Dry hopping

[Wabby]

Never done this before.

Is it necessary to rack to secondary before adding or can I simply add the hops (pellets) to the fv and leave?

Will I need to put them in a hop sock?

Cheersio :)

 

[Thodd]

Its not entirely necessary/essential to Dry Hop in the Secondary, although it is important to wait for the main vigorous fermentation to finish.

I dry hop in the secondary, just because I find its easier as I'm not disrupting the yeast bed and rubbish at the bottom of the FV.

I would put your pellets in some sort of bag/sock type thing just to make it easier on yourself - and weigh it down with Marbles or as Covrich suggested on a thread last month, throw some teaspoons in it.

 

[chub1]

As above post. Get some small hop bags,plenty available online or lhbs.
i boil mine to steralse them, fill em up and just drop em in the FV in the bag. A lot of people weigh them down with steralised marbels, i have never bothered myself:thumb:

 

[Godsdog]

As thod said wait until most of the vigorous fermentation has died away,with just slight bubbling and chuck the hops in a muslin bag or and old leg end of a nylon stocking and weight down with marbles or as tea spoons sanatised of course and I suspend them with dental floss so I can retrieve it, 5 days should do the trick then keg/ bottle

 

[sven945]

Its not entirely necessary/essential to Dry Hop in the Secondary, although it is important to wait for the main vigorous fermentation to finish.

I've put some hops in my latest brew for dry hopping, and I put them in after five days. I took a gravity reading just before and I think it's in the final stages of fermenting, but not completely finished yet. Was that a bad idea, or is it okay to do it near the end of the fermentation?

I've done it now so there's not much I can do, but just for future reference.

 

[zippy40]

I have done everything wrong due to being new to all of this!

I have dry hopped a couple of times with Amarillo hops. I have just put them into a hop bag and thrown them in at the start. I didn't weight them down nor wait for the main ferment to finish. Both batches turned out ok in terms of flavour, though one brew developed an infection about 3 months after the brew. I wonder if my way of doing it contributed to it??? Havent a clue me :lol:

 

[strange-steve]

I have stopped using a secondary altogether, including when dry hopping. I also don't bother with a hop sock. If using pellets then just chuck them straight in the fv after about a week then leave until they sink to the bottom. Cold crashing and/or fining with gelatin helps them sink but they will do so eventually even without, then you can rack to the bottling bucket.

 

[JapanBrew]

I don't secondary anymore like Steve. And I don't dry hop anymore either. I make hop tea when bottling or kegging. The taste is super fresh.

 

[Godsdog]

I also do the hop tea prior to throwing the tea and the spent hops in the primary, but never boil them just steep them below 70%C for around 20 minutes

 

[Thodd]

Yes !!!! Big thumbs up for the Hop Tea method, only tried it a few times and the results were superb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zippy40]

Can I ask from you knowledgable guys - how do you make a hop tea??? I have not done this before

 

[JapanBrew]

Well, I'm lucky because in Japan we have these tea pots with a very fine mesh strainer because green tea acts similar to hops as in a lot of small fibers can come off making a milky tea. And that's no good. The fine mesh stops that.
So i measure my hops, drop them in and add hot water, no more than 80 degrees, to the pot and let sit for 20 to 30 minutes. After, just throw it in my bottling bucket, add my boiled bottling sugar, and away I go bottling or kegging.

 

[JapanBrew]

Sorry it's upside down. Something to do with iPhone code.

 

[Hoppyland]

I've put some hops in my latest brew ... I think it's in the final stages of fermenting, but not completely finished yet. Was that a bad idea, or is it okay to do it near the end of the fermentation?

Absolutely not a bad idea - one of the points of dry-hopping is that the aromatics don't get blown off with the CO2 in the vigorous stages of fermentation.
I reckon that the only problem you might have is introducing airborne infections at a very late stage. I purge my container with food-grade CO2 when I dry-hop & I've yet to have an infected brew (well, I had several about 30 years ago - but I reckon all of them were due to sloppy technique, especially letting air into a brew that wasn't fermenting vigorously)

 

[JapanBrew]

Also, while the yeast is still moving about, there are more yeast in suspension. The yeast cells for some reason attach to the hop oils and when the yeast fall out, they take the oil with them.

 

[Godsdog]

Can I ask from you knowledgable guys - how do you make a hop tea??? I have not done this before

http://tinyurl.com/zjbylw5
get yourself one of these this is the large one a medium one is �£3.99.uk ebay shop,dont bother with the little one as you cant get enough hops in them
put your hops in and like japan said put it in a litre of water no hotter than 70 degrees C for half hour.i keep going back during that time and keep firing up the hob to keep the tempature constant.then chuck the tea in the brew just before its finished fermenting and hang the ball and hops in as well on a length of dental floss,the weight of the tea ball will make it sink,put the lid back on and leave it for 4/5 days.the hops are naturally anti bacterial so you shouldn't get an infection in your brew.the ball and its chain are stainless so its great for dry hopping and less messy than a muslin sock :thumb:
ps
http://tinyurl.com/hqbwtl3
id also advise to get one of these if you haven't one as you do need to know the tempature of the tea.you don't want it boiling under any circumstances,i have the one in the link and for the price is pretty good :thumb:

 

[sven945]

Absolutely not a bad idea - one of the points of dry-hopping is that the aromatics don't get blown off with the CO2 in the vigorous stages of fermentation.

Thanks. What I actually was meaning was did I do things wrong dry hopping before fermentation had definitely finished, but the post below seems to suggest that I may have dry hopped at the best time, after the vigorous fermentation had finished but while there's still a bit of movement of the yeast.

Also, while the yeast is still moving about, there are more yeast in suspension. The yeast cells for some reason attach to the hop oils and when the yeast fall out, they take the oil with them.

Cheers!

 

[JapanBrew]

Thanks. What I actually was meaning was did I do things wrong dry hopping before fermentation had definitely finished, but the post below seems to suggest that I may have dry hopped at the best time, after the vigorous fermentation had finished but while there's still a bit of movement of the yeast.



Cheers!

I would say a tad early. But I think you'll be ok. A good practice is to dry hop 4 days before you bottle or keg. So if you plan on bottling on a Sunday, add your dry hop on Wednesday and you'll get a great taste without the grass feel. Longer it sits, some hop give a real grass taste.