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Dry Hopping

breibrew

Master Brewer
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May 1, 2011
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When dry hopping do you just dump the pellets into the secondary or recommend something else?
 
just dump the pellets into the secondary

That's all there is to it.

Remember that they do expand when they rehydrate.  Once I dry hopped into a carboy that had very little head space, and had to siphon out some beer to keep the expanding hops from forcing off the stopper and making a mess, not to mention risking an infection.
 
I sewed up a t shirt into a tube open on the top I fill it with hops tie it loosely and let it float"little tricky getting it back out but I always do some how i call it a hop sock or you could buy them. Tastes the same if you throw them in but I think it keeps the beer a little clearer.
 
  Just finished up with my first dry hop brew.  Midway through I read a post about adding marbles to the hop bag to make them sink.  I used that info for the second dry hop, tied the first hop bag to a piece of stainless pipe to make it sink.  Hops fight bacteria naturally so doing the standard sanitizing with the other fermenters/ components should be good.  My brew went through primary, secondary and tertiary fermenters with hop & sugar additions without infection.  I siphoned off both fermenters by actually putting my siphon into a fold of the hop bag to further filter the beer, eliminating almost all of the trub.
  Dry hopping & late hop additions are wonderful, great, fantastic, beautiful ways of increasing hop flavor..  Can ya tell I like hops?
 
I boil the bag 10 mins. or so. Maine I find some of it floats no matter what, my last couple of beers on the keg are green like St. Pattys day
 
Remove the airlock on the fermenter, wash and re-sanitize it, rinse a hop bag in sanitizer, add the hops and tie tightly. I've tried weighing the hop bag down with marbles, but have found that a long (sanitized) stainless steel skewer can be used to poke the hop bag down so it stays at the bottom of the fermenter. Replace the sanitized stopper and airlock. The skewer I use is long enough so it is easily reachable in the neck of the carboy. Sorry for emphasizing the sanitizing steps, but I figure it's better than risking a batch of beer.
 
Maine I find some of it floats no matter what

They float as long as there is yeast activity, because little bubbles catch onto the hops and bring them to the top.  It doesn't take much.  They will eventually sink when yeast activity slows down enough.

I tend to let my brews sit around in secondary for a while, sometimes a month or more (one honey ale I did last year sat in secondary for three months without any issue), so this method works for me. That and I don't use a heck of a lot when I dry hop. Half an ounce at the most.

Whatever works.
 
I am impatient I  never let my beer sit around  that long I am always out ,my beer would be better if I had patience
 
At this point I have five kegs with beer in them, two secondaries waiting for a free keg, and a primary waiting for a free secondary.

Haven't brewed in a few weeks because I've got no place to put it!
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
At this point I have five kegs with beer in them, two secondaries waiting for a free keg, and a primary waiting for a free secondary.

Haven't brewed in a few weeks because I've got no place to put it!

  Deer Sir,

  We are new company designed to relieve brewing stress.  Please send us all unwanted beer.  We will drink it for you and provide discrete analysys. :eek:
 
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