Dry hopping, secondary fermentation and bottling

[BrewJim]

Hi guys,

I did my second all-grain at the weekend - am attempting a hoppy pale ale using cascade hops, based on a recipe Wez suggested in a post quite a while ago. The beer's been tucked up in the primary FV for about 3 days now, and bubbling away nicely, so fingers crossed it's going to plan so far.

I'm hoping some forum members can advise me about a couple of things. I want to really get that hop aroma and flavour, so plan on dry hopping with cascade pellets. I also plan on bottling rather than kegging. I thought I would transfer to a secondary fermenter after about 10 days and add the hop pellets to this in a hop bag. I'd leave this for about another week before bottling. So, I've got a few questions...
- Does this approach sound ok, would people do things differently?
- I've read that even keeping the dry hop pellets in a hop bag, you still get hop particles in the beer. How do people prevent these from getting into your bottles/keg?
- Is there any point transferring from the secondary fermenter to a bottling bucket before bottling (I thought this could be to add priming sugar and reduce sediment before it goes into the bottle)? Or just bottle straight from secondary fermenter?

Sorry about all the questions! Not very experienced though so any advice would be really appreciated!

 

[johnboy]

Hi Brewjim,

Don't know about the dry hopping but I find it worth using a bottling bucket. Its the quickest way to bottle without having to prime each individual bottle. I also boil my sugar with a little water just to make sure its sterile, let it cool, add it to the bottom of the bottling bucket and rack beer onto it. This way it mixes without too much splashing, especially if you lay the syphon tube onto the bottom of the bucket.

Obviously make sure everything is sterile and try not to splash the beer as this can oxidise it leading to funky flavours.

I'd invest in a bottling tap with a cane that automatically shuts off when you pull it out of the bottle you're filling. They're not much to buy.

Hope this helps.

 

[Wez]

Your suggested method to dry hop is great - a week might be too long though (depends on taste) try it after 3 days and see how it is, dry hopping for too long can go too far (especially with stronger citrus hops).

I second the advice about a bottling stick - sound, cheap investment.

Which recipe was it by the way?

 

[BrewJim]

Thanks for the replies guys, that's helpful advice. The bottling cane sounds good, do you mean something like this: http://www.homebrew4u.co.uk/homebrew-equipment/bottle-filling-stick.asp
I'm all about making my life easier!

I'll give the dry hopping 3 days as you suggest Wez and see how it goes - don't want to overdo it. The recipe you'd suggested was for Townes IPA - 95% pale malt, 5% wheat malt and using cascade hops. So far it's looking good. Checked the SG tonight, 4 days into fermentation, down to 1.016 from OG of 1.044. Not sure if that sounds right so far, I'm just happy the airlock's still bubbling!

 

[Wez]

Yes thats the bit of kit you want :thumb:

Townes IPA :drink: lovely :thumb: