I recently brewed an IPA with a recipe I found on here. In a week or so I'm planning on dry hopping. I wanted to put an ounce of centennial straight into the fermenter for a week. What is my chance of infection when doing this and should I do it differently?
Dry hopping question
- Thread starter Hayden512
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GHBWNY
Well-Known Member
Is your fermenter a carboy or bucket? Bucket theoretically has a greater chance of infection because when you open the lid, you lose the CO2 blanket that has been protecting the beer. A quick pop of the bung in a carboy has less of a chance.
That said, you can still safely open a bucket lid to dry-hop provided you do it as quickly and sanitarily as possible. Since dry hopping is usually done at the post-peak stage of fermentation, you will have enough alcohol produced in the beer to ward off any potential infection that might be due to an airborne source. Just don't drop a dead rat into it, or sneeze or something. If you're skittish about popping the lid on a bucket and you are using pellets to dry-hop, you can always pull the airlock and grommet out and drop the pellets in through the hole, then re-sanitize the grommet and airlock stem and replace them. When I pull the lid on the bucket, I always soak a dishcloth in sanitizer and run it around the rim of the lid before replacing it
At that stage in your ferm, unless it already has an infection underway, or you do something radical to infect it, momentary exposure to room air will not be a problem.
It's a bucket. Definitely planning on getting a carboy for the next batch though.
Thanks for the quick reply. I'm waiting until fermentation is complete to dry hop which should be next Thursday.
Also I am using pellets. Should I do a hop bag or am I good going straight in. Will it just sink to the trub or will I have a lot of particulate in my beer?
Thanks for the quick reply. I'm waiting until fermentation is complete to dry hop which should be next Thursday.
Also I am using pellets. Should I do a hop bag or am I good going straight in. Will it just sink to the trub or will I have a lot of particulate in my beer?
GHBWNY
Well-Known Member
Go commando. You'll get the most out of the hops and they will settle out with the yeast.
I use a bucket also along with a couple carboys. With a bucket when I pop the lid I spray the underside with stars an and also all around the rim, then spray my scissors and the wrappers of the hops then cut and dump me straight in being careful not to splash to much then I'll re spray at least the rim of the bucket before closing it. Never had a problem yet.
I ONLY use BUCKETS....I get a drinking glass and put StarSan in it (inch or two) and then pop the air lock and put it in the glass. I then make a funnel from a sheet of paper from my printer. I pour the pellets down the funnel and replace the airlock. Never had a problem in over 2 years.
there are two extreme camps of people on this site, and then, of course, those that fall in the middle somewhere. one side says, hell do whatever you want! the other side says, sanitize anything and everything that goes into contact with the beer at any given time, don't you dare splash anything at all ever, not even once.
to be honest though, weigh out your hops, open up the bucket lid, and then pour your hops in (i generally try to spread them around as best i can). your beer won't even be exposed for an entire minute in this case. even if you've reached FG, there will still be some off-gassing while you dry hop which should help get rid of a lot of the oxygen. and there are a lot of people who recommend dry hopping when you've got 5-10% of fermentation left in order to scrub out that oxygen. then the whole pH + abv thing will keep you safe against infection. granted i've only been brewing for a year now with only 25 batches under my belt, but i've not had one infection going this route.
unless you just adore watching the fermentation (which i will admit is a HUGE plus with buying a carboy of any type of material), a bucket is a perfectly acceptable ferment vessel.
to be honest though, weigh out your hops, open up the bucket lid, and then pour your hops in (i generally try to spread them around as best i can). your beer won't even be exposed for an entire minute in this case. even if you've reached FG, there will still be some off-gassing while you dry hop which should help get rid of a lot of the oxygen. and there are a lot of people who recommend dry hopping when you've got 5-10% of fermentation left in order to scrub out that oxygen. then the whole pH + abv thing will keep you safe against infection. granted i've only been brewing for a year now with only 25 batches under my belt, but i've not had one infection going this route.
unless you just adore watching the fermentation (which i will admit is a HUGE plus with buying a carboy of any type of material), a bucket is a perfectly acceptable ferment vessel.
RodrigoEick
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Exacly like I do. The paper sheet really helps :rockin:
Yeah, that's a good idea on funneling. I sanitized a funnel one time and the wetness of the Star San just ended up clogging the hops and it was a PITA. Now I just sanitize the hop package itself, the scissors, cut open the package and dump them in and then replace the re-sanitized airlock.
Why bother with the drinking glass of Starsan? Couldn't you just pop the airlock out and set it on another sheet of printing paper, considering you trust the sanitation level of the paper? You'd have less chance of infecting your beer then you would using the paper to pour hops. Friction is what pulls little nasties off of surfaces. So the hops slide down the paper, grabbing up tons of critters, and drop right into the beer. The airlock would have only touched one small spot of the paper.
You never know. Maybe a fly or a moth landed on that piece of paper earlier in the day, depositing God knows what on it. Maybe a sneeze from an elderly relative or a child's grubby little hands...
