The process of Dry hopping

[janson745]

So, I am still relatively new. I have made 7 batches now, however all have been just out of a box Extract kit. Tomorrow I plan on brewing my first batch that I buy all of the ingredients by my self. So the recipe I found calls for dry hopping at the 13 day mark. So I have a few questions regarding the process of Dry Hopping:

- I have hop pellets, should they just be dropped into the wort or left in some kind of bag?
-Can this all be done in the same primary, or should I rack to a carboy then dry hop?
-How long is the best to keep it in there before I rack to bottle?

Thanks for all of your help! I have seen some awesome pictorials on a few processes, just not Dry Hopping.

 

[tmoney645]

1. I like to put the pellets in a muslin bag, but it is not really that critical. You will just have a little extra crud at the bottom of your fermentor if you dont.

2. I dry hop in primary, works great.

3. 10-14 days

 

[A4J]

-How long is the best to keep it in there before I rack to bottle?

tmoney answered the first 2 but this last question, I would say that it depends on what hops you're using, how much and how prominent you want the hop aroma to be. I've done it in as little a 5 days to leaving it in the keg until we've drank all the beer from the keg.

 

[unionrdr]

I wait til the beer has reached FG & settled out clear or slightly misty. Then dry hop in a muslin bag for 7 days before bottling. The armas are great. You can smell it as soon as you pop the cap.

 

[GASoline71]

Yup... don't just huck them in at the 13 day mark. You need to ensure fermentation has stopped. That could take longer than 13 days. All depends on how your fermentaion goes.

I dry hop right in the primary. I've done it with whole hops (not in a muslin bag), and pellet hops (in a muslin bag). Can't tell the difference in aroma from either one way to the other. I will tell you that whole hops will suck up about a 1/4 gallon of beer per ounce! That's a lot of beer absorbed into the hops... so I now use pellet hops.

Gary

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I dry hop with pellets for about 7 days in the primary. On day 5, I stuff the primary in the fridge to "cold-crash" so everything settles to the bottom and I don't get hop bits in the bottles. Works great every time.

 

[bobbrews]

- I have hop pellets, should they just be dropped into the wort or left in some kind of bag?

Toss them in loose into the BEER after about 2.5 to 3 weeks of primary fermentation and yeast cleanup/conditioning.

When it comes time to rack, wrap a fine nylon mesh bag around the auto-siphon and secure with a rubber band. This will prevent clogging and keep out any pellet hop particulate, which should have completely dropped down into the trub after 7 days anyway.

- Can this all be done in the same primary, or should I rack to a carboy then dry hop?

You can do either. It's more practical to dryhop in the primary, but if diamond clarity is a super huge deal to you, you can dryhop in the secondary with a weighted bag full of pellet hops and sanitized marbles. You might even get more aroma this way, which will probably peak at 5-7 days. However, oxygenation due to racking to secondary can be an issue if you are not careful. And you really want to avoid unwanted headspace in the secondary. In the primary, extra headspace is not an issue.

- How long is the best to keep it in there before I rack to bottle?

Anywhere from 5-14 days on average. 7-10 is safe. I do 10-12 quite often with great results.

 

[unionrdr]

You mean clarity like this?
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This is after 4 weeks at room temp & 4 days fridge time. No secondary,no irish moss,nada. My pm cascade pale ale kit from midwest.

 

[bobbrews]

Yes, good job. Time, patience, and gravity are actually the best things for clarity. I think we can agree on that. But some new brewers still have a hard time racking carefully as to not agitate the fermenter and suck up the trub. And if you use a low floc yeast, hopburst, then follow that up with a huge oily dryhop, clarity is also going to be iffy.

 

[unionrdr]

I've gotten some little hop haze from a 1.5oz dry hop before. This one is a late boil hop for aroma. The hop/malt nose was quite nice. Got some 10 bottles left,waitin on my more "English" pm pale ale to finish fermenting atm. With a bit courser crush,it's already clearing nicely,even though it's still chugging slow but sure.
But I must agree that noobs must learn to go easy on movement of the vessel being racked out of to keep the gunk compressed on the bottom. That's another reason we preach 3 week primaries. It gives time to finish,clean up,& settle out clear or slightly misty. Depending on the yeasts' flocculation rate,so the cake on the bottom can pack down tight. It'll then be less likely to get transfered if not shaken loose.