Dry hopping technique

[dan125]

Had a 2nd go at rousing the hops into action tonight and it went much better.
Given a little more time with the CO2 rumbling all the hops were circulating well and even the ones stuck to the bottom were lifted

 

[peebee]

I had no idea it was so O2 porous. Were you doing this in a closed system?
makes me wonder if there's a better alternative to the silicon tube

… you had no idea, well that's why I'm making a thing of it: I had no idea! Silicone tubing seems to be so ideal, a bit expensive but use it for everything if you can: except it does have a "feature": That "feature" gets it used for medical equipment apparently, but the same "feature" isn't so good when your beer turns to vinegar.

'Twasn't as bad as losing all my beer fortunately; recirculation had been stopped (clogged by yeast that rather enjoyed the additional oxygen) and I only lost what was in the tubing. It was a "closed" system but I found that yeast will metabolise alcohol to acetic acid if pushed, though in my case it may have been a latent infection (acetic acid creating bacteria will remain quiet and latent until it gets the oxygen it needs). I had to replace the tubing in my dispensing arrangements too - I never understood why beer left overnight in the taps would go bad (even my hand-pumps which I'd gone to the trouble of sealing against the atmosphere).



EDIT: I replaced silicone tubing with cheapo PVC which is fine if the temperatures don't get high.

 

[Hoddy]

So I did my co2 rumbling this evening after 24hrs hop contact.

Before and after co2 rumbling and the end result was what can only be described as hop soup.

Seems to work well. I think I will do this every 24hrs for the 5 days I am going to dry hop this for and then keg it.

 

[Hoddy]

Had a 2nd go at rousing the hops into action tonight and it went much better.
Given a little more time with the CO2 rumbling all the hops were circulating well and even the ones stuck to the bottom were lifted
View attachment 15958

I found closing the valve and raising the pressure and giving it a sharp open to really “blow” co2 through it really helped loosen any hops stuck around the bottom and got everything into suspension.

 

[dan125]

Quick update, as I've finally gotten round to packaging the beer tonight.
It got rumbled 5 times over 3 days, and has then had a couple of days settling & carbing at 2C.
Just having my usual early taster to see how its coming on and I think the jury is still out.
It certainly has a strong hop aroma & flavour, but its not pleasant.
It tastes intensly the same as the very disappointing Galaxy smelt when I opened the pack, a bit dank and vegetal and lacking the big fruity punch I was expencting.
It also seems to have much more haze than usual at this stage too.
It'll be interesting to see how this matures, and I'll defo try the CO2 rumbing again with some hopefully better quality hop, but maybe do it just once a day over 3 days.

 

[Leon103]

Where was the galaxy from?

 

[dan125]

Where was the galaxy from?

2018 harvest from GEB - they were the only supplier that had any

 

[Hoddy]

I've not tested mine yet. I want to give mine at least 7 days in the keg carbonating and aging before i try it.

And i need a tap to come free as well.......

 

[dan125]

I've not tested mine yet. I want to give mine at least 7 days in the keg carbonating and aging before i try it.

And i need a tap to come free as well.......

Might have to leave mine a bit longer than that to come good
I've been wondering if there's a chance of blowing out some of the hop aroma when rumbling ??

 

[Tunabeast]

I was under the impression you were sparging co2 under pressure? If so I wouldn't have thought this would result in too much aroma being scalped.

 

[dan125]

I was under the impression you were sparging co2 under pressure? If so I wouldn't have thought this would result in too much aroma being scalped.

Yes its under pressure, but to get the hops well roused takes quite a while of pumping CO2 in to the bottom of the FS and it's only pressure rated to 30ish PSI, so to be safe I kept a spunding valve on the top set as high as possible at 15 PSI, and there was quite a bit of gas escaping

 

[bobukbrewer]

made a brew today and on day 3 I will put 100 gm hops into water at 90 deg C for 30 minutes then strain, cool and add to fermenter. I call it wet dry hopping................

 

[Hoddy]

I like to think that is just as some of the commercial guys have done and it’s the most sanitary way of getting rousing done. Hey it’s all part of the experimental process. Only time/taste test will tell.

