Dry Hop Question

[thanme]

Hi,

I'm planning on my first brew this Sunday, and I think I've got everything figured out, except for the best way to dry hop in my situation.
My plan goes like this:
Primary fermenter for around 2 weeks
Rack to keg <- condition for 2 weeks (I'm going away for that time so it works out pretty well )
Bottle the rest

Now as far as I can tell, it doesn't matter how you dry hop, so long as it works for you, so I'm wondering if it would be best for me just to drop my hops straight into the fermenter for maybe the last week of it being in there?

Also, if I did it in a keg with a hop sock, can I do this while conditioning? If so, how would I get it out? Like, is it ok to open a conditioned keg??

Thanks

 

[ah_glenno]

AFAIK if you are going to drop hop into primary you are best to do it after the main activity of the ferment is over as this process removes some of the hop aroma, so i would suggest dry hopping around day 3 or 4 (?)

 

[Pennywise]

Let the beer ferment for a week then dry hop in the fermenter, you can dry hop before this but fermentation will drive off some of the aroma. The hop sock in the keg will work well too, just be sure it's well sanitised. CB sell a hop ball (no affiliation etc etc), which is a stainless steel ball with holes in it that is used to dry hop kegs, I would go this method purely for ease of sanitation.

 

[brettprevans]

drop it in for 5 days. after a ehile it will start to decompose and get vegitabley tastes. you can tie some fishing line around the end and that way its easy to fish out.

now you can drop hop in the fermentor or in the keg. either way. advantage of dry hopping in fermentor. chuck it all in with no hop sock. cause when you transfer to keg you'll most likely leave 99% of hops behind in the fermentor. or just dry hop in keg.

yes you can open a keg at any stage. the only thing you loose is some CO2. no biggy.

 

[thanme]

Geezus. 3 replies in less than 10 minutes??

That's perfect. Thanks guys I'll skip doing it in the keg this time, because I won't actually be there to take the sock out, but I will remember that.


No further questions...for a change

 

[Bribie G]

If dry hopping with pellets I usually chuck them in on about day 4 as posted above. However with a few styles that benefit from a real nice hop 'nose' as you raise the glass to the mouth, I use hop 'tea' made on flowers or hop plugs and add a couple of days before bottling / kegging. Just pretend the hops are tea leaves, make a pot of 'tea', let it stand for about 20 mins then strain in.

Good hops for this are East Kent Goldings or Styrian Goldings in the case of hop plugs, and most of the NZ hop flowers like BSaaz, Cascade etc if you want more of an American Pale Ale effect.

 

[Fourstar]

I dry hop 3/4 of the way thru primary then begin warming the femrenter and hold at atleast 20deg for 4-5 days. I Swirl fermenter every day to re suspend the pellets or jiggle the hop bag (depending on how much i dry hop i go commando or use a bag. I then Crash chill for 2 days and rack to a keg if you are adventurous and are kegging you can get a giant tea ball and pop a plug of hop flowers into it, suspend it in your beer with floss and you have a cask conditioned dry hop! when the flavour gets to it limit, open the keg and remove the teaball. B)

 

[brettprevans]

the other night i kegged a beer that i chucked 40g of flowers and pellets into a stocking weighed it down witha few stainless bottle openers and chucked into the fermentor for 7 days. fished it out after i'd transfered the beer to kegs. smelt and tasted awsome.

easy as to do.

 

[Fourstar]

the other night i kegged a beer that i chucked 40g of flowers and pellets into a stocking weighed it down witha few stainless bottle openers and chucked into the fermentor for 7 days. fished it out after i'd transfered the beer to kegs. smelt and tasted awsome.

Did you 'squeeze' the stocking and watch the goodness come out? :icon_drool2:

 

[brettprevans]

yup. squeezed the crap out of it with 2 chopping boards that id cleaned and sanatised. i also admit that i drank some of the 'goodness' and almost died from the hop flavour. talk about a screwed up face!

