Dry hopping in primary?

[monsda]

I bought a Brewer's Best Belgian IPA kit, not realizing it calls for dry hopping in the recipe.

They recommend transferring to a carboy, and dry hopping in the there. However, also says it's OK to dry hop in primary.

However, the instructions say to transfer to secondary after 5-7 days, BEFORE fermentation has completed. But then, they say if you're going to dry hop in primary, to wait until AFTER fermentation has completed.

I don't have a carboy, and will be dry hopping in my primary.

How long should I wait to dry hop?

Also, would it be best to use a nylon bag or tea ball? Or can I just dump the hops right in?

How long should I dry hop for?

 

[Psylocide]

Absolutely fine to dry hop in primary. As an easy guide, ferment for at least 14 days, then add hops directly to primary.

I don't bag them because in my humble opinion, you're just begging for an infection that way, but plenty do it to no ill-effect.

Dry hop 5-7 days.

This is just a very general suggestion, because now you'll get around a dillion others.

 

[philosofool]

Those sound like terrible instructions, but I won't go into it.

You can dry hop any time after fermentation is mostly subsided. Carbon dioxide bubbles will scrub out hop character when vigorous, but if fermentation is nearly done, you a fine. Some brewers prefer a small amount of activity when dry hopping to remove any oxygen that's introduced, others prefer to minimize CO2 scrubbing. I'm in the former camp, but it probably doesn't make much difference either way.

 

[HBngNOK]

I drop hop in the primary at the third week, and dry hop for a week, then bottle. You can dump the hops in. I put the hops in a 1-gallon nylon paint strainer bag.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

I wouldn't worry about a secondary - this just exposes your beer to oxygenation and is often unnecessary for homebrewers. Keep it in the primary until you've reached your target final gravity and then pour the hops right in and leave for 5 days. Then you can cold crash for a few days and sink everything to the bottom, then bottle.

 

[TheOrlandoGuy]

Absolutely fine to dry hop in primary. As an easy guide, ferment for at least 14 days, then add hops directly to primary.

I don't bag them because in my humble opinion, you're just begging for an infection that way, but plenty do it to no ill-effect.

Dry hop 5-7 days.

This is just a very general suggestion, because now you'll get around a dillion others.

I agree, and just keep it simple. I've dry hopped in the primary by just waiting about 7-10 days after pitching the yeast(or until I see barely any activity), and just dumped them right in, no bag necessary. You can leave them in for anywhere between 1 and 2 weeks. After that, there really wont be any reason to wait longer.

Just keep in mind, it can be a bit tricky to rack to a keg/bottling bucket and avoid the hop leaves from getting sucked into the siphon. Rack slowly and carefully.

 

[paperairplane]

I like to let the beer go 2-3 weeks in primary, then dry hop a week and keg. I use pellets and don't bag - just chuck them right in. I do cold crash prior to kegging. I have never needed a filter or anything - just rack nicely.

 

[AndytheBeave]

Drying hopping in the primary is fine but wait for the fermentation to complete and for the yeast to clean up. So fermentation will be finished when your FG is stable for a few days.
Usually I dry hop at around 7 days before I plan on racking to the keg. I usually do 4.5-5% ABV beers so that is typically around day 14 in the primary - depending on the style. You don't want to dry hop too early or you'll start to lose all that aroma.
I have had success dumping hop pellets right into the primary. The gunk will mostly drop out but when you rack, you'll need to be strategic.
I am not a fan of using a bag or tea ball because I am paranoid about introducing an infection.

 

[monsda]

Thanks for all the info!

I brewed the evening of the 6th, so I'll throw the hops in in the next day or two, and will skip the bag/teaball.

I don't normally check gravity until I'm about to bottle, but airlock activity has slowed a lot.

I have an autosiphon, which seems to be easier than the racking cane I've used in the past, and I'll be sure to be careful when transferring to the bottling bucket.

 

[Psylocide]

Thanks for all the info!

