Dry Hopping

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Moray

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last night I racked my lager into the secondary.
I'm trying dry hopping for the first time.
what I did was make a tea with the hop pellets, and boiling water, let it sit for a couple of minutes. then added it to the secondary unfiltered, and racked the primary onto it.

brew had been in primary for 10 days, slightly longer than I usally leave it. S.G. last night was 1012

and the taste was fantastic.

by questions are how long to leave in the secondary, to get the hop aromas ?
Given the brew has pretty much finished, I would usally bottle the brew on sunday, which would give me 2 weeks total in fermenters. But due to the longer primary, I would only be getting 4 days in secondary, which I suspect won't be enough.
If I leave it to the following weekend, would the hops become overpowering ?

and as to bottling as per GMKs info in other posts I am going to get an inline irrigation filter, and filter it into the bottling bucket.

anyone have any advice on this ?

cheers
Moray
 
well, i dont have any answers but i did a similair thing. racked ontop of some hop pellets (they sure make a mess in boiled water!) but after only four days in primary. fermenting was pretty much done by then anyway. its been in secondary about 10 days and i will probably let get to two weeks before bottling.

i do have a question for you though...are you maintaining the same temp. in the secondary that you did while fermenting in primary? anyway, good luck with it.
joe
 
For what it's worth Moray, I have racked my last 4 brews (all Lagers) and dry hopped all of them. I've left them in secondary for 2 weeks after 7 days in primary. Of the beers that I've tasted (3 of the 4) all are excellent and not 'overpowering' at all. Racking and dry hopping IMO have been the best changes I've made to my brewing so far. I've also found that after leaving the secondary for 2 weeks the hops have settled out well and I haven't felt the need to filter yet. I rack again after the 2 weeks into my bulk priming fermenter and have managed to leave the sludge behind pretty well. Nice clean clear Lagers so far!

Hope that helps.

Gough.
 
I dry hop with plugs, sofar the results are good. I must admit though I wish I would have used more dry hops in my IPA (tried a bottle on monday night). Its got hop aroma, but not *slap you in the face* hop aroma like I wanted.

I've built a filter based on GMKs advice and I was suprised how much it picks up. What looks like a clear beer probably has a few little bits of hop floating around in it.
 
I never make a tea of the hops and I never filter. For my IPA I dry hop 50L with about .5kg of Cascade hops....just jam then into the secondary. You get a little more sediment on the bottom of the bottle but it seems to give the beer a much better flavor and aroma profile than when you filter. My IPA has never got less than 1st in any competition that Ive entered it in.
 
jeez king of the harpies, with a recipe like that, I'm sure it would be appreciated if you could post the details!
 
i hope i have the same feeling about trying out racking and dry hopping as gough. ill be bottling tuesday so im looking forward to it (but not the wait before trying it out!)
joe
 
Joecast,

imho racking is the single best thing you can do to improve your brews. I'm normally an ale brewer
and usally rack into the secondary anytime between four days to a week after pitching the yeast.

I keep the temperature in the secondary the same as for the primary. I usally measure the s.g. when I rack and again after about a week in secondary. it's noramlly finished and ready for bottling at that point.

as I don't normally lager, due to difficulties in keeping a constant low temp. so not sure about dropping temp in secondarys for lagering.

one of the lager brewers might have some advice on this.
 
well I ended up leaving the brew in secondary till last night, about a week and a half.

I picked up an irrigation filter at bunnings for 4 bucks, and inserted it into the racking tube.

Man I was suprised at how much stuff it picked up. what a great piece of Aussie engineering ingenuity on GMK's behalf. Cheap, simple and effective. I can now label my beers as being filtered, or should that be cold filtered seeing as this was a lager. :lol:

the sample from the hydro tube was great, nice hop aroma, and not to bitter. overall a great success.
my wife reckons it is one of the best brews so far.

so thanks everyone for all your help
 
Moray,

Congrats on the great tasting beer.

If you dont have a kegging system yet - now is probably the best time to bring it up with the wife.

You know - it would taste better if it was draft from the keg...
Save all that time washing bottles etc...
 
GMK,

Do you do lay-by's,mastercard,etc?????





:D
 
Linz,

Sorry mate - no.
 
GMK

what sort of prices am i looking at to get a kegging setup?
 
Kegging Prices

I can get you the taps
Annadale puuldowns $60.00 ea
Twist $40.00 ea
Reconditioned with Fridge door attachment. Need 5/8 inch drill for holes in fridge. Taps come with a beer logo of choice - nominate 6 beer logos in order of preference.
4mm beer line - need at least 2.5m per tap - $2.00 pm x 5m = 10.00
6mm gas line 3m - 1.50pm = 4.50
4mm-6mm converter $5.00 - includes clamps - (needed because the 4mm will not fit onto the barb of the disconnect) = 10.00
Pushlocks that fit onto the fridge door attachment to fit above 4mm line $10.00 ea.
Note: tap supplied with a nipple but the pushlock is nice
2 x Liquid and 2 x gas disconects needed 15.00 ea = 60.00
Clamps 5.00.
"t" piece 15.00
Regulator - dual gauge - brand new - 100.00.

Total
With 2 x Anndale Taps, hoses, clamps, T piece, regulator, converters etc = 324.50
With Twist Taps = 284.50

Add 20.00 to each price for the pushlocks or 10.00 for the extra converters (pushlocks are well wort it - freight should be 9.00.
Therefore with Pushlocks and freight, $352.00 and $502.00 for a good dual keg set up including the SS Kegs from Craig deacon.

Optional:
Hand turned wooden handles to fit taps - 15.00 ea or 2 for 25.00.

Gas outside the fridge setup:
Ball gate valve, 2x threaded barbs, 2m of gas line, T piece& liquid
disconect = 50.00
This is a cheap way to gas a keg outside the fridge without mucking about with all the stuff inside or having to buy another regualtor. This setup stops the high gassing presure from going into the fridge.
For an aditional $40.00...i can substtitute the outside ball/gate valve for a mini air reg that will allow pouring presure into the fridge kegs whilst mainting gassing pressure for the outside.

Note that i dont sell the SS Soda kegs will have to add on 150.00 for 2 kegs.

SS kegs
> Goto [email protected]
> kegs are $68.00 ea recon and kitted - buy three - also ensure all three are the same type and order one refit kit (8.00 approx) I bought my first three there...now have 6 and put some others from Canberra onto him.
Craigs - Harris regulators are 120.00

Also sell:
Beer mats rubber backed - i sell them for 12.50 ea.
Only thing i ask is that if you deal thru Craig - you mention my
name as Kenny from Canberra.

here is my home phone number if you want to discuss anything:
>02 6296 2387.

Let me know what you think - i hope it is not confusing...

Ken...
 
Ken did you get my PM?

I will soon be asking for the "outside fridge" gassing setup and one more "T" so i can have 4 kegs in the fridge...... (although i may not need that with the outside gassing setup as it comes with the set up)

Long day and i just got home

night
 
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