Dry Hopping - thoughts

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jimcraig
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Dry Hopping - thoughts

Post by jimcraig »

so I just added 1oz of Willamette whole hops to the brew I made on Thursday. Its a super hoppy American IPA. I am calling it my Monster IPA #1.

so will the hops drop down in the beer at some point?

Do you like dry hopping?

Pellets or whole leaf?

any other thoughts or questions?
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Legman
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dry hopping

Post by Legman »

I've only dry hopped once. I used pellets and since I don't secondary, I put them right in to the fermenter after most of the fermentation had stopped. The pellets broke up and fell out after about a week.
If you use leaf hops, I think they float.
I've also heard of some folks using a mesh bag to dry hop in. This is supposed to make it easier to remove them when racking.

I haven't done it enough to say that I dislike it or not. I'm not a huge hop head, so tend to not use a lot of hops in my brews.
Dry hopping does give it a little different hop flavor as opposed to adding flavor hops to the boil.
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bfabre
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dry hopping

Post by bfabre »

I have used pellet hops in the secondary and they do slowly drop. If you use whole leaves you should use a muslin bags because they do float. What ever you do use give it time.
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jimcraig
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Post by jimcraig »

well they are starting to float lower in the brew. They are totally saturated and the exhaust is very hoppy.

I might post some pics.
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Post by carlosm »

lil tipped i picked up was


a muslin bag and a handful of (sanitized) marbles if your dry hopping with leaf

it will sink those suckers.
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brewmeisterintng
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Dry Hopping

Post by brewmeisterintng »

Pellets
I dry hop in the secondary. After the first week, I place the fermentor in my lager chest freezer to drop the temperature. The hops fall out of suspension and as a side bonus is cold when it goes into the keg. Just keep the siphon above the hops when transferring.
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jimcraig
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Post by jimcraig »

so I used 1oz of Willamette whole leaf hops. just dumped them in a sterile funnel and pushed them in using a sterile chopstick. well after about 24 hours my bubbling came to a crawl . I checked the gravity and its .012. right about where it should be giving me a ABV of 5.6% as it sits right now. the beer really cleared up too. It was cloudy and caramel looking and now it looks pretty clean and nice dark brown/amber color.

now the fun part is getting all those hops out after I rack and bottle. will report back on that adventure.
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bfabre
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Dry Hopping

Post by bfabre »

I am glad everything is working out for you. The easiest step is next, tasting. Let us know.
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Post by jimcraig »

that step follows 1 of the hardest, waiting.
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Post by hansolo »

Pellets in mine floated and slowly started dropping. The time I used whole hops, they stayed on top in the scondary. I have used hop bags for dry hopping and it is a lot easier to remove that way. :wink:
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jimcraig
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Post by jimcraig »

yeah I think I am going to give the hop bag a shot next time, will see how bad it is to get them out of there without the bag first.

here is a pic of my dry hopping in action. 1oz of Whole leaf Willamette. been dry hopping for about 5 days now I think, the gravity is all but done and when taking a ready yesterday it was at 87%

Image
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Post by kangarool »

I have never dry hopped before, and am ready to add some to primary (I don't rack to secondary). I have some Cascade pellets I want to add to a Sierra Nevada Pale i'm doing.

Should I just chuck them in? Or should I put them in a sterile bag? thanks!
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Just chuck, then bag your tube!

Post by shaggyt »

kangarool, I'd just chuck if I were you. I usually dry hop with whole leaf in my secondary, then use a sanitized hop sack tied to the submerged end of my racking tube to filter the hops out...works awesome.
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Post by BurninBrewer »

I have dry hopped with pellets and whole hops and always just add them straight to secondary without a bag. When I do a long dry hop, i.e. 3 weeks or more the whole flowers will eventually become saturated enough to sink. Pellets always end up sinking about a week after addition.

Tomorrow I will be switching my Celebration clone to secondary and dry hopping with 3oz(2 oz pellets 1 oz whole hops).

After dry hopping every single one of my first 8 brews I prefer to use pellets now, they sink better and allow the glands to be more directly exposed to the beer resulting in a more pronounced hop aroma and flavor. Which is what I desire with every brew being a big hop head. Only time I use whole hops now is when the strain I want isnt available in pellets.
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Post by jimcraig »

just added 2oz Amarillo Whole Hops to a IPA I have fermenting.

the 1st go around went smoothly for me, whole hops directly into the beer. I lost a little beer that was trapped in the hops but all in all it went well and they came out easy.

I am hesitant to use pellets, do they breatk up? If so then you have to have some hops "grains" that transfer out in the beer when you rack to bottle?

I dont filter my beer but work pretty hard to get it clear. I dont have much trub in the bottle of my bottles, when I did I keg now. But I would think pellets would add to the cloudiness and trub in the finished product?
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