Dry Hopping questions

[matthew_pullin]

Hi Chaps

I received in the post this morning 2 100g bags hops :grin: (Fuggles and Goldings) and iv just dry hopped my beer. I boiled the hopping bag for 5 min to sterilize and added 50g (25 of each), then i just dropped it in and poked it down with the hydrometer. Its been 10 days since pitching and the beer has stopped fermenting at FG 1010.

Some questions come to mind. :wha:

1 - is this the correct way of dry hopping when you dont have a 2nd FV.
2 - is this roughly the right amount of hops for 20lts?
3 - after taking the hops out of the pack do you break it down into little bits or leave it in quite big chunks?
4 - as fermentation has stopped can i now move the FV to where im going to bottle and leave it there for 4 days while the hops soak. Its a lot colder about 14 degrees, will this help clear my beer b4 bottling?

Thanks for the help, looking forward to a good bottling session this Friday.

Matt

 

[calumscott]

Hi Chaps

I received in the post this morning 2 100g bags hops :grin: (Fuggles and Goldings) and iv just dry hopped my beer. I boiled the hopping bag for 5 min to sterilize and added 50g (25 of each), then i just dropped it in and poked it down with the hydrometer. Its been 10 days since pitching and the beer has stopped fermenting at FG 1010.

Some questions come to mind. :wha:

1 - is this the correct way of dry hopping when you dont have a 2nd FV.
2 - is this roughly the right amount of hops for 20lts?
3 - after taking the hops out of the pack do you break it down into little bits or leave it in quite big chunks?
4 - as fermentation has stopped can i now move the FV to where im going to bottle and leave it there for 4 days while the hops soak. Its a lot colder about 14 degrees, will this help clear my beer b4 bottling?

Thanks for the help, looking forward to a good bottling session this Friday.

Matt

1 - No. Don't do anything with a hydrometer other than read the gravity of your beer. They're fragile. Other than that, yes, boil your muslin, bag up your hops, I add some stainless steel implements (the dies that I never use from my potato ricer!) to weight it down.

2 - 50g of those two should be delicious! I tend to go with around 40g but then I tend to dry hop with the big american ones.

3 - Break it down a little, it helps get more liquid around them

4 - Yes, a perfectly sensible thing to do. The hops are just infusing, they will still infuse cold but you might want to leave them a bit longer. I tend to ferment for a week then dry hop for either a week or two depending if I can be bothered bottling or not on any given weekend.

:thumb:

 

[matthew_pullin]

ahhh right the bag needs to be weighed down, it was just floating on the top of my beer hence the poking!! can i use anything as long as its clean and sterilized? what would anybody suggest for this? i was thinking a piece of cutlery for this.

thanks for the reply

 

[calumscott]

Cutlery is good if you have nice heavy stainless steel teaspoons a couple of them will do.

Basically any big lump of stainless steel, sterilised.

 

[Baz Chaz]

...... i was thinking a piece of cutlery for this.

Yup, I've

Cutlery is good if you have nice heavy stainless steel teaspoons a couple of them will do.

Basically any big lump of stainless steel, sterilised.

Yup, I used an old tablespoon :thumb:

 

[rocket ronnie]

For dry hopping I do as you say with the muslin bag. I find it suites me to put the hops into the bag and tie the neck around the handle of a glass half pint beer tankard and throw the lot into the f/v it should sink to the bottom.

 

[matthew_pullin]

Ha ha that's poetic using a beer glass to aid in the flavoring of beer :hmm: if only i had such a glass :nah:

Thanks for the tip ill try it next time :thumb:

 

[rocket ronnie]

Plenty of such glasses in local junk shops 10p or 20p each.

 

[bobsbeer]

I use one of those small women's dedicates washing bags with a teaspoon inside. Bugger to get the hops off afterwards but it works. The wife didn't even notice it was missing. :grin: Till I tipped it into the sink covered in trub and goo. She took one look at it and said I could now keep it for brewing. Result. :clap: