DRY HOPPING

[craigchilli]

Hello

Newby here and I'm brewing Brewery Classics APA for the first time. All going well and primary is complete. I'm now thinking of dry hopping (in primary) with Chinook Hop Pellets in a muslin bag for a week before moving into a bottling bucket, priming and bottling.

Or should I forget dry hopping for now until I'm more accomplished?

Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers!

 

[Drunken Horse]

Go for it, just make sure the bag is weighed down (marbles are quite good) and make sure the marbles the bag and any string etc you attach to fish it out are thoroughly sterilised before use. It's really not hard to do and makes the beer smell and taste much better.

 

[craigchilli]

Do I just boil in a pan to steralise?? (without pellets)

 

[Drunken Horse]

Do I just boil in a pan to steralise?? (without pellets)

I just stetilised mine like I do all my equipment. I made up a small batch of steriliser in a small bucket rand dropped it all in there. Boiling it would work but I wouldnt fancy handling boiling hot marbles. By the way you need well more marbles than you think. I thought 15 would be plenty only to see the bag bob up. That was with 30g of hops. Needed about 25 marbles I think.

 

[RobWalker]

up to you if you want to dry hop bud, it's easy, just make sure you don't have tonnes of headspace in your FV. A 23L batch in a normal size FV will be fine.

 

[craigchilli]

Ok - Thanks I'll give it a whirl…. if I haven't lost my marbles….

 

[StevieDS]

up to you if you want to dry hop bud, it's easy, just make sure you don't have tonnes of headspace in your FV. A 23L batch in a normal size FV will be fine.

Why do you not want much headspace in the fv?

 

[Cononthebarber]

If you are using pellets you don't need to use a bag, I have just chucked the pellets in and they break up and then float to the bottom of the FV, you just have to be careful not to disturb it when racking/bottling

 

[oz11]

..... Boiling it would work but I wouldnt fancy handling boiling hot marbles......

Don't boil marbles...they tend to shatter!

 

[Drunken Horse]

..... Boiling it would work but I wouldnt fancy handling boiling hot marbles......

Don't boil marbles...they tend to shatter!

Learn something new everyday.

I would have thought the heat of them would be enough to put off anyone from trying in the first place.

 

[saccharomyces]

up to you if you want to dry hop bud, it's easy, just make sure you don't have tonnes of headspace in your FV. A 23L batch in a normal size FV will be fine.

Or rack to smaller secondary FV with almost no head space like we do in America before dry hopping! :)

 

[RobWalker]

up to you if you want to dry hop bud, it's easy, just make sure you don't have tonnes of headspace in your FV. A 23L batch in a normal size FV will be fine.

Why do you not want much headspace in the fv?

The beer's a little more prone to oxidization and infection once you start opening it up after fermentation than if you just leave it in the primary to clean itself up - it's like racking a wine and topping up, you want to eliminate that chance of ruining a beer.

 

[StevieDS]

Thats interesting, because I've recently started brewing smaller batches, for lack of storage space, of around 15 litres which I have in 25 litre fv's. Is this a bad idea, or should I just make sure to keep them closed at all times? I do like to have a peek every few days :hmm:

 

[RobWalker]

15L in 25L is asking for trouble if you ask me. you'd be better to keg/bottle them as soon as possible :thumb:

 

[StevieDS]

15L in 25L is asking for trouble if you ask me. you'd be better to keg/bottle them as soon as possible :thumb:

**** :?
I thought that CO2 being heavier than air, would form a layer on top helping to protect against oxidation. More headspace means thicker CO2 layer?
Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[chrig]

grab yourself a 15L water bottle from asda, I think they cost around £5... With free brewing water .

Most home brew shops seem to do a rubber cap with an airlock hole.

 

[RobWalker]

well, it's a can of worms for sure. some people swear it's fine. i've lost two batches to headroom and have no desire to repeat the experience, so would much rather see it in a low headroom container or in the bottle/keg, mostly for peace of mind.

 

[itbrvilla]

If you are using pellets you don't need to use a bag, I have just chucked the pellets in and they break up and then float to the bottom of the FV, you just have to be careful not to disturb it when racking/bottling

Does this have an affect on the final beer colour?

 

[Ceejay]

Might take a little longer to clear, but should be fine. I've done 13l brewlengths in 23l buckets and not had a problem, but then I consider my cleaning and sanitation to be pretty good.