Dry Hopping

[Eric Wann]

What is a good method for dry hopping with pellets in a carboy?

 

[hottpeper13]

The small neck on those make the choice of dry hopping simple....Free Balling is the way to go! if you want a clearer beer you need to be able to cold crash it. To get clear beer in the package you can sanitize a hop sac and rubber band it to the end of the siphon that goes in the carboy as a kind of filter.

 

[Abhishek Dewan]

Ideally it should be done after fermentation has lost vigour or else all aroma will be lost. Look for slow down of bubbling, like real slow. Add some weight to hop bag like glass marbles or ceramic pieces or something of stainless steel. The idea is to sink the bag. When hops swell, they float up. You'd want it to stay at the bottom for maximum benefits. Dry hopping so should be done for 3 days minimum and 10 days is long enough. Personally, I agitate the fermenter once a day so that every thing mixes well.

 

[Jag75]

Depends on a couple things. Does your carboy have a spigot or do you use a siphon and do you cold crash? If you cold crash or siphon you can toss em in commando, if you dont cold crash and use a spigot to keg I suggest using a muslin bag .

 

[Eric Wann]

The small neck on those make the choice of dry hopping simple....Free Balling is the way to go! if you want a clearer beer you need to be able to cold crash it. To get clear beer in the package you can sanitize a hop sac and rubber band it to the end of the siphon that goes in the carboy as a kind of filter.

That was what I suspected. I hadn't heard of the siphon trick though. This is for a NEIPA so I am not concerned with clarity. I will likely "free ball" this one.

 

[Eric Wann]

Ideally it should be done after fermentation has lost vigour or else all aroma will be lost. Look for slow down of bubbling, like real slow. Add some weight to hop bag like glass marbles or ceramic pieces or something of stainless steel. The idea is to sink the bag. When hops swell, they float up. You'd want it to stay at the bottom for maximum benefits. Dry hopping so should be done for 3 days minimum and 10 days is long enough. Personally, I agitate the fermenter once a day so that every thing mixes well.

Ill be at two weeks in primary when I DH for an additional 7 days, so there are definitely no more bubbles. My narrow mouth carboy may make it difficult to retrieve anything I try to sink in there later, but I may be replacing it with something with a wider mouth as a secondary. From what I am reading/watching a lot of people are endorsing your method of getting the hops collected at the bottom of the vessel. Thanks!

 

[Jag75]

NEIPA gets it look due to grain bill. I use paint strainer bags or muslin bags in my NEIPA . I dont like hop particles in any beer.

 

[Eric Wann]

Depends on a couple things. Does your carboy have a spigot or do you use a siphon and do you cold crash? If you cold crash or siphon you can toss em in commando, if you dont cold crash and use a spigot to keg I suggest using a muslin bag .

No spigot, just a basic glass carboy, so I use a siphon. It seems like commando may be the way to go with the carboy I am using. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Eric Wann]

NEIPA gets it look due to grain bill. I use paint strainer bags or muslin bags in my NEIPA . I dont like hop particles in any beer.

Difficult to retrieve from a narrow mouth carboy? I am tossing in 2 oz. of pellets

 

[Jag75]

Difficult to retrieve from a narrow mouth carboy? I am tossing in 2 oz. of pellets

Could be but I think you could flip upside down and pull out . You have to use a big enough bag to allow the hops to swell. Using paint strainer bags are nice because you just trash em after so you could rip it to allow for easier extraction. If you are siphoning out you could just use a strainer bag on the end to keep from transferring hops and sludge.

 

[Jag75]

Just read your post about using a siphon. Lots of people use the filter mod at the end of it.

 

[Eric Wann]

Just read your post about using a siphon. Lots of people use the filter mod at the end of it.

Awesome I may give this a try. If you had to choose a better option for filtering the most hop sludge out after the DH, would it be paint strainer or the siphon filter mod. Thanks for the help! Either way I think im in a good spot

 

[Jag75]

If your have to siphon to transfer I'd just put the strainer on the end of it .

 

[hottpeper13]

I purchased the big Mouth from Northern Brewer and the Depth Charge thinking my dry hop clogging the poppet valve on the keg was over. Only if you use 1 oz of hops at a time. The depth Charge is a great concept that was engineered incorrectly. The screen tube should be just off the bottom but most of the screen is out of the beer. DON'T BUY the Depth Charge if you get the Big Mouth , it's a waste of money. Maybe if people stayed away from N. B. equipment products they would engineer some that actually work the way they were intended to. N. B. is my LHBS and I order from other places on line and won't go there for anything.

