A Newbies Guide to Dry Hopping Your Beer

[Godsdog]

Just dry hopped. Total newbie. I mixed all the hop pellets (cascade and amarillo) in one muslin and weighed it down with ceramic beans. I boiled the muslin and beans to steralise. I've read a bit about getting the hops to mix and wondered about using two bags next time. Also, is it okay to put the hop pellets in when frozen?

if you can let them fly free id recommend it,in a normal bucket pellets will sink to the bottom and racking off the finished beer is quite easy wether you have a tap in the bucket or syphon off:thumb:

 

[RichK]

This week I was going to have my first go at dry hopping. Just a 20g tea bag of fuggles into a John Bull Traditional English Ale. However, when I opened the packet, I thought they smelled was awful (so didn't in the end). Now is that normal? Is that just fuggles? (maybe not the best choice???)

 

[suffolkbeer]

Just brewed a pale ale buttered with fuggles this morning. Smelled lovely to me when i opened the Vacpac

 

[Godsdog]

This week I was going to have my first go at dry hopping. Just a 20g tea bag of fuggles into a John Bull Traditional English Ale. However, when I opened the packet, I thought they smelled was awful (so didn't in the end). Now is that normal? Is that just fuggles? (maybe not the best choice???)

Smell is just a small indicator of what aroma,taste you'll eventually end up with,unless you take the plunge you'll never know the full benefit of dry hopping

 

[terrym]

This week I was going to have my first go at dry hopping. Just a 20g tea bag of fuggles into a John Bull Traditional English Ale. However, when I opened the packet, I thought they smelled was awful (so didn't in the end). Now is that normal? Is that just fuggles? (maybe not the best choice???)

If you think the hops are off it isn't worth the risk spoiling a brew for the sake of a few pence by going ahead and using them. Hops should smell, well, like hops.
So if really in doubt I suggest you buy some more.
Unless you have a LHBS nearby, Crossmyloof (CML) are widely used by forum members, have a good range of hops and are competitively priced.
More here
https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossmyloof/ or
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Crossmyloof-Brewing-Supplies?_trksid=p2047675.l256
And it will do your brew no harm whatoever by keeping it in the FV for a few days longer, provided its all sealed up, until you get more hops organised.
And Fuggles should be fine although 20g might not make much difference to your brew, 50g might be better. You could also consider EKG, although there are many more suitable hops out there.

 

[RichK]

As an aside - I did end up using the fuggles. I did a "light" dry hop & just left them in for a day. Have just cracked open the first taster & it's turned out really well :) Next time, I'll probably dry hop a bit longer (but for a first attempt, I decided that underdoing it was better than overdoing it).

 

[napolean]

Did another brew this week and just dropped the hops in (50g EKG in a Wherry). Left them in for 6 days, no funny smells or anything but when I bottled it was very cloudy and quite frothy. I’ve read that’s to be expected, but will stick to the hop sock in future. I only mention it as I don’t think I’ve seen it in this thread and it’s my go-to dry hop thread. Also made the terrym diy beer bath, that’s really helped.

 

[bobukbrewer]

if you boil for 60 minutes adding hop pellets at intervals and leave for a further hour, all the hop powder settles out - well not "all"...........but the irish moss charged particles will take down the remainder during fermentation - cus all my beers are crystal clear.....

 

[Hoddy]

if you boil for 60 minutes adding hop pellets at intervals and leave for a further hour, all the hop powder settles out - well not "all"...........but the irish moss charged particles will take down the remainder during fermentation - cus all my beers are crystal clear.....

I hate to have to break it to you but Irish moss has nothing to do with flocc’ing and clearing of your beer during fermentation.

Also are you saying that you boil your wort for 120 minutes? Or are you saying you stand your boiled wort for 60 minutes after the boil is complete?

 

[bobukbrewer]

...stand the boiled wort for 60 minutes...whatever irish moss does, it surely can't do it all before the end of the boil, so it must do some of it during cooling and fermentation, seems logical but....stand by for more opinions....

