Some IPA questions for the experts

rmcgill · Apr 16, 2012

Made my first IPA batch last night. Very exciting!...a few questions:

How long should I let it ferment?

Should I do a "secondary ferment" if so how exactly do you do this? Just filter and transfer into another fermentation bucket?

My recipe calls for dry hopping. Researching I found you add the hopps 2-3 days before bottling. This is going to kill any filtering from secondary fermenting? I will need yet another bucket to pour it in and filter the hops out (pellet hops I am using) Then a bucket for priming sugar and bottling?

Any help on dry hop technique and secondary fermenting (if worth the hassle with dry hopping?)

Thanks for any help brewing experts!

rmcgill · Apr 16, 2012

I made a batch at a home brew class and we just used hop leafs (not pellets) my recipe has pellets unfortunately.
They have a special bag for dry hops that different from grain then? Was thinking the grain bag had too big of holes and hops was going to get all in the beer

verbhertz · Apr 16, 2012

I've dry hopped pellets without a bag without too much of an issue. They will settle but you may want to filter the siphon somehow.

Stix · Apr 16, 2012

rmcgill said:
I made a batch at a home brew class and we just used hop leafs (not pellets) my recipe has pellets unfortunately.
They have a special bag for dry hops that different from grain then? Was thinking the grain bag had too big of holes and hops was going to get all in the beer

Grain bag is fine. I just call it a hop sack. Nothing wrong with pellets just messy is all. If any hops get in the beer it will settle.

BrewKnurd · Apr 16, 2012

So there's lots of different ways to skin this cat. I dry hop in primary, whether using pellets or whole hops. 2-3 days is on the short side. 4-7 is my norm.