Successful Dry Hopping Techniques?

[BendBrewer]

I do not plan to use secondary, just primary (in a bucket) for about 3 weeks. The instructions say to add the dry hops on day 5 after brewing, so that would be about 23 days in primary with the add'l hop pellets. Anybody see any problems with this plan?

Yes. Flip those numbers around. Dry hop for the LAST 5-7 days.

If I don't use the pantyhose, and just drop them in uncontained, I gather that I should wrap a hop bag around my siphon tube when I rack to the bottling bucket, to avoid hop particles in the beer, correct?

Or you could rack to a 'secondary' for a few days and then siphon out of that. That should help to leave most of the particles behind.

And I know others will tell you differently but for me, Pellets suck. They just do.

 

[platypotamus]

If I don't use the pantyhose, and just drop them in uncontained, I gather that I should wrap a hop bag around my siphon tube when I rack to the bottling bucket, to avoid hop particles in the beer, correct?

I just tossed my pellets into the carboy last time, and I have to say that racking to the bottling bucket was a complete pain in the arse. The hop bag on the siphon tube kept on getting clogged every 10-20 seconds, so I ended up removing it, and then having to be really careful about getting too many hops off bottom of the carboy. I will be dry-hopping w/ the hop bag next time.

 

[BMoreBeerish]

Yes. Flip those numbers around. Dry hop for the LAST 5-7 days.

Makes sense. I'm sure the instructions are based on fermentation being complete and racking to secondary or the bottling bucket within about 10 days of brewing. However, thanks to all the knowledge dropped here at HBT, I now know that longer is better in primary, secondary, and bottles. I'll plan to add the dry hops (in pantyhose or a hop bag definitely), on about day 16 or so, and bottle on day 21.

 

[oldschool]

I prefer the taste/aroma if you dryhop cold. I'm lucky enough to use a refrigerator for a chamber and just turn down the t-stat when i'm ready to cold crash.

 

[mattldm]

How does one ounce of Amarillo pellets sound for dry hopping a 5gal batch of pale ale?
Should I use more or less?
I'm planning on just tossing the pellets in the secondary, then kegging and cold crashing.

 

[Gritsak]

How does one ounce of Amarillo pellets sound for dry hopping a 5gal batch of pale ale?
Should I use more or less?
I'm planning on just tossing the pellets in the secondary, then kegging and cold crashing.

1 ounce is good. I would toss them in the secondary then rack the beer of top of them. After about 5 days cold crash for the last 2 days before transferring to the keg. This will drop most of the hops out of suspension so less particles will make it to the keg.

 

[shuf]

Anyone for dry hopping with a hop tea? I haven't tried this method before, but this post, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/big-hop-flavor-1-3-hops-55721/index8.html, got me pumped up to try it on an IIPA after it ages.

 

[Wayne1]

There are many good methods discussed here. I used a couple of different one's when I brewed in brewpubs, depending on what type of equipment I had.

My first pub used open fermenters (glycol jacketed, stainless vessels with a removable stainless lid) and transferred to a cooler for aging. I dry hopped in the aging tank with whole leaf hops in a large bag. What some of use use to hold grains. I would put a large stainless steel nut in the bag to hold it down.

When dry hopping cold, it takes a lot longer, but the flavor seems to stay stable longer. I would keep the beer on the hops for three weeks and then transfer to a serving tank and carbonate.

When I started at a brewery with Uni-tanks and no aging, I had to change my methods a bit. I still cooled the beer down to 40 F after fermentation was finished. I removed as much yeast as I could from the cone. I then poured pellet hops in from the top of the fermenter after I unscrewed the pressure relief assembly. I made sure to sanitize everything and put that back together. Again the beer would age on the hops for 21 days. At the end of that time, the beer would be filtered through a 5 micron plate and frame filter into the serving tanks.

Currently for homebrew, I ferment in Mini-Brew 6.5 gallon conicals. After about 2 weeks, I transfer the beer into another conical with hops and a small amount of polyclar(1/8 tsp.) . This helps clear the beer a bit and allows the hops to settle in the cone. For dry hopping at room temps, the time is much shorter. 3-5 days is about optimum. To assure clear beer, I will sometimes transfer into a third vessel with a touch more polyclar (1/4 tsp)to help things settle out. for an additional week. At that point I will transfer into a keg and place it in the refrigerator and carbonate.

I have found that the hop flavor and aroma is at it's peak when it is transferred in the keg. It starts to fade right away. It is hard to detect after about 3 weeks.

This was also noticed when I was judging IPAs and American Barley wines at this years NHC first round. Many beers were knocked down because there was very little aroma left. I'm sure the beers were fine when bottled, but the aroma had faded away by the time the judges got it.

