Quick question about dry hopping and secondary fermentors

[james138]

I'm am thinking of ditching my secondary fermentor and keep everything in the primary. My recipe calls for adding hops into my secondary, I assume that there is no issue just adding the hops into the primary instead? And
do I just tear open the hops and pour them in?

 

[two_one_seven]

Yes you can.

With that said it depends a bit on the hops you use. If you want to keep it nice and clean you can put them in a hop bag too. Some people sanitize but personally I never do and it has bit me yet......crossin my fingers after I said that though...

 

[james138]

Thanks for the info, the IPA kit I bought has a fairly high ibu rating. Can I assume that if I wanted to lower it a bit I could add less that what is called for or not even add it at all?

 

[two_one_seven]

And them. IPA is all about the dry hopping, IBU's do not substitute for dry hops. Dry hops add the aroma of the beer and that's pretty much it.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

And them. IPA is all about the dry hopping, IBU's do not substitute for dry hops. Dry hops and the aroma of the beer and that's pretty much it.

+1, a good IPA is dry hopped. To lower the IBUs you can reduce what you put in the boil. When I dry hop, I do it in the primary after fermentation is complete and then just dump it in. Cold crash a few days before bottling and rack to bottling bucket carefully.

 

[james138]

Thanks for the info!

What does cold crash mean?

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Basically cold crashing is sticking in fridge for a day or two to get extra yeast and sediment to fall out of solution and to the bottom of the fermentor to yield clearer beer. If you don't have room in the fridge you can skip this step, but I find that it makes a pretty big difference in the clarity.

 

[brewsme]

+1 on cold crashing.

I also find that if you smash the sealed hop bag with a hammer this really crushes the hops so they don't stay balled up in the secondary/primary, however, I don't know if it matters. This happens once where I could see the hop pellets sitting at the bottom. The only time I move to a secondary is when I need my primary for the next brew.

 

[scoundrel]

I also dumped my secondary long ago and add hops to primary or kegs sometimes. If you want to use a nylon bag, here's the procedure I use.

http://www.brewgeeks.com/dry-hop.html

 

[Just-a-Guy]

This may seem like a dumb question, but it's kind of on topic here, I think.

The one time I tried cold crashing (out of 7 batches so far), I found that moving the fermenting bucket tended to stir up the sediment more than the cold crashing cleared it out. I don't have room in a fridge, so I just carried the bucket out to the garage (my beer making station is in a utility room immediately adjacent to the garage, so it's just a short distance through one door). Left it out there for about 24 hours at about 40 degrees. Then brought it back in. Lifting it and carrying it around seemed to cause the sediment to stir up. Do any of you find this to be a problem? Are you supposed to then let it sit again long enough for the sediment to settle again? The whole thing seemed kind of self-defeating....

 

[heckler73]

justaguy, why not bring it out to the garage for a day or two, sitting on a bench, and then rack it to the bottling bucket without moving it first... Then move back indoors.

 

[Just-a-Guy]

justaguy, why not bring it out to the garage for a day or two, sitting on a bench, and then rack it to the bottling bucket without moving it first... Then move back indoors.

'Cause it's freakin' cold out there!!

Seriously, though, I suppose that's a good question. I was just wondering what other people experience. If people are putting it in the fridge to cold crash, I was assuming they'd move it somewhere else to siphon out for bottling?