I brewed the evening of the 6th, so I'll throw the hops in in the next day or two, and will skip the bag/teaball.

I don't normally check gravity until I'm about to bottle, but airlock activity has slowed a lot.

I have an autosiphon, which seems to be easier than the racking cane I've used in the past, and I'll be sure to be careful when transferring to the bottling bucket.

If you're able to cold crash, that would be a good idea at the end to drop all those hop particles from the top of the fermenter if you're using pellets.

I don't have to dodge much in the way of hops when racking to bottling bucket if I do that.

 

[eadavis80]

Cold crashing will help all those hops settle to the bottom to avoid getting them in your bottling bucket. Two things I have found helpful in my experience:

1. Move your fermentation vessel to the location it will be the NIGHT BEFORE you bottle. When you move it, it will stir up at least a little bit of yeast/hop stuff, so by doing this the night before, it gives time to have that stuff resettle to the bottom of your primary.

2. When transferring to your bottling bucket, use a sanitized paint strainer bag and a sanitized twist tie to put over your racking cane when transferring. It will help keep any hop floaties out of your bottling bucket.

Enjoy!

 

[yeknom366]

I'm planning to do this soon, so I've got some questions as well. Some are saying to do this when fermentation is complete, and others when the bubbling subsides.

1) If you were to dry hop the bubbling subsides, will the remaining yeast cleaning interfere with what the dry hopping will add?

2) Will the hops interfere with the yeast's ability to clean up the beer?

 

[chaindriven]

Here's a question... I'm getting ready to dry hop my DIPA and I was thinking about going the primary route instead of a secondary.... Now if I take my lid off to get my gravity and dump the hops in, will I introduce unwanted oxygen into the top of the beer...? Or not enough to worry about it..?

 

[TheOrlandoGuy]

Here's a question... I'm getting ready to dry hop my DIPA and I was thinking about going the primary route instead of a secondary.... Now if I take my lid off to get my gravity and dump the hops in, will I introduce unwanted oxygen into the top of the beer...? Or not enough to worry about it..?

I do that exact process and the end result is always great tasting beer. I wouldn't worry about it. The way I see it you have more opportunity to introduce unwanted oxygen in your beer if you siphon and rack to a secondary.

 

[kombat]

Here's a question... I'm getting ready to dry hop my DIPA and I was thinking about going the primary route instead of a secondary.... Now if I take my lid off to get my gravity and dump the hops in, will I introduce unwanted oxygen into the top of the beer...? Or not enough to worry about it..?

I can't say for certain, but I've been operating under the assumption that dumping in some hop pellets will agitate some CO2 out of solution, such that it should push any small amount of introduced oxygen back out of the fermenter right away.

 

[chaindriven]

Awesome!! Thanks for the info

 

[boogoop]

I dry hop at the beginning of day eight for all my IPA's and DIPA's. People complain about ipa's not being fresh so in my mind, why not start sooner.

I have taken to multiple additions at 3-4 day intervals, whilst keeping in the first through the third addition until I keg onto another addition. I wring out the bag before transferring the beer to the keg and I force carb at 32psi indoors for two days which results in a well carbed beer once cooled in my kegerator.

Most professional breweries are reducing their dryhopping time by half, such as Stone. You would figure they know what they are doing considering their background in hoppy beers. And when you take into consideration that dryhopping is just like steeping tea or cold brewing, it makes sense that it doesn't take as long to get the aroma you are after in a 3-4day period. I add glass marbles to the bag to make sure it is slightly submerged increasing the efficiency of the dry hopping.

DIPA's I use six oz additions at a time. Ipa's I use 4 oz additions at a time.

The only thing I can say about dryhopping in primary is use more than what you think by an oz or two. Over pitch your yeast by at least 50-100 billion cells and fermentation will be all but complete by day 8-10.

Just my thoughts with multiple 12DayDIPA's in my belly. That's twelve days from boil to drinking it carbed up in my keg.


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