Two day dry hop?

[megavites]

Would two days be too short for dry hopping in a secondary?
I haven't been able to get to my LHBS shop and will hit it tonight to
pick up some hop pellets for my APA. I'm planning to
bottle on Sunday. The hops will be 3/4 oz of Centennial.

 

[Evan!]

It won't do all that much. Is the sunday bottling date an absolute requirement?

 

[megavites]

Well, I suppose not.
It's my first time bottling a 5 gal batch and I have no reference as to
how long it will take. Could it be done in a couple of hours on a weeknight?
If that's the case I could leave the secondary sit for a full 5 days.

 

[Evan!]

Depends on what you're using to sanitize your bottles. I use a no-rinse sanitizer (Star San). Back when i was using bleach, it took forever, because each bottle needed to be thoroughly rinsed beforehand, and that took forever. Starsan simplifies things. So, assuming you're using a no-rinse sanitizer, it shouldn't take more than 1.5-2 hrs. I bottle on weeknights all the time.

If you're gonna dryhop, give it at least a week---2 would be optimal.

 

[CBBaron]

Bottling seems to take me 3-4 hours. I know it shouldn't but there it takes alot of time to prepare the bottles and sanitize everything needed. Then it takes about 45-60 mins to do the bottling and capping. Finally I have to clean everything up and put it away.
It doesn't help that my fermentation and brew storage room is in the basement but I have to bring everything up to the kitchen to work.
Still I usually do my brewing and bottling on weekday evenings. With a young daughter and a SWMBO who doesn't appreciate the time I spend brewing, weekends are not usually open for brewing.
Craig

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

Bottling 5 gallons alone takes me about an hour. The way I am able to cut it down to that, is that I sterilize all the bottles beforehand, wash them all out, remove labels, and throw them in the oven at 350*F for an hour, then when they are cool, put a small piece of sterile (in the oven too) aluminum foil over each bottle and box them. When it is bottling time, all I have to do it pull a bottle out, remove aluminum, fill, and cap.

 

[mew]

I just run the bottles through a dishwasher cycle without detergent and leave 'em in there until I need to use 'em.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

another thing to bear in mind about dry hopping is how long it takes for the hops to settle. Hop pellets especially. Even if you wanted to bottle two days after adding them they will still be a large layer of hop crud floating at the surface which will be hard to not suck up when siphoning. Two weeks at least before they settle, and also yes, they will not add much after only two days.

Oh, and if this is your first dry hopping, don't be alarmed if it appears to start fementing again.

 

[scottthorn]

I just run the bottles through a dishwasher cycle without detergent and leave 'em in there until I need to use 'em.

Q4T - some dishwashers even have a dedicated sanitizing cycle.