Secondary Fermentation And Sanitization

[bobot]

I am fermenting my 2nd 5-gallon batch, and have previously brewed 4 2-gallon
Mr. Beers. I would like to expand into secondary fermentation and dry hopping.
Everything that I have read/heard has stressed the vital importance of the san-
itization of anything that contacts the beer after the boil. How does this apply, for instance, to dry hopping? Do the hops require sanitization prior to being added to the secondary? Thanks, and Cheers!

 

[Captain Damage]

The hops do not require sanitizing, but they're pretty much the only thing that doesn't. For instance if you use a hop bag, rather than just dumping the hops loose in your carboy, the bag and the string you tie to it for retrieval need to be sanitized. If you want to add spices or flavorings (other than hops) your best bet is to soak them in vodka for a few days before adding to your beer (add the vodka to the beer as well).

BTW, you can dryhop in the primary, saving you the step of transferring and greatly lowering the possibility of oxidation or infection. Just drop the hops in your fermenter, hop bag or no.

 

[Golddiggie]

Unless you're adding another source of sugar for the yeast to go through, you're NOT going with a secondary fermentation. You're talking about racking to a bright tank, which a great many of us DON'T do. For the vast majority of my brews, they stay in primary until they go to serving keg.

I dry hop in serving keg now, but I've also done it in primary. For me, it's easier to get the results I want by putting the hops into the keg (inside a nylon hop bag) just before the keg goes into the brew fridge for chilling/carbonating. I dunk the bag into Star San, squeeze out the excess and then fill with whole hops before putting it into the keg of beer. Two weeks later I'm pulling pints of great brew. :rockin: The dry hop contribution remains for the entire keg, no matter how long it takes to kick. With dry hopping at room temp, you don't want to go above 14 days (pretty much the red line/limit for room temp) with many doing 5-10 days.

BTW, do yourself a HUGE favor and get Star San for your sanitizing.

 

[unionrdr]

Dry hopping in primary works really well for me too. Fill sanitized hop sack with no more than 1oz of pellets so they can get decent flow through. Just make sure your beer is at FG & settled out clear before dry hopping. I get plenty of aroma from 7 day dry hop.