mccamich
Active Member
I picked some wild hops this past summer form my friend's backyard. I don't know the variety. I got about 8 ounces or so. I ziploc baggied them, rolled them out, and threw them in the freezer until I wanted to use them. Now I want to use them to dry hop an IPA I made. Some questions...
1. Should I throw them in the secondary fermenter frozen or thaw them first? I'm leaning toward thawing them because I'm worried about what the temperature difference between the frozen hops and the brew would do to the yeast when it comes time to bottle. I don't know if this'll be an issue. It could be a negligible temperature difference, but I'm not sure. I've never thrown anything frozen into my secondary fermenter before.
2. Should I clean the hops first? I'd just give em a rinse in a colander to make sure there're no little bugs or whatever on them before I toss them into the secondary fermenter.
3. Should I sanitize the hops first? If yes, then how? If I thrown them in frozen I'm assuming they'll be sanitized already. I was half-thinking about thawing them, rinsing them off, and then throwing them on a pan and drying them out in the oven on the lowest heat setting for a bit to sanitize them. I don't like sanitizing anything with vodka or any other neutral spirit. Even if the alcohol from the neutral spirit is negligible in the grand scheme of the brew batch, it always seems artificial to me.
4. How much should I add? I have about 8 ounces of whole hops. I'm adding them into a 2.5 gallon batch. I don't want it to overpower the brew. I just want a nice little addition to give it a lil something extra. This is probably heavily subjective.
1. Should I throw them in the secondary fermenter frozen or thaw them first? I'm leaning toward thawing them because I'm worried about what the temperature difference between the frozen hops and the brew would do to the yeast when it comes time to bottle. I don't know if this'll be an issue. It could be a negligible temperature difference, but I'm not sure. I've never thrown anything frozen into my secondary fermenter before.
2. Should I clean the hops first? I'd just give em a rinse in a colander to make sure there're no little bugs or whatever on them before I toss them into the secondary fermenter.
3. Should I sanitize the hops first? If yes, then how? If I thrown them in frozen I'm assuming they'll be sanitized already. I was half-thinking about thawing them, rinsing them off, and then throwing them on a pan and drying them out in the oven on the lowest heat setting for a bit to sanitize them. I don't like sanitizing anything with vodka or any other neutral spirit. Even if the alcohol from the neutral spirit is negligible in the grand scheme of the brew batch, it always seems artificial to me.
4. How much should I add? I have about 8 ounces of whole hops. I'm adding them into a 2.5 gallon batch. I don't want it to overpower the brew. I just want a nice little addition to give it a lil something extra. This is probably heavily subjective.