 

[saintmark]

Hi, I’m looking to do my first dry hop. I’ve got 100g of hops and two muslin bags.
Is it better to weigh the bags down or just chuck them in? Is it better to use bags or just chuck the hop pellets in on their own? I have an FV with a tap and if I put them in on their own I’m worried about how to filter when bottling.
Thanks

 

[foxy]

Hi, I’m looking to do my first dry hop. I’ve got 100g of hops and two muslin bags.
Is it better to weigh the bags down or just chuck them in? Is it better to use bags or just chuck the hop pellets in on their own? I have an FV with a tap and if I put them in on their own I’m worried about how to filter when bottling.
Thanks

If I make an APA,I dry hop using a draw string bag, various sizes can be found on Aliexpress, reusable, I think they come under the heading herb bags.

 

[terrym]

Hi, I’m looking to do my first dry hop. I’ve got 100g of hops and two muslin bags.
Is it better to weigh the bags down or just chuck them in? Is it better to use bags or just chuck the hop pellets in on their own? I have an FV with a tap and if I put them in on their own I’m worried about how to filter when bottling.
Thanks

If it's your first time dry hopping and you are concerned about keeping hop bits from going forward why not just cut out the uncertainty and use your bags ? As for bags vs. no bags, wts vs. no wts, there is no best way imo, its just what you decide suits you best. Some homebrewers do dry hopping one way others do it another. Typically some say you can clear the beer of hops at the end of a dry hop by a day or two of crash cooling but I have found thats doesn't work particularly well for me, so I don't rely on it.

 

[saintmark]

Brilliant cheers

 

[Richy25]

Excellent thread, full of great information for noobs!

I'm about to split a batch of coppers IPA and dry hop each 10lt with different hops to get a better idea of profiles. Sorry if i missed it, but its ok to leave your beer on the trub whilst dry hopping its been 10 days and its down to 1.015.

One half will be in a fresh bucket and the other left in Primary with trub for 5 days, sound like a plan?

I just chuck mine in too and use the festival bag as a filter, its rarely collect that much anyhow, most seems to sink into trub.

 

[terrym]

Excellent thread, full of great information for noobs!

I'm about to split a batch of coppers IPA and dry hop each 10lt with different hops to get a better idea of profiles. Sorry if i missed it, but its ok to leave your beer on the trub whilst dry hopping its been 10 days and its down to 1.015.

One half will be in a fresh bucket and the other left in Primary with trub for 5 days, sound like a plan?

I just chuck mine in too and use the festival bag as a filter, its rarely collect that much anyhow, most seems to sink into trub.

Its OK to leave the beer on the trub whilst dry hopping. From what I can see on here most people do, possibly because the majority do not rack off irrespective of dry hopping, although I might be wrong on that. And as far as racking off is concerned sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, mostly driven by the yeast and its ability to flocculate.
And as your beer is still at 1.015 I would leave it a while longer until its definitely finished before adding the hops, although there is no reason why you can't split it earlier, and that might not be a bad thing especially since the racked off half will get a chance to get covered by CO2 if the fermentation is still ticking along.

 

[marshbrewer]

Sorry if i missed it, but its ok to leave your beer on the trub whilst dry hopping its been 10 days and its down to 1.015.

Yes, I regularly leave my brew in the primary, on the trub, for 2-3 weeks, sometimes much longer. I never use a secondary, so if I'm dry hopping, I usually chuck them in on day 10ish, like you, and they stay there a few days until packaging.

 

[Richy25]

thanks @terrym cant really split now as its in my only water bath, good to know you can do it both ways. @jjsh thats good to know mate, i was under the impression you had to get it off trub at about 3 weeks?

I never thought of that, no racking into secondary then just bottling.
I rack onto sugar in my wilkinsons PB as its the only vessel with a tap on for bottling.

Has anyone ever brewed a 23l batch in a wilko's PB?
Cant see why it wouldn't work, and it another step removed from the process.
If hopped in bag, could just bottled from there?

 

[marshbrewer]

never thought of that, no racking into secondary then just bottling.

Ah, don't misunderstand, on bottling day itself, in the rare occasions I do actually bottle rather than keg, I do rack into a bottling bucket for bulk priming, but I don't ever rack into a secondary and leave it for any period, if you see what I mean.

was under the impression you had to get it off trub at about 3 weeks?

I have read similar, due to yeast auto-somthing or other, but all I can say is when I do a Kolsch / fake lager, I can leave it at 4° in the primary, on the yeast, for up to 7 weeks with no I'll effects. Not saying that is best practice, but it works for me. Obviously, if dry hopping, I don't leave it on the dry hops for that period - I time things so that the dry hops are in at the and for a few days only.

 

[Richy25]

I see that now fella thanks.