 

[Fourstar]

yup. squeezed the crap out of it with 2 chopping boards that id cleaned and sanatised. i also admit that i drank some of the 'goodness' and almost died from the hop flavour. talk about a screwed up face!

i gladwrap mine and squeeze with my hands. it makes it a whole lot easier getting it out of the sock too.. a wet pellet hop plug!

drinking dry hop 'juice' is crazy. try drinking an espresso shot of galaxy hops like i did. I immediately got hair in places i never had before!

 

[Bribie G]

Where do you buy those giant tea ball things? Haven't seen them in supermarkets for ages - can you still get them from House or Robin's kitchen type stores? Now I'm kegging I have a yen for some Styrian Goldings ultra-late :icon_drool2:

 

[Fourstar]

Where do you buy those giant tea ball things? Haven't seen them in supermarkets for ages - can you still get them from House or Robin's kitchen type stores? Now I'm kegging I have a yen for some Styrian Goldings ultra-late :icon_drool2:

Find yourself an asian grocer.. thats where i got mine. They also stock them at 'restaurant supply stores' They had ones big enough to put a softball into! i didn't buy it as it probably would struggle fit into a keg! It not hard forcing it in, its hard forcing it out when its full of beer!, mines big enough to loosly fit a golfball into.

 

[Bribie G]

I work in Chinatown (Fortitude Valley) and will be there tomorrow afternoon

I'm also kegging a Yorkshire Modern Summer Ale middle of next week when my Styrians should be arriving from Ross. Ah perfect feng shui ^_^

 

[thanme]

Cool cool. All awesome suggestions
Are plugs the same as pellets??

Also, while on the topic of hops, how much can you tell from the smell of dry hops?? If the smell of them is any indication of the taste/aroma you get in the end product, I may be in love with Cascade

Fourstar I like your suggestion. I know this is a bit off topic, and probably very newbie sounding, but if I crash chill, can I still bottle condition?

 

[Bribie G]

Hop plugs are hop flowers that have been compressed into little cylinders:



Quarantine won't allow loose flowers to be imported from the UK or Europe, just pellets and plugs. I expect they figure that plugs, having been compressed under huge pressure there will be no live tarantulas or boat people contained in them. AFAIK plugs are mostly made in the UK where they are used for dry hopping casks of real ale, a plug or four will fit nicely through the spile hole of a UK cask. Someone posted some photos from a brewery tour on this forum last year showing a brewery employee doing just that.

When you add a plug to hot / boiling water it turns back into flowers. Neat.

Edit: plugs come in packs of six, each one weighs about 12 to 15 grams so is the same as a hop 'teabag' and they are around ten bucks for six so good value comparatively.

 

[Fourstar]

Cool cool. All awesome suggestions
Are plugs the same as pellets??

Also, while on the topic of hops, how much can you tell from the smell of dry hops?? If the smell of them is any indication of the taste/aroma you get in the end product, I may be in love with Cascade
Fourstar I like your suggestion. I know this is a bit off topic, and probably very newbie sounding, but if I crash chill, can I still bottle condition?

Yes, yes you can still bottle. Just make sure you keep the bottles in a warm place to get the yeastie going again, same priming rates.

Dry hops smell rather grassy/earthy. just like when you thorw them into the boil, that burst of aroma you get, but in your final product. you net neuances of their characteristics too, citrus, peach, melon, etc if you are using US hops.

 

[thanme]

Sounds good!

Thanks again.

 

[Nick JD]

In ales that ferment in a shorter period, I like to dry hop from the start to the end in a swiss voile "swag" that floats on the surface of the wort. I've used between 5 and 40 grams to good effect. Some people complain about "grassiness" I've never had this and I've dry hopped a wide variety of hops.

If anything, over the week more flavour is imparted into the beer than aroma -- that seems to come out the airlock. Like yesterday's tea ... it tastes like tea, it doesn't smell like tea.

 

[JaffaMan]

I'm using 20g of amarillo pellets when I put my brew into secondary tommorow, I cant get any type of holder for them.

Would it be allright if I boil the 20g in a small amount of water (say 200ml for 10 mins, to sanitize the hops), then let it hit room temp, then put into my secondary while draining the primary?