Dry hopping to a conical fermenter question

[moonstomp]

Hi,
I'm new to this game and would really appreciate a little advise.
On Thursday I did first brew using a Crafybrew Rye PA kit, it all seemed to go well with the fermenter still bubbling nicely this morning. The kit calls for dry hopping after 4 days in the fermenter, I'm using an SS brewtech chronical and the hops are whole leaf. The question is, how are they best added, straight in, in a bag, weighted/unweighted/ tea infuser etc?
Many thanks in advance (I have until Monday) :)

 

[Manxnorton]

Hi pal,
I've got the same conical.
(WARNING THE FOLLOWING REPLY CAN CONFUSE YOU...SORRY IM TRYING MY BEST :lol:)
Right...if people haven't told you about reading the kit instructions, I'll say take it a face value..there a a guide.
But in time as you get more experience you'll not read them..some are so wrong almost ****
Some have dry hopped as the fermintation is still going.
But it's all about experimenting.
Take notes...there the future for all your learning...if you know what I'm trying to say.
For me...I got into the same proceed in dry hopping and it works FOR ME!
Let the fermintation stop...(you know when the fermintation is Finnish, if not I'll answer it more clearer later?)
Rack to beer off the trub...or some people dry hop in the primary..
My best as you say hops sock weighted and just put the hops in.
Weight the desired time..
Now I'll say it's all about experimenting..no fast rule of how many days.
Then FOR ME..if I've use the hops without a sock I cold crash the brew til the whole hops dropped to the bottom..
Then your ready to rack..or using a conical you don't need to rack...just take the time to bottle or keg the beer.
Cold crashing is ok if your have a controlled temp fridge etc.
If not I'll recommend hops sock every time and rack of before adding the dry hops.
Hope my woffle you can understand me..I suffer from woffling on...lol
Like I said there's always different ways do dry hopping..and the members will be along shortly to add there expert experience to my woffle lol
But as I said it's a great time to get to know what's best for you...I've dry hopped when the ferm is still running..added the hops without racking the beer off the trub and the final way wait til the ferm stops..rack of (into a secondary FV) and added a weighted bag or 'sock' wait for at least 5 days...remove the sock and continue toward bottling or kegging.
Like I said...there be more info from the guys/girls that I might off missed..
How big is the batch size? And what hops are you going to use?
There's a lot of good aroma hops out there, and also DP (duel purpose)
But I'd stick to the aroma hops, as the bittering hops will be added at the early stages of the boil...hops is a art of there own..and for me still learning
Enjoy it amongst all...
Don't hesitate to ask!
Your in good company
Bri

 

[moonstomp]

Thanks Bri,
Really appreciated. I've got to go out now so will no doubt have a couple of questions later...
As for the hops it's:
15g Chinook
15g Amarillo
15g Columbus
40g Citra
80g Mosaic
Cheers,
Dan

 

[Godsdog]

I have the fast fermenter conicle and found it to be difficult to dry hop with them loose which I prefer as they mix with the wort and give up more aroma/flavour in my opinion so I rigged this up using the upturned lid off one of the large basket type tea balls and a funnel which I bolted together with SS nuts and bolts,after 5 days initial fermentation I steralise it and lower it into the tapering neck of the conicle off dental floss,being mostly SS metal it sinks and seats in the tapering neck of the conicle just fine then I just toss the hops in loose and after fermentation completion it drains down lovely and leaves all the hop debri sitting in the upturned lid of the teaball .problem solved for me:thumb:

 

[mattellis70]

I recommend dumping the yeast, I am assuming you'll take the lid off with leaf hops of that amount. In the future I'd try pellet hops that you can drop in through the 1.5 inch port on the lid. If you have the chilling coil or a chamber I'd also cold crash to get the hops to settle out. If you cannot cold crash then the aforementioned hops sacks are a way minimize hops in your finished beer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[moonstomp]

Many thanks for all the help, I'm unable to cold crash so weighted hop sacks it is then.
One more thing though as it's day 2 should I be dumping trub, if so how? I'm using the stainless blow off cane with the end suspended in purified water.
Thanks again,
Dan

 

[moonstomp]

Oh, godsdog you should go into manufacture with that. Genius

 

[moonstomp]

One more:
Bri, you said "I'll recommend hops sock every time and rack of before adding the dry hops" Sorry for my very entry level knowledge but what do you mean by "rack" as I thought that was bottle?
Cheers,
Dan

 

[Godsdog]

One more:
Bri, you said "I'll recommend hops sock every time and rack of before adding the dry hops" Sorry for my very entry level knowledge but what do you mean by "rack" as I thought that was bottle?
Cheers,
Dan

Rack means to siphon off from the trub,sediment for a better explanation

 

[moonstomp]

Rack means to siphon off from the trub,sediment for a better explanation

So I'd need to transfer the wort to a secondary fermenter and then dry hop? If so I need another fermenter pronto!

 

[Godsdog]

So I'd need to transfer the wort to a secondary fermenter and then dry hop? If so I need another fermenter pronto!

Nope you don't have to you can dry hop in the FV if you want to,its just how best suits you on how you do it,as I said with my conical its a tad more difficult as everything drops out of suspension into the narrowing neck,with a bucket its got more area at the bottom of the bucket to settle to
I should think in your case you would need to keep them in a weighted down muslin bag,sock

 

[moonstomp]

Nope you don't have to you can dry hop in the FV if you want to,its just how best suits you on how you do it,as I said with my conical its a tad more difficult as everything drops out of suspension into the narrowing neck,with a bucket its got more area at the bottom of the bucket to settle to
I should think in your case you would need to keep them in a weighted down muslin bag,sock

Ok great, that's the dry hopping sorted, when would you open the dump valve to release the trub/yeast and any tips on doing this for the first time? I really appreciate this btw.
Dan

 

[Godsdog]

Ok great, that's the dry hopping sorted, when would you open the dump valve to release the trub/yeast and any tips on doing this for the first time? I really appreciate this btw.
Dan

The way I do it with my conical which has a catch bottle for the settling trub is after 5 days of fermentation I dry hop bearing in mind my shut off valve to the bottle remains open from day one then on around day 10 to 14 I shut off the valve and remove the catch bottle with all the trub collected in it then proceed to package from the conical, not being familiar with the brewtech chronical I think before you package it you would need to run off the trub first as I believe there is no facility to collect the trub like with mine or is there a separate drain tap above the trub deposit?,correct me if I'm wrong,but anyway the mission is to remove the settled trub bed first before packaging

 

[moonstomp]

The way I do it with my conical which has a catch bottle for the settling trub is after 5 days of fermentation I dry hop bearing in mind my shut off valve to the bottle remains open from day one then on around day 10 to 14 I shut off the valve and remove the catch bottle with all the trub collected in it then proceed to package from the conical, not being familiar with the brewtech chronical I think before you package it you would need to run off the trub first as I believe there is no facility to collect the trub like with mine or is there a separate drain tap above the trub deposit?,correct me if I'm wrong,but anyway the mission is to remove the settled trub bed first before packaging

Hi godsdog, ta again.
It looks like this:

Dump valve at the bottom, racking port above and a sample port above that.
I just wish I knew what was going on inside it at the moment, i.e if I opened the dump valve would it be full of trub or active yeast? Tomorrow I'll be removing the blow off cane attached to the 3" tc fitting in the lid and dropping in my hop sock in. I don't know if I should be doing anything else in the meantime?