If you want the hop aroma to stay, try to arrange it to dry hop cold for three weeks. Also, if you are entering competition, try to time your beer to package it right before you send it in. Now this can be a problem for folks who bottle condition, but the cold hop method does work to keep the flavor around longer.

 

[BMoreBeerish]

I prefer the taste/aroma if you dryhop cold. I'm lucky enough to use a refrigerator for a chamber and just turn down the t-stat when i'm ready to cold crash.

What temperature is needed for "cold crashing?" I have an empty fridge right down in the basement next to where the beer is fermenting. It sounds like I might be well served to move the fermenter to the fridge for a couple days after dry hopping for 3-5?

 

[Wayne1]

What temperature is needed for "cold crashing?" I have an empty fridge right down in the basement next to where the beer is fermenting. It sounds like I might be well served to move the fermenter to the fridge for a couple days after dry hopping for 3-5?

Try it!

40F is the temp I would condition at. You can try various times and temps and let us know the result.

I have only dry hopped cold, where the beer was brought down to 40F before the hops were added, for 21 days and warm , 68F, for 4-7 days before the beer was racked off the hops, cooled and carbonated. In my experience the cold hopped beer held the flavor longer.

You may be able to find a time and temp program that speeds up the extraction of flavors and aroma but keeps it around in the finished beer longer.

 

[BMoreBeerish]

Alright, so the plan of attack will be:

* Add hops (in boiled pantyhose with a marble to sink) on Day 16
* Move fermenter with hops to refrigerator at ~40F on Day 20
* Rack to bottling bucket on day 23
* Bottle condition at room temp for ~2 weeks

Objections?

 

[Grasslands]

I've got a two-hearted clone right now that I dry-hopped w/2 oz of centennial pellets. This is my second time around dryhopping - first time I used 1 oz of whole cascade hops and had good success with that. I'm anxious to taste/smell any difference. I'll have to be extremely careful in racking to the keg. There's plenty of hops still in suspension. I'm planning on going the cheap nylon stocking around the racking cane route and seeing what happens. I plan on leaving the 2ndary out for 30 minutes or so, racking to a bottling bucket...letting it sit for another 30 minutes, then racking to the keg - in an attempt to minimize the particles I pick up.

Here's another question for everyone - has anyone experienced an increase in CO2 activity after dryhopping? I'm currently on day 18 of fermentation (10 days primary, 8 days secondary/dryhop) and I'm still getting multiple airlock bubbles per minute. I also notice hop particles moving up to the top layer of wort and then dropping back down - similar to a fun yeast party.

Thoughts?

 

[Wayne1]

Did you take a gravity reading before you transferred to your conditioning vessel? Did you make sure fermentation was complete before the transfer?

FWIW, I made a Two Hearted clone that I used 1 oz of Centennial for dry hop in 5 gallons. The FG was 1.008 before I racked on top of the dry hops. I used Safale US-05 yeast.

The hops can serve as nucleation points to release any CO2 that may already be in suspension. You may also have added something that is eating any sugar that was left from the fermentation.

When dry hopping with pellets, I have found it beneficial to rack into a tertiary vessel with some finings added to allow any hop mass that gets caught up in the transfer to settle. The finings (very small amount) will also help out a bit with clearing up the beer, which can get hazy from the dry hops. I would leave in tertiary for 2-3 days and then rack to the keg.

I am sure others have different methods that work for them.

 

[bnmir]

I dry hop ale with pellets loose in the primary after fermentation has slowed, for about another 7-10 days. I typically see an increase in bubbling, but I thought it might be natural carbonation releasing due to additional nucleation sites. I typically use gelatin to clear the beer before bottling or kegging.

 

[Grasslands]

I dry hop ale with pellets loose in the primary after fermentation has slowed, for about another 7-10 days. I typically see an increase in bubbling, but I thought it might be natural carbonation releasing due to additional nucleation sites. I typically use gelatin to clear the beer before bottling or kegging.

This is what I was thinking was going on with mine - I typically don't care too much about racking to a secondary anyways - so I just eyeball my airlock and rack when I feel like it's slowed significantly. I typically don't take sample gravity readings to make that determination. I am planning on racking to a third fermenter tomorrow night, then kegging on Sunday - that'll be a total of 22 days in fermentation. 10 primary, 12 secondary.

 

[Wayne1]

This is what I was thinking was going on with mine - I typically don't care too much about racking to a secondary anyways - so I just eyeball my airlock and rack when I feel like it's slowed significantly. I typically don't take sample gravity readings to make that determination. I am planning on racking to a third fermenter tomorrow night, then kegging on Sunday - that'll be a total of 22 days in fermentation. 10 primary, 12 secondary.

Gas flowing through an airlock does not give any indication when a fermentation is finished. To KNOW rather than guess, you need to take hydrometer readings two to three days in a row. If you want to make consistent beer, this is one of the steps you should go through.

