Dry hopping help please...

[Granarian]

So, will be trying dry hopping for the first time soon. I'm having a go at Brewdog's Punk IPA.

I'm wondering about the mechanics of dry hopping; should I move the wort from the primary to a secondary FV before putting in my dry hops? Does that significantly raise the risk of infection? Or start oxidising the beer early and reducing its life?

The alternative could only be to dry hop in the primary FV, but if there's a thick krausen on top, how do I get around that? Just submerge the hops underneath?

Any wisdom welcome.....!

Thanks
G

 

[brumbrew]

Hi

How long has the beer been fermenting?

 

[hoptoit]

I've only just started, but dry hopped three times now. All I have done is thrown them in on the 10th day and left them for 4 more.

 

[Granarian]

Hi

How long has the beer been fermenting?

Will be a week before dry hopping

 

[Granarian]

I've only just started, but dry hopped three times now. All I have done is thrown them in on the 10th day and left them for 4 more.

Just into the primary FV? Did you mix them in?

 

[Godsdog]

Recently dry hopped a pimped up hoppy copper with a citra tea bag,waited until the 5th day when the fermentation was dying off and put it in the FV after making a hop tea first,the bag split but I still hung it from the FV in a Muslim bag weighted down below the surface of the beer wort.left it in for 12 days then kegged it,on tasting it at the time I thought this is gonna be horrible but after 11 days in keg I today pulled a drop.....wow....double wow,I will certainly do it again its a belter

 

[GHW]

So, will be trying dry hopping for the first time soon. I'm having a go at Brewdog's Punk IPA.

I'm wondering about the mechanics of dry hopping; should I move the wort from the primary to a secondary FV before putting in my dry hops? Does that significantly raise the risk of infection? Or start oxidising the beer early and reducing its life?

The alternative could only be to dry hop in the primary FV, but if there's a thick krausen on top, how do I get around that? Just submerge the hops underneath?

Any wisdom welcome.....!

Thanks
G

As with everything, there is no consensus on this, but...

The most common advice is to dry hop for four or five days. Any longer can allegedly add some grassy flavours though I suspect this depends more on the hop type than the duration.

However, if this is true , then you ideally want to wait til fermentation is done before dry hopping. Otherwise you might find a long fermentation leads to a long dry hopping.

Some use a muslin or fine mesh bag (I do) as it makes the hops easy to remove before bottling.

You don't need to rack to secondary. In my opinion secondaries are completely unnecessary, but others will disagree.

If there's still a krasuen, just use a sanitised spoon, or similar, to poke them under. You want them submerged. Some bag users add sanitised marbles or spoons to the bag to sink it, I don't bother.

Some hops aren't great for dry hopping, just google 'dry hopping cascade' or whatever hop you're thinking of using. See what people have said on forums etc. Btw cascade is amazing for dry hopping.

In terms of weight, you can go as low or high as you want. 2-3g per litre might be good to start, but many modern IPAs, and especially brew dog beers use hundreds of grams per 20L. Those are insanely hoppy though.

Experiment and have fun with it, I love dry hopping.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I put 100g of pellets in a star san'd muslin hop bag 5 days before bottling. That's usually the second 100g of hops as the first lot are fished out five days into fermentation.

 

[sponge_]

Dry hopping shouldn't introduce any infections, especially with anti-bacterial properties of hops. As long as you're not leaving the fermenter open/exposed for too long and are in a clean environment it shouldn't be an issue.

You'll normally dry hop when you're >90% through fermentation as the CO2 produced during fermentation drives off a lot of hop aroma. I normally dry hop after reaching FG and during CC'ing for around 3 days (taste daily until happy with hop aroma - don't dry hop longer than necessary). Adding dry hops at this stage also produces less infection risks due to the CO2 in the head space, pH and alcohol content of the fermented beer.

You can either throw them in as-is, or if you plan on re-using the yeast then adding to a sanitised bag of some description will prevent a lot of hop matter from ending up in the yeast cake.

 

[MrDasherD]

Recently dry hopped a pimped up hoppy copper with a citra tea bag,waited until the 5th day when the fermentation was dying off and put it in the FV after making a hop tea first,the bag split but I still hung it from the FV in a Muslim bag weighted down below the surface of the beer wort.left it in for 12 days then kegged it,on tasting it at the time I thought this is gonna be horrible but after 11 days in keg I today pulled a drop.....wow....double wow,I will certainly do it again its a belter

I am also currently drinking a Hoppy Copper to which I added some extra malt and dry-hopped with Citra ... it's certainly a lovely pint!

I just throw the hops in 4, 5 or maybe 6 days before bottling / barrelling. Pellets will disperse quite quickly if left on the surface but with leaf hops I ensure they are pushed under the surface (sanitised implement, of course!). I don't put hops in a bag but do use a fine bag to strain when syphoning out. Not yet had a problem with beer failing to clear.

So many ways to skin a cat!

:

 

[terrym]

Choose a hop that will compliment your beer, but note that some hop types are better for dry hopping than others. Dry hopping is for addition of flavour and aroma, not bittering. Clibit's guide on hops http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=483777#post483777 and this link http://beerlegends.com/hops-varieties are two of many useful sources of info on hop selection.
Decide the weight of your dry hop, the choice is extremely varied from 25g to 100g plus for a 23 litre brew.
Dry hop at the end of the primary fermentation when the CO2 bubble rate has dropped to virtually nothing and cannot strip out the volatile hop oils from the brew.
Decide whether you are going to chuck the hops in as they are, or use a muslin or nylon bag with or without weights to contain the hops. As they are may mean you have to filter out the hop particles when you bottle or keg, bags can restrict how the hops give up their flavour and aroma. If you use a bag make sure it it sanitised; boiling before and after use is one way.
Decide how long the hops will be in your brew. Four to seven days is usual; less than this and the hops won't have been given the best opportunity to work, too long and you may get unwanted flavours being leached out into the brew
Choose where the brew is kept for the dry hopping period. Warmer temperatures will generally be better than colder temperatures. Brew Dog in their DIY recipe book say that 14*C gives the most aromatic hop profile for their Punk IPA.

 

[Godsdog]

I also have a cornie keg with the hops in it,it was a black rock pale ale,pretty tasteless so after I'd drunk around 10 pints I dry hopped it with some saaz hanging down to nearly the keg bottom,its certainly improved the ale but not by a lot.its a thing I will do on a regular basis now if I am unhappy with the finished product