Dry Hopping

[Wez]

I want to have a go at dry hopping a keg of my next beer but I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm thinking of dropping some hops in a fine mesh bag for a week (obviously sterilsed) - does anyone else dry hop regularly? Could you give me some pointers on how much I should use as a rule of thumb and any tips, tricks and pitfalls?

I'm trying to get around the loss of hopiness that I'm having by using a beer engine.

Ta, Wez :)

 

[A T]

You'll need to sink them, i think a lot of people use sterilised marbles I bought a tea ball (stainless steel) and jam the bugger with hops and throw it into the keg. I find it makes a huge difference to aroma

 

[Wez]

Do you leave it in for the duration or tie something to it and fish it out after a week or so?

 

[A T]

I leave them in and the futher down the keg i get the nicer the aroma is, that's all your getting anyway so there's no way it can smell to nice :lol: Serious give it a go you'll never look back I broke my tea ball, i must fix it and start dry hopping again

 

[Wez]

Where did the tea-ball come from Sounds ideal The other thing that I've thought of doing is the marble idea inside the mesh from 2 tea strainers tied together with fishing wire

 

[A T]

These Wez

 

[Wez]

Those look ideal, good link

 

[jonnybeer]

I always go to secondary before conditioning in the cornie, 2 lots of conditioning I suppose, and dry hop in secondary. I find I have to be careful when racking into the cornie and sometimes the odd hop leaf gets by but as yet to no ill effect.

I dry hop with whatever aroma hop, normally 10/15 grms, takes my fancy. I love a hoppy beer and the freshness they impart on the beer. Not sure it remains there for the duration as I have as many as 8 on the go at once, some bottled, some kegged and some on hand pull.

I dry hop all my beers, always have done and always will. Having said that, Tettnang in a light summer beer, takes some beating imo.

jb.

Edit, i've had beer in secondary,dry hopped for 8 weeks. Lovely!!!

 

[Wez]

I never go to secondary but maybe I should, do you think that it's a good idea to do that I like the idea of dry hopping in a secondary, do you add anything to secondary (apart from the hops) or just rack it straight from the primary FV after say 48/72 hours?

 

[A T]

JB you're using conicals now aren't you? there's no need for a secondary, is there?

 

[steve_flack]

I dry hop in the conical after the main fermentation has died down and after pulling the first plug of yeast. I use pellet hops and don't use a hop bag - they sink of their own accord. The amount depends on the style and hop variety but I used 30g of Columbus hops in a recent 10 gallon APA recipe. I left the beer on the hops for about a week then rack to keg leaving the hops behind.

The hop aroma/flavour does fade with time but the APA still was pretty decent when it ran out three months later.

 

[Wez]

Steve - do you find that your bottled beer holds it's hop aroma much more than kegged (were you not to dry hop?) My mission at the moment is to try to get the same hoppyness from by kegged and beer engined ale that I am from bottles.

 

[jonnybeer]

JB you're using conicals now aren't you? there's no need for a secondary, is there?

A.T. pehaps not, but it,s something i've always done and as I use loose hops and no stainless tea ball or mesh, thinks I may draw some into the cornie, more than I am likely to if syphoning from secondary. I'll try it in primary next time, see how we get on.

Btw, my last 2 dry hopped beers have started fermenting again after adding the hops.

 

[Wez]

Btw, my last 2 dry hopped beers have started fermenting again after adding the hops.

:shock: What do you think kicks that off?

 

[A T]

JB you're using conicals now aren't you? there's no need for a secondary, is there?

Btw, my last 2 dry hopped beers have started fermenting again after adding the hops.

You're joking! are you sure they we're finished?

Surely there is no sugar in hops, it's impossible

 

[jonnybeer]

Might have disturbed the yeast bed,but sure they was finished, 1 brew used So4 yeast and the other was a liquid and both were transfered to secondary after 8 or 10 days in primary.

The liquid yeast was bubbling for ages, not sure how long because I went on holiday, doesn't taste particularly dry though although it went to 1006ish.

Think I need to leave in primary longer, continue dropping the trub,moniter the airlock closer and take a more accurate hydrometer readings. Or really be more patient!!

jb.

 

[MEB]

[quote="A T":38656wz8]JB you're using conicals now aren't you? there's no need for a secondary, is there?

Btw, my last 2 dry hopped beers have started fermenting again after adding the hops.

You're joking! are you sure they we're finished?

Surely there is no sugar in hops, it's impossible[/quote:38656wz8]

Nothing's impossible. Only that that hasn't been accomplished already. Or we'd have never got to the moon. Don't believe science-it's only current today. Tommorow it will be obsolete...
I had some cranky scientist tell me that i couldn't breed corals in an aquarium twenty years ago. I did. I can't remember his name now but he was wrong, really wrong. And i was just me. In the fifties scientists said that if you dived deeper than 20m you would implode. People did dive deeper than 20m and didn't implode. Now everyone dives deeper than 20m.


Science is only correct untill they are proven wrong. Which happens quite often. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[steve_flack]

Steve - do you find that your bottled beer holds it's hop aroma much more than kegged (were you not to dry hop?) My mission at the moment is to try to get the same hoppyness from by kegged and beer engined ale that I am from bottles.

I've not bottled a hoppy beer so I can't really answer that. For the last 10 years I've not bottled a single drop until 3 months ago.

 

[mysterio]

I use pellets in the stainless tea balls in the keg, I find this works really well. A few grams are all that is needed. I always get an unbearable grassiness from using whole hops, so I only dry hop with pellets now.

 

[ni9e]

I want to have a go at dry hopping a keg of my next beer but I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm thinking of dropping some hops in a fine mesh bag for a week (obviously sterilsed) - does anyone else dry hop regularly? Could you give me some pointers on how much I should use as a rule of thumb and any tips, tricks and pitfalls?

I'm trying to get around the loss of hopiness that I'm having by using a beer engine.

Ta, Wez :)

I wanted to try dry hopping but my concerns was the raw hops infecting the beer so on went my thinking hat and this is what I come up with.

Put the amount of hops required for dry hopping in a 4 cup cafetiere and fill with kettle boiled water leave to go cold press the plunger and strain the juice again through sterilised muslin cloth to get all the little bits out then add the juice directly to the keg when filling with beer or add to secondry if bottling.
I know also do this for my flame out addition hops I start this while the mash is on then as soon as theve cooled I throw the used hops in the boil so as not to waste them and I add the hop juice to the FV when draining the cooled wort.
Hopefully doing it this way I will just get the aroma qualities out of the hops