Dry hopping techniques

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Pal

Pal

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Hi,

I'm looking at my next kit and it has some hops to do dry hopping during fermentation. I have looked at videos about how to dry hoping and have some questions about which one is the best.

-Putting the hops in a bag. It sounds good as you avoid having sediment hanging about in your beer but I read it isn't very efficient. Do you also need some weight so the bag doesn't float or it doesn't matter that much?

-sprinkle hops. I heard sediment is the biggest problem here. Any good suggestions to avoid getting sediment in the beer?

-I also saw some funky suggestions like putting a magnet in the bag so you can do the dry hopping without having to open the lid to prevent oxygen getting in. Is opening the lid for few seconds that much of an issue? I'm reading a CAMRA book and they seem pretty relaxed about open lids or open fermentation altogether.

Cheers buds
 
My advice is
1. Put the hops in a bag with a weight (so they sit on the bottom) on day 4 of primary fermentation.
2. Leave the hops in the wort for 3 days.
3. Remove the hops and check that fermentation is complete.
4. If so transfer the wort to secondary fermenter/bottling bucket and cold crash for 2 or 3 days.
 
So many different opinions on this I personally use a bag and then put in a large SS spoon from the cutlery drawer to weigh the hops down for better contact, 2 if a large dry hop.
I dry hop after day 3/4 when the ferment is slowing but still active. I also do not dry hop longer than 2/3 days as present info says the hops have done their job but again different opinions will be put forward
 
Thanks for the responses. This may sound a bit daft, but how do you take the hops out with minimum disruption and minimising the risk of contamination?
 
Probably the biggest factors in deciding how you are going to dry hop are the type of fermenter you are using, your ability to cold crash and the style of beer you are making.

For example, I make a lot of very hop-forward beers using a conical fermenter that has a cooling jacket. That means I need to be careful not to introduce oxygen when dry-hopping (very hop-forward beers such as NEIPAs are very susceptible to oxidation spoiling the beer), however my fermenter allows me to bubble CO2 up through the outlet port so I can add the hops post-fermentation and still limit the likelihood of introducing oxygen. The conical fermenter / cooling jacket allows me to add the loose hops directly to the beer, cold crash to drop them to the bottom of the fermenter and then remove using the dump port.

If I was using a plastic bucket type fermenter with no means of performing a cold-crash, then I'd probably use a bag to constrain the hops and add them before the end of fermentation so any oxygen that is introduced can be dealt with by the yeast.
 
Last edited:
Pellets I chuck in loose on around day 10 once fermentation is finished, they drop out with all the trub after cold crashing.
Whole hops are more problematic as loose they will sit as an immovable raft so I tend to keep them solely for the boil.
If I do dry hop with cones I find best way is to fit a grain bag over top of FV and throw them in loose and refit the top.
 
+1 to adding a (sanitised) stainless spoon to the hop bag to weigh it down - otherwise it just floats on the surface.

Pal said:
Is opening the lid for few seconds that much of an issue? I'm reading a CAMRA book and they seem pretty relaxed about open lids or open fermentation altogether.
Click to expand...
If you're adding the hops early/mid fermentation then it's no problem whatsoever as the yeast is still actively fermenting and will remove any oxygen introduced before it can do any harm.

If you're adding the hops at/after the end of the fermentation, then I'd probably take a bit more care - especially with highly hopped beers like NEIPA.

Pal said:
but how do you take the hops out with minimum disruption and minimising the risk of contamination?
Click to expand...
You can just leave them in there, rack the wort off them and then pick them out of the empty fermenter at the end. Otherwise a good trick is to attach a piece of (unscented) dental floss to the bag and leave it dangling out of the fermerter lid. Floss is thin enough that you'll still get a good seal, and you can use this to pull the hop bag out (or even to lower it in without opening the lid much at all if you are concerned about oxidisation).

Personally, I use one of those stainless steel tubes, chuck it in half way through fermentation and leave it in there until I've bottled the beer, then pick it out with my hands.
 
I think adding hops after fermentation is riskier than during fermentation as co2 is being produced while it is still fermenting so helps to expel oxygen.
If you are doing NEIPA's I do recommend being extra careful than ordinary/normal dry hopping as they are really susceptible to oxygen spoilage.
I do IPA's with large dry hops of 150g sometimes and as long as you are careful with sanitation and not exposing the wort longer than you need to it should be ok.
 
I dry hop with loose pellets in the fermenter. I strongly recommend the use of a brew fridge for "controlling" fermentation temperature but also to cold crash before transfer. I find after 3-4 days at 3C everything drops to the bottom of the fermenter.
Up until now I've used a bucket fermenter with a snap on lid. I tried dry hopping in bags with weights but when I started brewing NEIPAs devised a "closed" system for dry hopping and transfer to keg. I made my own design of dry hopper that is loaded before the lid is put in position and is held closed using magnets. Four days before cold crash I release the hops (without removing the lid).
IMG_20240814_112209937.jpg
 

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