Beer doesn't care about how much time it spends in a jug. It cares about how much sugar the yeast start with and how much is left after they are done. The only way to KNOW that is to measure.

Good luck with your brew.

 

[Grasslands]

Gas flowing through an airlock does not give any indication when a fermentation is finished. To KNOW rather than guess, you need to take hydrometer readings two to three days in a row. If you want to make consistent beer, this is one of the steps you should go through.

Beer doesn't care about how much time it spends in a jug. It cares about how much sugar the yeast start with and how much is left after they are done. The only way to KNOW that is to measure.

Good luck with your brew.

Oh, I know all that. I just typically don't do it. Time constraints and other factors have been an influence - however when I want to KNOW as you put it, I do take a hydrometer sample over the course of a few days. I just don't always do it.

 

[mattldm]

1 ounce is good. I would toss them in the secondary then rack the beer of top of them. After about 5 days cold crash for the last 2 days before transferring to the keg. This will drop most of the hops out of suspension so less particles will make it to the keg.

I have another beer fermenting too so I have to plan my cold crash timing for both beers, so I was thinking of doing the dry hop for 7 days @ 66°-67° and then cold crashing for 2-3 days @ 38°, then kegging... Does that sound good?

 

[Grasslands]

I kegged my dryhopped (pellet) batch last night and man, it was definitely a PITA.

However, for those of you with an autosiphon, I figured out an easier way - at least for me - to filter out those pesky hops. It's been suggested on here to put a sanitized grain or hop bag over the tip of the siphon and wrap a rubber band around it. I tried this and the only thing I was able to achieve, aside from filtering the hops, was aeration. I'm not sure if that's been any one else's experience, but it put me on edge...especially when I've tried to clone my favorite beer (two-hearted).

Anyways, I figured out an easier way to minimize aeration from the bag and still achieve a decent filter. I just wrapped the bag around the other end of the tubing from the siphon and made sure there was space in between the end of the bag and the end of the tube. The bag rested on top of the beer in the keg so aeration was minimal, if at all. When I finished, I had a bag with a ton of hop residue in it. (this was after transferring into a bottling bucket first, then transferring to a keg)

That being said, I'm definitely going to use whole hops in the future for dryhopping.

Just my .02

 

[SumnerH]

I kegged my dryhopped (pellet) batch last night and man, it was definitely a PITA.

However, for those of you with an autosiphon, I figured out an easier way - at least for me - to filter out those pesky hops. It's been suggested on here to put a sanitized grain or hop bag over the tip of the siphon and wrap a rubber band around it. I tried this and the only thing I was able to achieve, aside from filtering the hops, was aeration. I'm not sure if that's been any one else's experience, but it put me on edge...especially when I've tried to clone my favorite beer (two-hearted).

Anyways, I figured out an easier way to minimize aeration from the bag and still achieve a decent filter. I just wrapped the bag around the other end of the tubing from the siphon and made sure there was space in between the end of the bag and the end of the tube. The bag rested on top of the beer in the keg so aeration was minimal, if at all. When I finished, I had a bag with a ton of hop residue in it. (this was after transferring into a bottling bucket first, then transferring to a keg)

That being said, I'm definitely going to use whole hops in the future for dryhopping.

Just my .02

Put the hops in a nylon stocking and tie off the end before you drop them in to dry hop.

 

[crlova2]

I am going to do my first dry hop with pellets in a couple of days. Please read my idea and feel free to criticize because I want to know if it will work and if it will create too much aeration. This may have already been suggested but I didn't want to read 8 pages of posts.

I am going to use hop pellets in the secondary without a bag of any type for about 7 days at 69 F. My issue is how to properly filter them out and the best thing I can come up with is this: at the end of my tube attached to my auto siphon (the end that will sit at the bottom of the keg) put a fine nylon bag in a balloon shape (to give the liquid some room when coming out) and either attach the bag with a rubber band or fishing line. I am figuring that if this is at the bottom of the keg and stays there as the liquid is filtering that it will not get that aerated because it even though it is going through the nylon screen it will be submerged. I don't want to put the filter inside the carboy because I have read about a lot of people getting their siphoning stopped from clog up so I figured that putting it at the end and giving it some room (balloon shape) will prevent it from clogging. The only issue I have is if it will aerate too much even though it is submerged? The beer probably will not last more than 3-4 weeks in the keg so is aeration even an issue? I am new to this so I am not sure about the whole aeration idea and how long until the effects are tasted. Please give me some feedback. Thanks

 

[Grasslands]

I am going to do my first dry hop with pellets in a couple of days. Please read my idea and feel free to criticize because I want to know if it will work and if it will create too much aeration. This may have already been suggested but I didn't want to read 8 pages of posts.

