# Dry hopping



## feralbass (30/4/16)

Hi folks,

1st dumb question.

I put a brew on today, S&W Pacific ale clone, (this is the reason I have started to brew again; tasted it while on holidays; WOW, Ned Murphy, if they have it want an arm and a leg for it.

When you dry hop at the end, (I plan on day before bottling) (Galaxy pellets), do you guys soak the pellets before adding them to the wort or do you just throw them in?

Thanks for any replies in advance, cheers, John.


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## Old Bloke (30/4/16)

Hi,
I have just started to drink my first S&W clone, yum! I dry hopped with 30g galaxy pellets, put in a chux cloth tied into a pouch with string. Threw the pouch into the fermenter after 7 days. CC'd 3 days later.


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## mxd (30/4/16)

throw em in dry and at least for a couple of days.


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## MickGC (30/4/16)

just throw em in, either loose or in some kind of bag, i have used a stocking before. make sure the bag is sanitised.

like others said, leave em in for 3 days

Enjoy the beer!


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## nosco (30/4/16)

The Brewing Network has a good podcast called Brew Strong. They have a good episode about dry hopping. Give it a listen when you get a chance.


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## mongey (2/5/16)

I put em in loose usually when fernentation has slowed right down. usually have em in there for 3 or 4 days then cold crash

if using pellets loose I think cold crash is a must to get rid most of the bits . the one time I diditn CC after a pellet dry hop the beer had allot of hop bits in it and the tap got half clogged while bottling and it took forever


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## Gigantorus (4/5/16)

3 days out from bottling seem to give me the best dry-hop. I now tend to cold crash for the last 4 days before bottling. I always use a hop sock, as it contains a lot of the hop material.

Cheers,
Pete


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## brewdjoffe (4/5/16)

Potentially stupid question from a new homebrewer - when you use a hop sock to dry hop, do you just spray with sanitiser to sanitise the hop sock or do you boil it?

Cheers,
Brad


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## fletcher (4/5/16)

brewdjoffe said:


> Potentially stupid question from a new homebrewer - when you use a hop sock to dry hop, do you just spray with sanitiser to sanitise the hop sock or do you boil it?
> 
> Cheers,
> Brad


wouldn't hurt to boil it first, but probably not always needed. i would do it for peace of mind though.


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## Gigantorus (25/5/16)

brewdjoffe said:


> Potentially stupid question from a new homebrewer - when you use a hop sock to dry hop, do you just spray with sanitiser to sanitise the hop sock or do you boil it?
> 
> Cheers,
> Brad


Sorry Brad for being tardy. 

Yes, I sanitise the hop sock, then squeeze between some clean paper towel to take all the liquid out of it, then load with hop pellets, and then carefully lay onto the surface of the wort, and put the lid back on.

Cheers,

Pete


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## brewdjoffe (31/5/16)

Gigantorus said:


> Sorry Brad for being tardy.
> 
> Yes, I sanitise the hop sock, then squeeze between some clean paper towel to take all the liquid out of it, then load with hop pellets, and then carefully lay onto the surface of the wort, and put the lid back on.
> 
> ...


Thanks Pete


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## ryan84 (14/6/16)

Old Bloke said:


> Hi,
> I have just started to drink my first S&W clone, yum! I dry hopped with 30g galaxy pellets, put in a chux cloth tied into a pouch with string. Threw the pouch into the fermenter after 7 days. CC'd 3 days later.


you my friend are a genious.... here i am buying hop socks from the homebrew store like a fool.


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## damoninja (15/6/16)

I dry hop more beers than I don't, never used stockings or g-strings anything like that in my beer I just drop 'em in, don't worry they'll settle.\

The chux is a cheese maker's trick


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## Fluff (19/6/16)

feralbass said:


> I put a brew on today, S&W Pacific ale clone, (this is the reason I have started to brew again; tasted it while on holidays; WOW, Ned Murphy, if they have it want an arm and a leg for it.
> .


hey man where did you end up with the recipe for the pacific ale.. 
have been playing around with a clone.. pretty much

wheat and light malts + galaxy and a decent dry hop 
cheers 
Fluff


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## feralbass (19/6/16)

Hi Fluff
This was the 1st batch out of a new fermentor and I was worried about the plastic taste coming thru so I purposely made the brew a bit more bitter than usual to over come it.
Also, I got snowed under at work and forgot to dry hop so I made a tea with 30g of hops and and thru it in at bottling. The results pretty good even at if bit bitter for my taste. 3 week in the bottle carbonated up nicely, drinks well, galaxy nice taste and aroma.
The next 2 batches have also been run at higher than usual bittering, 1.(galaxy, amarillo and cascade dry hopped over 7 days)(150 lashes type beer) 2.(citra and aramillo, still fermenting, will dry hop for a week).
Next batch I will wind the bittering off.


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## damoninja (2/7/16)

feralbass said:


> Hi Fluff
> This was the 1st batch out of a new fermentor and I was worried about the plastic taste coming thru so I purposely made the brew a bit more bitter than usual to over come it.
> Also, I got snowed under at work and forgot to dry hop so I made a tea with 30g of hops and and thru it in at bottling. The results pretty good even at if bit bitter for my taste. 3 week in the bottle carbonated up nicely, drinks well, galaxy nice taste and aroma.
> The next 2 batches have also been run at higher than usual bittering, 1.(galaxy, amarillo and cascade dry hopped over 7 days)(150 lashes type beer) 2.(citra and aramillo, still fermenting, will dry hop for a week).
> Next batch I will wind the bittering off.


Never had an issue with a new fermenter, but I always hit it with hot boiling water since I dunno what's been in there before I got it. 

