Dry Hop Disaster

[hazard]

Just when you think you're getting the hang of this fine hobby - you find another way to **** up.

I'm brewing an ESB for my Pommy mate who misses his Fullers. I used Wheeler's book for assistance and in particular took note of the instruction to "dry hop with a few cones of EKG". I've never tried dry hooping, but I had 1.5 plugs left over (is this the same as cones? Is cone an English term?), and decided to chuck them into the fermeneter on Day 7.

Yesterday was Day 14, on this day I always rack to another fermenter and cold condition for aweek (to clarify beer, and also to harvest clean yeast free of break material and trub). There was lots of hop material floating around, but no worries, I dipped my racking cane and started sucking. I got a mouthful of ESB - tasted wonderful! - and started filling secondary. When transfer was about 2/3 done, the flow stopped - $#%%^&#^#. I lifted out the cane and sure enough, the intake was clogged with hop leaves. So i thought I would have to just drain the primary from the tap, unhooked the tube from the cane and plugged it in. Opened the tap - hey presto, its blocked too and nothing comes out. Double $#%%^&#^#.

In desperation i got a strainer and tipped the rest of the primary into the secondary because I couldn't bear to lose 8 or 9 litres of delicious ale. Then threw the secondary into the fridge to c-c.

So my questions are - will my ESB finish up horribly oxidised? What shelf life should I expect - days, weeks? Should I bottle straight away so that yeasties in the bottle can absorb some of the oxygen? And finally, how does everyone else rack when you've beer full of dry hops?? I'm really annoyed with myself, thanks for any help.

Hazard

 

[RetsamHsam]

So my questions are - will my ESB finish up horribly oxidised? What shelf life should I expect - days, weeks? Should I bottle straight away so that yeasties in the bottle can absorb some of the oxygen? And finally, how does everyone else rack when you've beer full of dry hops?? I'm really annoyed with myself, thanks for any help.

Hazard

I think you have a fairly good chance of oxidisation with this one. I think abit of cheese cloth over the end of the racking cane might have saved you some headaches.

I had the same problem a year or so ago and ended up sticking my arm in the beer to clear the tap, turned out fine..

 

[pbrosnan]

Just when you think you're getting the hang of this fine hobby - you find another way to **** up.

I'm brewing an ESB for my Pommy mate who misses his Fullers. I used Wheeler's book for assistance and in particular took note of the instruction to "dry hop with a few cones of EKG". I've never tried dry hooping, but I had 1.5 plugs left over (is this the same as cones? Is cone an English term?), and decided to chuck them into the fermeneter on Day 7.

Yesterday was Day 14, on this day I always rack to another fermenter and cold condition for aweek (to clarify beer, and also to harvest clean yeast free of break material and trub). There was lots of hop material floating around, but no worries, I dipped my racking cane and started sucking. I got a mouthful of ESB - tasted wonderful! - and started filling secondary. When transfer was about 2/3 done, the flow stopped - $#%%^&#^#. I lifted out the cane and sure enough, the intake was clogged with hop leaves. So i thought I would have to just drain the primary from the tap, unhooked the tube from the cane and plugged it in. Opened the tap - hey presto, its blocked too and nothing comes out. Double $#%%^&#^#.

In desperation i got a strainer and tipped the rest of the primary into the secondary because I couldn't bear to lose 8 or 9 litres of delicious ale. Then threw the secondary into the fridge to c-c.

So my questions are - will my ESB finish up horribly oxidised? What shelf life should I expect - days, weeks? Should I bottle straight away so that yeasties in the bottle can absorb some of the oxygen? And finally, how does everyone else rack when you've beer full of dry hops?? I'm really annoyed with myself, thanks for any help.

Hazard

Given all the other things that can go wrong I'd say this is a fairly minor incident. I've found HB to be pretty resilient and a bit of splashing, whilst not desirable, probably won't make much difference to the quality. Given the title of the thread I was expecting a dry hop related infection.

 

[Pete2501]

Given all the other things that can go wrong I'd say this is a fairly minor incident. I've found HB to be pretty resilient and a bit of splashing, whilst not desirable, probably won't make much difference to the quality. Given the title of the thread I was expecting a dry hop related infection.

+1

I wanted gory pictures of infection. Like a crash at a car race.

 

[hazard]

Given all the other things that can go wrong I'd say this is a fairly minor incident. I've found HB to be pretty resilient and a bit of splashing, whilst not desirable, probably won't make much difference to the quality.

Well that sounds comforting. Fingers and toes will remain crossed for some time.

 

[Hutch]

Well that sounds comforting. Fingers and toes will remain crossed for some time.

Think of it this way - if there has been some oxidation, then it'll taste even more like a cask ale!
That said, casks do tend to go stale within a few days of tapping, noticable in some pubs with poor handling/turnover.

If it was only a little splashing during transfer you should be OK, as long as you carb with dex (the continued yeast activity will scrub most of the remaining oxygen, reducing the potential for oxidation spoilage).