The airlock never actually gets too close to the beer either. Why be so careful with the airlock, but throw caution to the wind when it comes to what's actually coming in contact with the beer? Just seems a bit contradictory to me. In all honesty (and trying to be helpful with this post), both steps are probably not worth the time.
Me? I just wash my hands, sanitize the hop bag and then tear it open, open the fermenter, and toss the hops right in there. Close the fermenter back up and continue on my merry way. Like you, I've never had an infection develop in a years. Ever. Sometimes people overanalyze things. Keep it simple.
I'm not trying to be rude or something with my post. Take most of it in jest! It just appears you're attempt for good sanitation practices with the airlock are great, but then drop the ball when it comes to the step that would be more critical to the outcome of your batch. If you wanted zero/lower risk, I'd recommend buying a small funnel that you could sanitize beforehand. Then your practices would be more in line with each other.
Your chance for an infection are extremely slim at this stage of fermentation though, so again it's probably not really necessary.
I hope you consider this post productive. Thanks for reading!
Why bother with the drinking glass of Starsan? Couldn't you just pop the airlock out and set it on another sheet of printing paper, considering you trust the sanitation level of the paper? You'd have less chance of infecting your beer then you would using the paper to pour hops. Friction is what pulls little nasties off of surfaces. So the hops slide down the paper, grabbing up tons of critters, and drop right into the beer. The airlock would have only touched one small spot of the paper.
You never know. Maybe a fly or a moth landed on that piece of paper earlier in the day, depositing God knows what on it. Maybe a sneeze from an elderly relative or a child's grubby little hands...
The airlock never actually gets too close to the beer either. Why be so careful with the airlock, but throw caution to the wind when it comes to what's actually coming in contact with the beer? Just seems a bit contradictory to me. In all honesty (and trying to be helpful with this post), both steps are probably not worth the time.
Me? I just wash my hands, sanitize the hop bag and then tear it open, open the fermenter, and toss the hops right in there. Close the fermenter back up and continue on my merry way. Like you, I've never had an infection develop in a years. Ever. Sometimes people overanalyze things. Keep it simple.
I'm not trying to be rude or something with my post. Take most of it in jest! It just appears you're attempt for good sanitation practices with the airlock are great, but then drop the ball when it comes to the step that would be more critical to the outcome of your batch. If you wanted zero/lower risk, I'd recommend buying a small funnel that you could sanitize beforehand. Then your practices would be more in line with each other.
Your chance for an infection are extremely slim at this stage of fermentation though, so again it's probably not really necessary.
I hope you consider this post productive. Thanks for reading!
Never had an infection in many years of doing it this way. And my paper is not kept where flys are gonna land on it. Where do you store you printer paper. I admit there might be a chance of infection, but ain't happened yet. I'll change w/the first one.
Brew_G
Well-Known Member
After getting feedback from folks on HBT, this is what I do.
Carboy: Pop off airlock and dump hops in. Return airlock to its rightful place.
Speidel: Remove lid and dump hops in. Return lid to its rightful place.
It's really that simple!
Carboy: Pop off airlock and dump hops in. Return airlock to its rightful place.
Speidel: Remove lid and dump hops in. Return lid to its rightful place.
It's really that simple!
I use buckets, but that's what I do too. Open the lid, dump the hops in gently, close the lid. Then keg the beer 5-7 days later. I don't overthink it, and it works great.
Brew_G
Well-Known Member
Exactly, Yooper. Thanks to the folks here, I realized that there's no need to get fancy with dry hopping.
Open the lid and drop the hops in. no need to sanitize the hops, the scissors, the package.......if you want to sanitize anything, spray the outside of the bucket lid a minute or so before you open your bucket, but besides that don't overthink it. Hops are a natural preservative and have antiseptic qualities so they are not going to introduce infection to your beer
For one, brief moment, I thought you were suggesting that he not wear any clothes when he adds the dry hops. Like maybe this was some advanced dry hopping technique that I had never heard of before.
Why sanitize the hop bag? Are the bags sterile inside when the hops are packaged? Does anyone know? This makes sense for opening a yeast smack pac which I believe is sterile inside before the yeast is put in.
Why sanitize the outside of the hop bag? Are the bags sterile inside when the hops are packaged or just sanitary? Does anyone know? This makes sense for opening a yeast smack pac which I believe is sterile inside before the yeast is put in.
My hops are in the freezer next to the kids popsicles. They get knocked out of the freezer all the time onto the garage floor. It's what's on my garage floor and kids grubby little hands I'm worried about. They spill stuff everywhere.
Used to be my beer fridge and hops freezer in the garage. Yet another thing slowly swallowed up by the wife and kids...
My hops are in the top of my $15 Craigslist fridge in my musty basement. I sanitize hands and bag to prevent the chance of some basement fridge gunk getting into the beer. I keep spray bottles of star San around, so it's minimal effort and wont hurt. The outside of the bag btw....
GHBWNY
Well-Known Member
Nah, you wouldn't want to risk an infection. Or in the beer, either.
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