few slowly sinking or possibly floating in suspension throughout my beer. I thought that they would all settle to the bottom like they did in primary.

So question is, when I rack to my bottling bucket in a few days, is it okay to strain the beer through a nylon paint strainer, or would that undesirably oxygenate the beer?

Thanks.

 

[PRE66_6TART]

You don't want to pour it through something to strain it for the reason you mentioned, but if you attach the strainer to the end of the racking cane that should be fine, I would think.

 

[Hello]

Definitely attach something on the end of the racking cane. No pouring after fermentation.

 

[norsk]

Line the bucket with a 5 gal paint strainer properly sanitized and you will be good to go. Probably be a good thing not to listen to your LHBS much...

 

[alane1]

if you have access to a hop bag those work the best for attaching to the end of your racking cane, the draw string helps it stay in place. I suppose you could use something else like a paint strainer bag with a sanitized twisty tie or something like that. Cheers.

 

[MadIslander]

I sometimes do a whirlpool with the bucket tipped away from the spout and let it settle for 20 minutes or so and it has done me right every time.
I Also do a second transfer if I can't get it to fall b4 I bottle.
But my ace in the hole is flash chilling the beer b4 bottling.

 

[TxBigHops]

Line the bucket with a 5 gal paint strainer properly sanitized and you will be good to go. Probably be a good thing not to listen to your LHBS much...

This is exactly what I was asking, if I could put a paint strainer into the bottling bucket. So I guess what you are saying is, as long as it is on the bottom of the bucket and the beer is simply flowing into it, that's okay? But not to position it part way up the bucket so the beer flows through it and then drops splashing to the bottom. Then when I'm done emptying the carboy, just lift it out carefully?

What should I have not listened to? I get most of my information from this forum. When something my LHBS says is contradicted by a majority here, I typically follow this forum. From my research, it seems that lot's of brewers here toss their hops into their fermenters and don't use hop bags. As I said, being my first brew, I expected them to settle, not float. Now I know better.

 

[TxBigHops]

I sometimes do a whirlpool with the bucket tipped away from the spout and let it settle for 20 minutes or so and it has done me right every time.
I Also do a second transfer if I can't get it to fall b4 I bottle.
But my ace in the hole is flash chilling the beer b4 bottling.

Are you saying swirl the beer around in the carboy before I rack it, or in the bottling bucket after? It sounds like you're saying after, and I would question whether that's a best practice. Seems like you want the beer as still as possible after you rack and it's exposed to air.

However, I was wondering if it would be okay to swirl it a little now while it's still in the carboy with a layer of CO2 protecting it, and see if the hops would settle over the next few days before I bottle. Either way I will definitely rack into a sanitized nylon strainer.

 

[IL1kebeer]

From my research, it seems that lot's of brewers here toss their hops into their fermenters and don't use hop bags.

I have done both and hop bags are more convenient for me. You just have to be careful not to put too many in one bag or your extraction will suffer since the hops swell up so much that they prevent flow to the center of the mass.

As I said, being my first brew, I expected them to settle, not float. Now I know better.

They will settle out eventually if you rouse your carboy every day during the dryhop. If you don't rouse they will still settle but it will take a lot longer. I don't like cold crashing to drop the hops because of oxygen exposure so I used to just rouse every day until most or all of the hops dropped then I racked carefully. Worked for me, but I'm a bit lazy and like to set and forget so I started using bags.

 

[TxBigHops]

I have done both and hop bags are more convenient for me. You just have to be careful not to put too many in one bag or your extraction will suffer since the hops swell up so much that they prevent flow to the center of the mass.


They will settle out eventually if you rouse your carboy every day during the dryhop. If you don't rouse they will still settle but it will take a lot longer. I don't like cold crashing to drop the hops because of oxygen exposure so I used to just rouse every day until most or all of the hops dropped then I racked carefully. Worked for me, but I'm a bit lazy and like to set and forget so I started using bags.

Agreed. Personal experience is the best teacher. Next time I dry hop I will bag 'em.

So could you be a little more specific when you say rouse? Do you mean to swirl it a bit as I asked in another message above? Gentle? Vigorous? I'm not really familiar with the use of that word in this context.

 

[IL1kebeer]

Agreed. Personal experience is the best teacher. Next time I dry hop I will bag 'em.



So could you be a little more specific when you say rouse? Do you mean to swirl it a bit as I asked in another message above? Gentle? Vigorous? I'm not really familiar with the use of that word in this context.

