Dry hopping

[Ghillie]

I’m probably a bit odd cos I draw my beer from the bottom of the FV. The fitting for the tap is sufficiently thick (high) that the trub level is below the outlet. So having hops in a bag keeps everything tidy. View attachment 22703

Everything will be better if you rack your beer from the top bud.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Everything will be better if you rack your beer from the top bud.

I did give it some thought but decided to try racking from the bottom of the FV after looking at conical FVs. I accept with the conical the trub is collected and separated from the beer, but so far haven’t noticed a lot of debris carrying over into the barrel. What improvements would you envisage from racking from the top out of interest?

 

[Ghillie]

I did give it some thought but decided to try racking from the bottom of the FV after looking at conical FVs. I accept with the conical the trub is collected and separated from the beer, but so far haven’t noticed a lot of debris carrying over into the barrel. What improvements would you envisage from racking from the top out of interest?

It's hard to tell from your posted photo just how low your outlet actually is; and where the trub line is.

If you racked beer from the top, it would allow you to throw in DH's loose. Which negates the need for a nylon bag, extra sanitising step, potentially less surface area contact and AA extraction. In theory of course, very much up for debate like everything in this hobby.

Racking from the top would also allow you maximum distance from the trub, which in theory should further reduce/eliminate the chances of racking trub into your keg/bottling bucket. Even the mild suction caused by the outlet being near the trub could draw the l

Leaks would be another potential downside from a pessimistic stand point.

Horses for courses though, I'm curious though, what's your setup like if you rack from the bottom? Have you made a special stand for your bucket or something?

 

[dan125]

You can get bags on either eBay or Ali express, Chinese use them for the herbs going into soups or hot pots. Just put them in a bag either separated or not, if you haven't separated, they will once they are in the wort. It is important to cold crash, that will get everything to sink to the bottom, including the hop bag. The approximate freezing temps are. ABV 4 -2.3 C ABV 4.5 C -2.5 ABV 5 -2.7 C but unless you have every confidence in your temperature controller I would be taking 1 degree off those figures. Two to three days every thing should be pretty clear, and provided everything you have done in the mash and boil is right and have prevented any trub going into the fermenter you should end up with a clear beer.

I would be careful going so low with the temp with a big DH still in - took me ages to work out that the odd vegetal character I was getting in all my hoppy beers was due to holding the hops in too cold for too long (never more than a week total - usually 5 or 6 days with just last couple of days at really low temp). Since crashing to just 3 - 4C instead of -1ish the veg character has gone

 

[Rodcx500z]

I just chuck pellets in or a hop tea, 4 days then cold crash for 2 or 3 days it all drops out

 

[Buffers brewery]

Yes Ghillie

You can see I’ve also fitted an S30 valve to the FV lid so after I’ve dropped the dry hop bag in I can fit the lid and without the trap fitted slowly bleed some CO2 over the top of the beer. Probably OTT but ....

 

[foxy]

I would be careful going so low with the temp with a big DH still in - took me ages to work out that the odd vegetal character I was getting in all my hoppy beers was due to holding the hops in too cold for too long (never more than a week total - usually 5 or 6 days with just last couple of days at really low temp). Since crashing to just 3 - 4C instead of -1ish the veg character has gone

What you, and anyone else with a Snub nose FermZilla or Fermentasaurus can do probably even with a bog standard plastic fermenter is use stir bar magnets in a bag with the hops, a strong magnet on the outside and drop the bags in and then out using the magnets.