dry hopping

[jtrain]

Hello all, 2nd batch ipa question. I made a Columbus IPA kit I recently brewed and I added raw honey at flame out. I have some Cascade and Centennial hops on hand should I dry hop them in my secondary fermenter?? Also was wondering if maybe adding some orange peels would be a better match to this brew at secondary fermenter?

 

[sweetcell]

no need to use a secondary. you can dry-hop in primary. using a secondary is old school... some folks still do it, but most agree there is little reason too. save yourself some work, and risk of oxidation or infection, and do everything in primary.

orange peel could be an interesting addition! use only the outside part, avoid the while stuff underneath (pith) as much as possible.

 

[pjsyrax]

+1 for no need to use secondary. Just make sure that your brew has done the majority of the fermenting before you dry hop. If not, you'll lose some of the aroma addition.

Also, for my very first batch I added lemon zest to a coopers cerveza kit. I decided to boil a small amount of water with the zest in and then steep. Added the lemon water into wort after primary fermenting was done.

This worked well buy I would have been more generous with zest and steeped for at least 30 mins.

Good luck

 

[IL1kebeer]

The main reason why people would ever recommend to dryhop in a secondary was if they were going to harvest and reuse their yeast (assuming you didn't have a conical to drop yeast). And even then you could argue that a secondary isn't even really "necessary". If you have no plans to harvest your yeast then there is really no benefit from racking to a secondary to dryhop. The transfer actually exposes you to a few risks.

 

[Evan_L]

Just listened to this podcast today in the car http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/Brew-Strong-12-08-08-Dry-Hopping

Much useful info, plus a different take on when to dry hop (during active ferment)

 

[jtrain]

All great info ty so much for your responses. I am going to just add the hops to my batch
w/ some orange peel...that is right ladies and gentlemen I went full retard ( enter tropic thunder reference) I will let you know how it goes. God save the queen...I mean the man dressed in women's clothing on first street with to much make up.