Just a gentle swirl. I don't even fully lift up the carboy off of the ground, sorta just kept it tilted it on one edge and gently swirled. Hope that makes sense. If you do it right you will see some hops sink and some of the hops that previously sank will resuspend and sink again.

Even if you so much as smack your carboy you will see some hops drop. It doesn't take much to get things going in there. I like to gently swirl though to get some hops resuspended to get the most out of my extraction.

 

[Yooper]

I don't use any way to separate the hops, and I dryhop a lot. Some will float and some will sink- but don't do anything to shake/stir/filter it out! Aerating now will ruin the beer, and it's not necessary.

Simply rack to the bottling bucket when it's time. My siphon has a black tip on it that helps keep out chunks. I start my siphon in the middle of the beer- below the floaties and above the trub. As the level of the beer drops, lower the siphon until you hit trub and stop. You shouldn't have any issues with this.

 

[MadIslander]

Are you saying swirl the beer around in the carboy before I rack it, or in the bottling bucket after? It sounds like you're saying after, and I would question whether that's a best practice. Seems like you want the beer as still as possible after you rack and it's exposed to air.

However, I was wondering if it would be okay to swirl it a little now while it's still in the carboy with a layer of CO2 protecting it, and see if the hops would settle over the next few days before I bottle. Either way I will definitely rack into a sanitized nylon strainer.

In the bottling bucket. You will miss most of the trub after the secondary transfer but if you feel you still have to much "floating" try the whirlpool.

In my opinion, if your brew room, kitchen or home is clean and your not breading bread yeast your going to be fine whirling the snot out of your beer and putting a lid on it for 20 minutes.
This gets harder in the summer with pollen and natural yeast and bacteria in the air but again a sanitized brew area is a happy brew area...
I would let my wife give birth in our kitchen do to StarSan

Cheers

 

[MadIslander]

Hear are the parts to my inline filter
I also add leaf hops to the inlet side for another huge hop hit at bottling.

 

[greatschmaltez]

You will aerate the beer too much if you leave the nylon bag above the surface. Instead, start siphoning the beer through the nylon bag and then still allow a portion of the nylon bag and the hose to stay below the beer surface in the bottling bucket. You will have to use a big nylon bag for this so you can keep the nylon bag opening above the surface so the hops stay contained. You'll probably want someone holding the racking cane while you are using both hands to manage the siphon hose and bag. Once done racking just lift the nylon bag and hose out of the liquid and you should have all your hops contained.

For future, just use whole hops for dry hopping.

 

[TxBigHops]

In the bottling bucket. You will miss most of the trub after the secondary transfer but if you feel you still have to much "floating" try the whirlpool.

In my opinion, if your brew room, kitchen or home is clean and your not breading bread yeast your going to be fine whirling the snot out of your beer and putting a lid on it for 20 minutes.
This gets harder in the summer with pollen and natural yeast and bacteria in the air but again a sanitized brew area is a happy brew area...
I would let my wife give birth in our kitchen do to StarSan

Cheers

My issue with "whirling the snot" out of my beer in the bottling bucket has nothing to do with sanitation and everything to do with aeration, which from everything I've read is a huge no-no post fermentation.

And while those are some really pretty pieces of brass in your photo, I have no idea what you are doing with them. Inline filter certainly sounds interesting, but I'm not quite sure where in the process you have it located, and how you would keep it from getting clogged if you have a lot of trub and hop bits.

 

[TxBigHops]

You will aerate the beer too much if you leave the nylon bag above the surface. Instead, start siphoning the beer through the nylon bag and then still allow a portion of the nylon bag and the hose to stay below the beer surface in the bottling bucket. You will have to use a big nylon bag for this so you can keep the nylon bag opening above the surface so the hops stay contained. You'll probably want someone holding the racking cane while you are using both hands to manage the siphon hose and bag. Once done racking just lift the nylon bag and hose out of the liquid and you should have all your hops contained.

For future, just use whole hops for dry hopping.

Yes, I think this is what I will try. While I have a great deal of respect for Ms. Yooper, who is a legend on this site, I have not yet acquired an auto siphon, so there is no filter tip at the bottom of my racking cane. I'm quite sure I will either end up with a lot of hop bits and trub in my bottling bucket, or leave a great deal of beer behind. Having been adequately warned about aerating my beer, I will be extremely careful about the sterilization, placement and removal of the strainer bag inside the bucket.