Dry Hopping with a pellicle?

[tgmartin000]

Howdy folks, I searched the forum on this one but didn't quite find what I was looking for.

I've got a clone of Noble King from Jester King that's about ready to bottle. It's been sitting in primary for about 2.5 months, and has developed a pretty decent little pellicle. My first, in fact - it's my first time at a sour.

So the recipe calls for dry hopping this beer. Any special procedure to dry hopping with a pellicle? Carry on as normal? Am I over thinking it?

My plan was to bag the leaf hops and put right into the carboy. Dry hop for a week (I think it's about 2 oz of hops), then bottle. Sound OK?

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[monkeybox]

Is 2.5 months enough? Most sours take 12-18 months before they begin to be ready. It really depends on the recipe and the method, though.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pellicle, though. A pellicle is bacteria trying to protect itself, but it isn't a necessary or important thing for a sour.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[dantheman13]

Is 2.5 months enough? Most sours take 12-18 months before they begin to be ready. It really depends on the recipe and the method, though.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pellicle, though. A pellicle is bacteria trying to protect itself, but it isn't a necessary or important thing for a sour.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I have a different opinion on that. I've had a couple of sours that never developed pellicles that suffered from too much oxygen exposure. One of them had a lot of ethyl acetate and a fair bit of acetic acid, and the other straight up darkened and tasted like cardboard for a long time. A third that suffered from the same "dry airlock syndrome" as the other two had a pellicle and turned out wonderful.

For the OP though, I wouldn't think it would be a big deal to dry hop and break the pellicle since you won't be letting the beer sit for very long. The limited oxygen exposure hopefully won't cause any off flavors since Brett can take care of it in smaller amounts. My beers oxidized because they sat lost in a closet and exposed for an unknown amount of time, and then aged longer after that.

 

[tgmartin000]

Is 2.5 months enough? Most sours take 12-18 months before they begin to be ready. It really depends on the recipe and the method, though.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pellicle, though. A pellicle is bacteria trying to protect itself, but it isn't a necessary or important thing for a sour.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

It is, yes. I tasted it last night and it was nicely sour. It's also 35 ibu, and has a final gravity of 1.000.

It also had a surprisingly full mouth feel for a beer that dry.

 

[tgmartin000]

I have a different opinion on that. I've had a couple of sours that never developed pellicles that suffered from too much oxygen exposure. One of them had a lot of ethyl acetate and a fair bit of acetic acid, and the other straight up darkened and tasted like cardboard for a long time. A third that suffered from the same "dry airlock syndrome" as the other two had a pellicle and turned out wonderful.

For the OP though, I wouldn't think it would be a big deal to dry hop and break the pellicle since you won't be letting the beer sit for very long. The limited oxygen exposure hopefully won't cause any off flavors since Brett can take care of it in smaller amounts. My beers oxidized because they sat lost in a closet and exposed for an unknown amount of time, and then aged longer after that.

Good deal, thanks!

 

[MileHighBrewer]

pellicle isn't needed. when you do things right, you can make good sour without them. when you pitch what comes down to a few drops of bugs and your beer turns out bad, don't blame the pellicle, blame the process and treat it as a learning experience. i have a very tasty and extremely sour beer that never developed even a film, and I have another one going right now for over 6 months that has no signs of pellicle forming.

 

[TrickyDick]

Care to share the recipe on that brew?

In the book wild brews, some Belgian brewers add hops to protect the beer before a pellicle forms, though I assume they may be using whole hops? I think the idea is that the floating hops also act as a pellicle. Regardless, you should be fine I would think.

TD


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[tgmartin000]

Thanks all. I ended up bottling this past weekend. Turns out the dry hops just kinda sat on the pellicle for a while. Plus, as I was adding them, I was freaking out that I was oxygenating my precious, so I only added about a half oz of dry hops, instead of two.

Here's the original recipe, I don't have the scaled down version. This is straight from Jester King, 30 bbl batch.

OG 1.046
FG 1.004 (mine was 1.000)
ABV 5.5
IBU 37
SRM 5

660 lb weyerman organic pilsner
550 lb great western organic 2 row
165 lb weyermann organic wheat
55 lb weyermann organic caramunich II

Mash @ 154

7.6 lb Perle 60 min
1.3 lb Fuggle 10 min
5.9 lb EKG 10 min
4.3 lb fuggle 0 min
12 lb EKG 0 min
6 lb fuggle dry hop
14 lb ekg dry hop

60 minute boil. pitch 1 million cells/ml

ferment @ 72, free rise after 48 hours

I harvested yeast from 3 bottles of noble king and 1 bottle of wytchmaker for my brew. According to them, they use the same yeast for all their beers. Mine seems like it will be significantly more sour than noble king. I probably should have bottled it sooner. Let me know if you brew it!