I am going to use hop pellets in the secondary without a bag of any type for about 7 days at 69 F. My issue is how to properly filter them out and the best thing I can come up with is this: at the end of my tube attached to my auto siphon (the end that will sit at the bottom of the keg) put a fine nylon bag in a balloon shape (to give the liquid some room when coming out) and either attach the bag with a rubber band or fishing line. I am figuring that if this is at the bottom of the keg and stays there as the liquid is filtering that it will not get that aerated because it even though it is going through the nylon screen it will be submerged. I don't want to put the filter inside the carboy because I have read about a lot of people getting their siphoning stopped from clog up so I figured that putting it at the end and giving it some room (balloon shape) will prevent it from clogging. The only issue I have is if it will aerate too much even though it is submerged? The beer probably will not last more than 3-4 weeks in the keg so is aeration even an issue? I am new to this so I am not sure about the whole aeration idea and how long until the effects are tasted. Please give me some feedback. Thanks

I did the bag at the end of the tube because I didn't bag-dryhop in the first place with my hop pellets. It works fine - but I'd make a suggestion: clean/sanitize/sterilize everything - including your hands/arms - and make sure you bring the bag out of the keg after you finish racking. I'd also make sure there's some head space between the end of the tube and the inside of the bag.

 

[mattldm]

I kegged my pale ale yesterday that had 1 ounce of pellet hops in the secondary. I just tossed the hops in without a bag! I cold crashed and used a paint strainer over the end of the racking cane and it worked great! There was very little hop material in the strainer, most of it sunk to the bottom when I crashed it!

 

[oldschool]

I just kegged an IPA today. I let it reach terminal gravity the tossed in 2.4 oz at 74 degrees. I let it go four days and crashed the temp to 35 and let it sit for another 12 days. Came out great.

 

[BMoreBeerish]

Wanted to check in with my results. I ended up just dropping the pellets into secondary and racking on top. I left them in there for 3 days at room temp (about 74 degrees); I had planned on 5 but upon reading that there is supposed to be ZERO head space in secondary (hey, I'm a newb) on Day 3 (I hadn't topped off, and the beer wasn't really close to the neck of the carboy) I racked to bottles after 3 days.

I tied a hop muslin bag to the end of the tube in the bottling bucket and collected a good bit of hop particles in it. It was a slight pain, but nothing too awful - just had to keep adjusting the bag every now and then. The beer bottle conditioned for 10 days and I couldn't be happier with it. Apparently the oxygen in my secondary didn't do any damage, as I would honestly have a tough time telling the difference between my beer and a DFH 60 minute right out of the bottle (based on taste/aroma, not clarity, obviously).

So my first dry hopping foray was a resounding success! Thanks to all here for the help and encouragement.

 

[crlova2]

What exactly is cold crashing?

 

[BMoreBeerish]

What exactly is cold crashing?

I'm sure someone could answer this better than I, but my (limited) understanding is that it just means allowing the beer to sit for a few days at near freezing (35-40 F) after fermentation ends. If done while dry hopping, some say it preserves the aroma better.

Again, anybody feel free to jump in here and add to this/correct me!

 

[Fletch78]

Cold Crashing is most often used in wine, mead, and cider making. At cooler temperatures, the fruit (hop) particles as well as any suspended yeast fall out of suspension to the bottom of the vessel, then you rack. In some cases, this is repeated several times. One main reason is for clarity in the final product. Another reason is to get rid of as much yeast as possible to prevent bottle bombs where a residual sugar content is desired for a brewer who doesn't want to use stabilizers.

 

[fc-runner]

I really appreciate this thread. My question is does quantity matter? I brewed the "tits up" APA this past weekend with excellent results (specific gravity looks good the yeast is rockin right now).
Now am looking forward to dry-hopping:
1.00 oz Summit [16.50%] (Dry Hop 14 days)
1.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90%] (Dry Hop 14 days)
1.25 oz Cascade [6.10%] (Dry Hop 14 days)
1.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (Dry Hop 14 days)

I'm thinking pellets would turn this beer green. Any thoughts?

 

[oldschool]

Cold Crashing is most often used in wine, mead, and cider making. At cooler temperatures, the fruit (hop) particles as well as any suspended yeast fall out of suspension to the bottom of the vessel, then you rack. In some cases, this is repeated several times. One main reason is for clarity in the final product. Another reason is to get rid of as much yeast as possible to prevent bottle bombs where a residual sugar content is desired for a brewer who doesn't want to use stabilizers.

People don't cold crash to prevent bottle bombs at all. Yes they do cold crash to help drop the yeast from suspension. Also, some brewers prefer the taste/aroma of dry-hopping cold over room temp. Some say it becomes less grassy. Also, cold crashing was started by professionals because many proteins become insoluble at cold temperatures allowing them to be filtered out.