 

[Tunabeast]

Evening all, after some advice please...

Brewed a batch up of my twist on a dead pony club clone on Saturday and am planning on how to dry hop. At the moment the plan is to finish up in the primary, cold crash to remove as much suspended yeast as possible (to try and avoid biotransformation) before racking into a santised CO2 purged 25l plastic fermenter bucket. In the bucket I'll then add copious amounts of hope and also some sanitised marbles (about 20). There'll be quite a bit of freeboard as the total batch size is about 16L. My plan is then to shake the bucket vigorously twice a day for 4 days before cold crashing and transferring to corny keg (which I'm ordering this week). Will let you know how it goes.

The problem I've got is the lid for plastic bucket has a drilled hole complete with rubber grommet (for airlock). I want to plug this so that when I shake the bucket half the brew doesn't come flying out. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can use to plug this? I'd rather not have to buy a new bucket with an undrilled lid.

 

[dan125]

Evening all, after some advice please...

Brewed a batch up of my twist on a dead pony club clone on Saturday and am planning on how to dry hop. At the moment the plan is to finish up in the primary, cold crash to remove as much suspended yeast as possible (to try and avoid biotransformation) before racking into a santised CO2 purged 25l plastic fermenter bucket. In the bucket I'll then add copious amounts of hope and also some sanitised marbles (about 20). There'll be quite a bit of freeboard as the total batch size is about 16L. My plan is then to shake the bucket vigorously twice a day for 4 days before cold crashing and transferring to corny keg (which I'm ordering this week). Will let you know how it goes.

The problem I've got is the lid for plastic bucket has a drilled hole complete with rubber grommet (for airlock). I want to plug this so that when I shake the bucket half the brew doesn't come flying out. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can use to plug this? I'd rather not have to buy a new bucket with an undrilled lid.

Interesting idea for rousing the hops let us know how it goes.
I'm not sure about the hole, but could you 'modify' an airlock by plugging the hole in it somehow and using it as a bung??
It would be cheaper to sacrifice an airlock than buy a new bucket & lid

 

[Bigcol49]

I'll then add copious amounts of hope

Hi!
We've all been there.

If fermentation is complete and you cold crash, there won't be any opportunity for biotransformation, unless I understand it incorrectly - the yeast has finished working.

Flushing the bucket with CO2 - is that really necessary?

 

[Leon103]

If it's fermented out, wouldn't thrashing add oxygen to the beer, which you don't want to do?

 

[Tunabeast]

If it's fermented out, wouldn't thrashing add oxygen to the beer, which you don't want to do?

I'm going to try and keep as much oxygen out as possible by flushing the bucket with some CO2.

 

[BeerCat]

When i started kegging i managed to virtually remove all the aroma from an IPA by venting too much.

 

[Tunabeast]

Evening all just thought I'd update on the dry hop experinent.

1) Racked from primary into a CO2 purged 25l bucket. Also in the bucket were about 15 or so sanitised clear marbles off ebay
2) Burst some more CO2 in the headspace before putting the lid on and bringing into the house
3) Two or three times a day for 3 days I gave the bucket a good shake, as vigorous as possible. Found out the lid seals on plastic buckets are not that great.
4) Cold crashed for 24 hours in fridge. Didn't put temperature control on and as a result the beer froze... Next time will put inkbird in fridge in liquid to prevent this and set at 3 degC
5) following successful thaw and re crash down to 3 racked into CO2 purged corny keg
6) force carbed at 30 PSI (though in future may slow carb to stop scrubbing of aroma when depressurising to serve)

Served and result is seriously good. 10x more hop aroma and flavour than when I've bottle conditioned. Will not be going back for sure.

For my next brew I plan on using the corny keg itself as the secondary for dry hopping. This way no chance of any leaks at all.

Interesting having a look at the hop matter left in the bucket, very fine silt like consistency unlike when I've just dropped a load of pellets in where they tend to swell up.

One thing to note is the beer pours very hazy, despite cold crashing, which for me personally is a nice characteristic.