 

[Scruffy]

You know what, I think you'll be OK... I've watched Fullers fill their barrels, it's messy! Some brews they then dry hop using the compressed plugs that by some really strange quirk of fate actually fit through the bung hole in the barrel (imagine!) - the cones your book referred to are the flowers of the female plant - they're grown separately to the male plants 'cause once pollination sets in the flowers are no good for making beer. The plugs have an advantage over (dried) flowers in that there's less surface area exposed to the air, and they're probably easier to weigh!
An easier way to rack is to stick some kind of barrier over the tap or cane or tube (silicone or otherwise) and racking slowly (hey, maybe the hops flowers could restrict the flow). Personally (if I've dry hopped) I use one of those metal scourers, you know the scrunched up ball thing, the hops still stick, but liquid gets through - at the back of the tap, or attached to the end of the racking cane - up to you - keep that one just between you and me, eh...!! I guess any excess O you've produced (minimal i'd say!) will be dealt with when you bottle condition...
From memory, once I had tapped a cask I had three, maybe four days @ 10C.. as the barrel empties, it's filled with air from the cellar - which obviously contains O, your bottles should last a bit longer under reasonable conditions. Lager, Cider, Coopers, Guinness (etc) kegs in pubs are kept pressurised with CO or CO2 and nitrogen, less chance of rusting.

If it's any consolation, here's some bloke oxidising his beer.




--edit-- Spling errro

 

[RdeVjun]

I'll add to the chorus and suggest that it will be just fine. You got most of it without too much trouble, even if it is 'badly' oxygenated it will probably just have a shorter shelf life. If it was stuff you wanted to cellar then that could be a problem, but I'd doubt this is the case- ESBs with late and/ or dry hops are best drunk quite young.
IMO the whole aeration/ oxidation thing is a little bit over done sometimes and folks can get a little too paranoid about it quite unnecessarily. HSA is a fairy tale at home brewing scales while the lengths some folks go to with cold handling just amazes me. As other posters relate and I've found myself, our home brewed beer is remarkably resilient stuff. Obviously there's limits to the punishment it will handle but just treat it sensibly and there should be no hassles, I'd say what you've done is sensible considering the circumstances.

Yep, cones are equivalent to plugs, they're just compressed whole hops (i.e. hops cones). I actually prefer the plugs over pellets.

I do dry hop with plugs straight into the fermenter sometimes and I do much the same as you've done in transferring via the taps into another cube prior to bottling. There's the odd bit of hops which gets stuck but generally a shake or jiggle will free it and to date there's been no show stoppers, even in the bottling wand (just turn the tap off to clear the blockage). I've been leaning towards using a hops bag, but it must be fairly loose in there and allow plenty of room for a plug to expand, lots of room in fact. As other posters suggest, some screening may help on your racking wand, but doing something similar with a tap already in place isn't simple so needs some forethought.

Hope this helps. :icon_cheers:

 

[hazard]

Thanks to all for supportive comments. I'll leave this in the fridge until the weekend and bottle away.

 

[Snow]

You know what, I think you'll be OK... I've watched Fullers fill their barrels, it's messy! Some brews they then dry hop using the compressed plugs that by some really strange quirk of fate actually fit through the bung hole in the barrel (imagine!) - the cones your book referred to are the flowers of the female plant - they're grown separately to the male plants 'cause once pollination sets in the flowers are no good for making beer. The plugs have an advantage over (dried) flowers in that there's less surface area exposed to the air, and they're probably easier to weigh!
An easier way to rack is to stick some kind of barrier over the tap or cane or tube (silicone or otherwise) and racking slowly (hey, maybe the hops flowers could restrict the flow). Personally (if I've dry hopped) I use one of those metal scourers, you know the scrunched up ball thing, the hops still stick, but liquid gets through - at the back of the tap, or attached to the end of the racking cane - up to you - keep that one just between you and me, eh...!! I guess any excess O you've produced (minimal i'd say!) will be dealt with when you bottle condition...
From memory, once I had tapped a cask I had three, maybe four days @ 10C.. as the barrel empties, it's filled with air from the cellar - which obviously contains O, your bottles should last a bit longer under reasonable conditions. Lager, Cider, Coopers, Guinness (etc) kegs in pubs are kept pressurised with CO or CO2 and nitrogen, less chance of rusting.

If it's any consolation, here's some bloke oxidising his beer.


View attachment 36065

--edit-- Spling errro

That's hot-side aeration, not post-fermentation oxidation - 2 different chemical processes.

I think your beer may have some oxidation, which will reduce shelf life, but not too dramatically. If you drink it within a couple of months you'll be right.

My suggestion for future racking of dry-hopped beers is to sanitise a stainless steel scrubby and slide that over the end of your racking cane. Filters out hop flowers no problems!

<edit> oops - just noticed Scruffy suggested this very same thing! My apologies.....

Cheers - Snow.