Filtering a Dry-Hopped IPA

[beercity23]

I recently did an IPA that had me throw an ounce of hops in the secondary. I siphoned it out and bottled it. BUT..i have so much hops residue i can see green on the head, and can feel it in mouth. Tons left in bottle or glass. Its also VERY VERY cloudy.

What is the best way to filter this? How can i filter before bottling next time?

ALSO..these bottles EXPLODE...beer everywhere on some of them...what happend?

Thanks,

 

[stpug]

Filtering:
Put your dryhops in a nylon paint strainer bag in the secondary and no worries.
Transfer to your bottling bucket/carboy with a paint strainer on one end of your hose.
Make sure to siphon gently and let things settle decently before transferring; but really the strainer bag should work.

Exploding beer bottles:
BE CAREFUL BECAUSE THEY CAN BE GLASS GRENADES.
Make sure you've always hit FG before bottling.
Make sure you use the correct amount of priming sugar for your batch size and type of sugar.
Put all of your remaining beer in a fridge and keep cold to help keep the internal pressure down, and drink them quickly.

 

[501irishred]

Hop debris doesn't explain explosive bottles, but as far as dry hopping there are several possibilities. You can try either or combination of 1) dry hop by putting the hops in a muslin bag instead of loose into fermenter. 2) use a paint filter bag to filter as you rack to bottling bucket *careful not to aeriate 3) cold crash to help settle all debris that is suspension

 

[HoppyT]

As far as filtering, I WOULD NOT use a hop bag. Less hop utilization and pretty ineffective. I would either not dry hop in the secondary, leave the hops in for longer until they drop out of the solution, or simply be more careful when siphoning. Make sure you're keeping the siphon a couple inches below the surface of the wort and not mixing the wort up beforehand. A good approach is to put your bucket in the place you'll be siphoning from the night before, so that the solution can settle and the solids will drop to the bottom rather than being mixed throughout.

Exploding bottles- that can be a few things and if you go to the specific bottling forum you can probably get a better idea of the actual scientific processes at work. I think the most common problems are not letting your beer ferment (not letting it reach FG) for enough time before bottling or a problem in the priming/ bottling process. Check to make sure your priming sugar ratios are correct and that you're leaving the proper head space in the bottles (take a look at the amount of headspace in a beer bottle at your grocery store).

 

[billl]

Very cloudy beer is usually due to a bunch of yeast in suspension. (Dry hopping adds a little haze, but doesn't make mud soup). If you are overcarbonated and have lots of yeast in suspension, my first guess would be you bottled before reaching a stable gravity or you added a boatload of sugar to prime.

 

[sweetcell]

Filtering:
Transfer to your bottling bucket/carboy with a paint strainer on one end of your hose.

using a fine-mesh hop bag on the end of my auto-siphon (the end in the fermenter) works great. also, cold-crashing for 48 hours before racking also helps.

Filtering:
Make sure you use the correct amount of priming sugar for your batch size and type of sugar.

us an online priming calculator, like http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

[beercity23]

im guessing i didnt reach FG... I dont exactly remember its been months...but i thought i did.

Is it better to put priming sugar inindividual bottles or in bottling bucket?

 

[stpug]

I always preferred boiling the priming sugar with water and adding to bottling bucket, making sure to stir it up in the bottling bucket really well.

 

[Hawaiibboy]

im guessing i didnt reach FG... I dont exactly remember its been months...but i thought i did.

Is it better to put priming sugar inindividual bottles or in bottling bucket?

I'm in agreement with stpug here. I boil sugar and water for 10minutes, then add to my bottling bucket. Then I siphon my beer on top of the priming solution. This helps to ensure that the solution is thoroughly mixed. I have a long siphon hose for a reason: I coil the hose in the bottom of my bottling bucket to essentially set up some tangential circulation. This stirs my solution into the beer to be bottled really well and doesn't introduce oxygen.

The only time I add my priming sugar direct to bottle is if I am using carbing tabs. They look like little candies and you just pop one in and cap. It doesn't give you much control though over your carbing rates though.

 

[Weezy]

Filtering is not the answer. None of the best craft brewers filter nor need to. You need to be more careful in the bottling process so as to (1) cold crash the ferm vessel such that much of the particulate sediments out of solution, (2) you don't rack the trub and other krud into your bottling bucket, (3) use whirfloc or irish moss during the boil.

 

[jonnyp1980]

If you don't want to cold crash or use a bag I suggest whole leaf hops.

 

[pacman]

im guessing i didnt reach FG... I dont exactly remember its been months...but i thought i did.

Is it better to put priming sugar inindividual bottles or in bottling bucket?

I do it differently to most others. I prepare my priming solution (35% LDM) and pour into a pump bottle. I fill each bottle to bottom of neck, add priming solution (3 pumps from by pump bottle), and cap.

To follow this procedure, you need to measure pump stroke volume, ensure each stroke produces a consistent volume, and calculate fermentables and water ratios.

Has worked for me for the past two years.

 

[TriggerFingers]

using a fine-mesh hop bag on the end of my auto-siphon (the end in the fermenter) works great. also, cold-crashing for 48 hours before racking also helps.

+1. I use brand new nylon knee high stockings (sanitized in starsan)-- just get them from target or walmart. However, I have found that if you put it on the auto-siphon end, the holes on the tip will get clogged with larger hop matter disrupting the siphon (e.g. putting unnecessary bubbles into your beer). Put it on the end with the tubing and just rack it (I either clamp it or hold it with my hand). That way everything collects in the stocking and you can just chuck it. Also, 1oz isn't a lot of hops, but once you start upping the quantity you will definitely want to filter it this way (lately I have been doing 2.5 gallon batches with 2 2oz charges).

Cold crashing helps too, if you have that luxury, do it. If not, another thing to consider is the yeast. Choose a high floc strain that will settle out. For instance, I love using US-05 better than Pacman or Conan for this reason.

Bottle Bombs= not done or infection.

 

[Yooper]

I never strain. I just rack carefully and I'm good. I"m an old winemaker though, so I'm very proficient with racking and maybe that's the difference.