Quick Question on Dry Hopping

[rinhaak]

When adding hops to secondary, would you:

A) Put the hops in the bottom of a dry bucket/carboy and slowly siphon the beer from primary into the secondary container.

or

B) Siphon the beer from primary into secondary and then add the dry hops afterwards.

The main difference (as I can tell) is that in (A) the hops get wet immediately and stay at the bottom of the fermenter. In (B) the hops float on the top for a much longer period of time.

 

[smashed4]

You are overthinking things.

Really does not matter, either way will work.

One important tip is to swirl the carboy everyday or so to maximize contact..

Also, personally I dont transfer to dry hop, I just pop them in the primary fermenter (carboy) when the krausen starts to fall..

 

[JohnnyO]

Actually, it is best to add the hops, then rack your beer on top of them. It cuts out any chance of oxidation issues by plopping them in the beer after racking. And there is no need to swirl your fermenter like that. Again, oxidation.

 

[smashed4]

Hmmm, if you are so concerned about oxydation, why transfer the beer to a second vessel and expose it to oxygen in the process?

I add the dry hop before the end of fermentation, so the yeast is still active and producing co2. The head space is all co2 at that point.

And swirling is useful.. pellets tends to drop to the bottom while whole hops just float on top... swirling maximizes the contact with the beer. Pro brewers will bubble co2 from the cone to mix it in, but at home a lil swirling does the job.

 

[rinhaak]

I've never dry hopped in primary before, though I've read about it. My only thought is that because this is a low gravity beer (OG 1.041), I didn't want to keep it in primary overly long. I intended to rack after about 10 days (or once fermentation was complete), dry hop for a week, cold crash two days, then bottle.

 

[smashed4]

If you can cold crash, dry hopping in the primary should cause you no problem...

I keg and dry hop in the primary all the time...

A 24h cold crash will produce reasonably clear beer before racking to the keg..

In your case you will rack to bottling bucket but otherwise its the same