 

[Day-Day]

I toss the dry hops straight into my glass carboys... cold crash... then transfer to keg. I may get an occasional hop particle in my beer, depending on how careful I transfer the beer... and how long I wait to drink it after kegging. I don't want a bunch of yeast and hop particles in my beer... but if the beer is tasty and otherwise to my liking in color and clarity... the occasional hop particle is actually a little nostalgic... takes me back to a better place... feel like I'm drinking beer straight out of the barrel on a pirate ship or something.. haha !!!

 

[Eric Wann]

I went with the "Free Ball" method this go around. I dont have the ability to cold crash, so I will use the filter mod when transferring this over to the priming bucket next week. This thing smells like full on passion fruit!

 

[hottpeper13]

That looks awesome. You can give it a swirl every now and then,just be careful of excess foam.

 

[Dgallo]

Do not give it a swirl, I repeate, do not give it a swirl. It will create a vacuum and pull o2 into your carboy and start oxidation. Let it be if you can’t connect it to co2.

 

[Eric Wann]

I think I will avoid swirling it. I am not sure I would get much more hop oil to the bottom of the beer that way. Next go around I will use a different secondary so I can sink my DH

 

[Dgallo]

I think I will avoid swirling it. I am not sure I would get much more hop oil to the bottom of the beer that way. Next go around I will use a different secondary so I can sink my DH

They should all start sinking after about 3 days anyway and will have no issue extracting. Do you get more extraction with agitation, absolutely but if you can’t minimize o2 pick up than it will be counter productive

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Do not give it a swirl, I repeate, do not give it a swirl. It will create a vacuum and pull o2 into your carboy and start oxidation. Let it be if you can’t connect it to co2.

How do you think this? I have swirled beers a few times either to mix the hops or raise the yeast. It drives some CO2 out of solution and start bubbling again.

 

[IslandLizard]

Next go around I will use a different secondary so I can sink my DH

You can do much better: Don't use a secondary!
The racking process will undoubtedly introduce air (oxygen) into your beer, causing oxidation which is detrimental to hop sensation later on.

Judging from your picture, your "primary" is a bucket. To prevent having to lift the lid, and losing the precious CO2-rich headspace, temporarily remove the airlock and drop dry hop pellets through the hole. Remount airlock. In most cases you don't have to remove the rubber grommet.

 

[Dgallo]

How do you think this? I have swirled beers a few times either to mix the hops or raise the yeast. It drives some CO2 out of solution and start bubbling again.

The air pocket will move due to the liquid inside moving and this will causing negative pressure. the only way to neutralize it is for it to draw air in. Sure co2 will leave your trub but there’s not nearly enough to stop the air coming. The air coming in is now mixed all around in the headspace. Physics man physics

 

[CascadesBrewer]

The air pocket will move due to the liquid inside moving and this will causing negative pressure. the only way to neutralize it is for it to draw air in. Sure co2 will leave your trub but there’s not nearly enough to stop the air coming. The air coming in is now mixed all around in the headspace. Physics man physics

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I typically have a long blow off tube running to a bottle of Starsan anyway, so I am not going to get any air sucked back into my fermenters from a swirl. I typically pull out the stopper from the top of my fermenter and dump in dry hops. If I added more than an oz or two I swirl to distribute them a little.

 

[Dgallo]

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I typically have a long blow off tube running to a bottle of Starsan anyway, so I am not going to get any air sucked back into my fermenters from a swirl. I typically pull out the stopper from the top of my fermenter and dump in dry hops. If I added more than an oz or two I swirl to distribute them a little.

A long blow off tube in a bucket of star would be a method of minimizing o2 pick up. Next time you dryhop, put the stopper back in before you swirl and watch the tube by the bucket. It will draw the solution up

 

[hottpeper13]

Dgallo, I swirl all my beers that are dry hopped. I've only had the "S" type airloc explode with CO2 and never saw the thing suck back. There's so much CO2 in solution that it just wants to escape. So I think I will agree to disagree.
Lets get 20 more opinions , because ya'all know there coming.

 

[Jag75]

Actually I think hes using glass . I use plastic carboys and if you move it even a tad it sucks whatever is in the airlock in .

 

[greenjam]

Actually I think hes using glass . I use plastic carboys and if you move it even a tad it sucks whatever is in the airlock in .

It sucks air if you try to lift it, because you increase the space inside the bucket as the beer push the bottom down when it's lifted...
By moving the bucket you only expel co2