Are you using galaxy to bitter? Can be a bit unwieldy for some... 

I'd be surprised if you got anywhere near everything you could out of those hops if you dropped them in right before bottling, but I'm glad the beer turned out good (they're hard to **** up hey)


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## Frothy1 (2/7/16)

Think its worth mentioning that dry hopping too long with Galaxy will give some undesirable grassy flavors.


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## damoninja (2/7/16)

Frothy1 said:


> Think its worth mentioning that dry hopping too long with Galaxy will give some undesirable grassy flavors.


I've heard some people say 2 days, any more no good... I usually give it 4-5 before crashing, never had any issues with galaxy that people complain about excluding one time the bitterness was a bit harsh but I just FWH galaxy if I plan to use it as my primary bittering hop.


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## Gigantorus (5/7/16)

You can cold crash and dry-hop at the same time without any issues. I've done a few brews now and cold crash at 1C or 2C for the final 3 or 4 days and dry-hop for the same period using a hop sock and get a just as good late hop flavour/aroma (maybe even a little cleaner flavour). It's probably a less harsh flavour than what I used to get pre-cold crashing days.

Also if you can't get Galaxy hops then gran some Brooklyn (or Moutere as it's now known).

Cheers,
Pete


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## awolf (14/7/16)

mongey said:


> if using pellets loose I think cold crash is a must to get rid most of the bits . the one time I diditn CC after a pellet dry hop the beer had allot of hop bits in it and the tap got half clogged while bottling and it took forever


Hi all,

I'm still new to this - excuse the dumb/overly cautious question. I have a brew on now which is nearly finished fermenting to which I'd added loose pellets earlier on - didn't think of the hop bag (doh!). So to help the bits sediment out, cold crashing is the way to go? I thought of racking off to another vessel but don't have the gear handy for that option.

Cheers


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## Yob (15/7/16)

Cold crash or time, crashing is much faster though, 1 week at 1-2'c and it should be near Crystal


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## awolf (15/7/16)

Yob said:


> Cold crash or time, crashing is much faster though, 1 week at 1-2'c and it should be near Crystal


Thanx Yob, from what I've been reading that sounds right, but wasn't entirely confident. I'm ok with the beer not being 100% clear, just want to avoid larger gunk getting into the bottles - next time I'll be using bags to avoid the problem.


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## Yob (15/7/16)

I never bother with bags in primary, I just rely on crashing to drop it all.


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## awolf (15/7/16)

Oh yeah? That gives me lots more confidence with this batch, much appreciated.


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## damoninja (15/7/16)

Yob said:


> I never bother with bags in primary, I just rely on crashing to drop it all.


Likewise. 

There was this one time (not at bandcamp) where I had an immense amount of hop matter 450g in the kettle and 100g dry, it was so much hoppage that while a crash worked some stuff would have made its way in to bottles. 

This helped with sorting that out. 
https://www.bunnings.com.au/pope-13mm-poly-inline-barbed-filter_p3127265

I only use it in extreme cases where there's a mound of hop matter on the base or if I've added something else weird like added 4kg of raspberries or 200g coffee.


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## Dave70 (15/7/16)

You can also use good old gelatin after cold crashing to drag more floaties out of suspension. 
However I've had far better results using this in a keg where you can up end the thing a couple of times which presumably disperses the gelatin more evenly through the beer.


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## manticle (15/7/16)

Gelatine is good at dropping out suspended yeast.
I wouldn't expect it to have much effect on hop matter though.


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## Frothy1 (15/7/16)

The only times ive had trouble with hops in suspension is with flowers.

Pellets, i throw those babies in there and let them swim freely.

Flowers, I bag, or ive got to beat the vat (not a euphemism) while cold crashing to get them to drop.


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## awolf (22/7/16)

Just bottled this batch after cold crashing for 2-3 days, was around 2-4 degrees through that time. I didn't look at it through clear glass, but noticed a lot of sediment at the bottom of the fermenter and seemed very clear in the bottle. Wasn't thinking of doing it but I'm glad I did, worked a treat. Cheers for the advice


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## Frothy1 (22/7/16)

I admire the dedication of bottle washers.


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## Gigantorus (15/8/16)

damoninja said:


> Likewise.
> 
> There was this one time (not at bandcamp) where I had an immense amount of hop matter 450g in the kettle and 100g dry, it was so much hoppage that while a crash worked some stuff would have made its way in to bottles.
> 
> ...



I, at times, use lots of hops in the boil and went and bought one of these fine conical catering strainers for $40. Best investment ever. They come in a few different widths and a couple of mesh sizes. It sits nicely on-top of the fermenter and is solidly made - I can push and scrape without a worry.

Yes it takes a little longer when straining the wort into the fermenter. But it's worth it's weight in gold. It takes some much out of the brew.

Cheers,
Pete


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## damoninja (16/8/16)

Gigantorus said:


> I, at times, use lots of hops in the boil and went and bought one of these fine conical catering strainers for $40. Best investment ever. They come in a few different widths and a couple of mesh sizes. It sits nicely on-top of the fermenter and is solidly made - I can push and scrape without a worry.
> 
> Yes it takes a little longer when straining the wort into the fermenter. But it's worth it's weight in gold. It takes some much out of the brew.
> 
> ...


That filter I pointed at is more for when there's hops in to the fermenter such as a big ass dry hop. I like the idea of the cone shaped strainer I'll check those out.


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## brocasarea (12/9/16)

I use a hop ball. Cost a fiver at the LHBS. Keeps 95% of the crud in the one spot. Saves you being so nervous about knocking the barrel after a cold crash too.


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