How To Hop ?!

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Gout

Bentleigh Brau Haus
Joined
19/5/03
Messages
1,357
Reaction score
13
Location
Ferntree Gully - Melbourne
A quick question about hop's... and adding it to you homebrew.

you can boil for say 60min to bitter correct? (boil of the aroma flavour?)
10min before end of boil, for flavour?
at end of boil - aroma?

add pellets to the fermentor- flavour / aroma???

add it to the secondry - flavour aroma????


I'm just not 100% sure on the method to hop my next lager. I was going to hop 20g 5 min before end of boil, and add 20g at the end of the boil.
This was advise from the shop, but i just want to make sure this is efective and other methods eg dry hop the secondry etc

Regards
Ben :blink:
 
i would add 2o gm at 5 mins to end of boil.
Save the other 20 gms to dry hop int the secondary.

GMK's Dry hop method.

Add 20 gms of hop pellets to ss mug...pour in boiling water...stir with teaspoon...let stand for 2- 3mins.
Mix with teaspoon...add to secondary...Note ...racking into secondary after 1 week in primary.

Rack wort into secondary...rinse mug with wort...
Done.

Leave in secondary for 2 weeks.
Pass thru pre keg filter into keg or bottling bucket.

Hope this helps.
Any questions...just ask.
 
Firstly i dont have a pre keg filter yet, (need to make one)

also do you make the hope mix in the cup add it to a empty secondry and then fill it with the wort? or add the hop mix after you fill your secondry.

How does adding it to the secondy effect flavour rather than adding it in this method once you put your yeast in (beginning of fermentation)


I will use you method if i can get the pre keg filter sorted but i still need to make my mash equipment and with the liquid yeast pack starting to swell tomorrows day off will be filled with that.


Lastly off the topic, I will be making the lager with 1kg or pale grain and 1.5Kg?!?! Larger kit.
I also have a 1Kg LME light pale malt, Or DME

I cant get more grain untill my next brew so should i:
brew the 1kg grain and kit with reduced volume
same 23Lts but less Alc and Body
Add dome DME
Or somehow use some LME from the can. If i used the whole can 1kg+1.5Kit + grain 1Kg it would be a over load of malt :)

maybe the lower volume 18Lts is best (esp as its a keg's worth)
 
Ben,

Pre keg filter...approx 10.00...refer a previous post...search etc...it is an inline irrigation filter attached to 13mm food grade racking line.

If you rack for 2 weeks...then you have plenty of time to make the pre keg filter.

Adding hops to the secondary is better because once the hops are covered by dead yeast cells...no more hop flavour...this tends to not happen in thesecondary.

Adding hops to the bottom of the secondary before racking.
Good because hops are anti bacterial...helps to sterlise the secondary.

Hope this helps.
 
hops seem to be a popular topic....

my question is more on the process rather than the result. i bottle straight from the primary fermenter (23l plastic with an air lock) and wanted to be sure on when to add some hop pellets. the guy in the home brew shop said to boil them for a few minutes and add them just after the fermenting slows (about the third day).

do i just use enough boiling water to dissolve them?

should i drain them before adding or just add the water and dissolved pellets?

i am guessing using this method the length of time i boil for (or do i just add boiling water to them?) will still determine what effect i get. 20min for bitterness, and about 5min for flavor/aroma. is that about right?

let me know if you have any other tips on this. its the first time ive used any extra additives so i have lots of questions. thanks
joe
 
joecast

Refer to my earlier post on dry hopping.
Do youself a favour and buy a another fermenter...
Use this to rack the beer to after 7 days primary - for 2 weeks.

Here is some feedback i have received from someone adopting my method of racking and dry hopping.
Hi Ken,
Just a quick note to say thanks for the advise you gave me last year. My Home Brewing is going along great, have done the things you had said ie:using a combination of blends, etc and also as you explain below, Racking, it's quite amazing how these small changes can improve your beer so much. On your suggestion, I did make the trip up to Grumpy's, spent a good part of 8 hours there, (I'm heading up there in couple of weeks time again), when I spoke to Dave and Andrew, they said that Racking is the only way to go for the Home Brewer, and with my brews I would most definitely have to agree, and am totally converted for sure.
Anyway cheers Ken
Darryl
 
I am relativly new to this also, but i "think" :

I would add the hops to a cup of boiled water stir, leave a min, then add to the fermenter. I normally do that (via the kind advice here) but its a secondry fermenter.

you can get tea bag like things "hop bags" this will stop the hops geting into you bottles, and also will stop them sinking to the bottom and into the yeast hence stoping as much effect.


I might be wrong but its something to think about i'm sure the guys will help further
 
There's no need to boil the hops when you dry hop. Hops are naturally anti-bacterial. You won't get an infection from hops or hop pellets. Just chuck em in your sterilised secondary fermenter dry and rack your beer onto them.

India Pale Ale is hopped so heavily because it helped to preserve the beer - prevent infection - on the long sea voyage from England to India. The same properties are there when you dry-hop. No need to complicate the process with an extra boil.

Just my 2c :)
 
PostModern said:
There's no need to boil the hops when you dry hop. Hops are naturally anti-bacterial. You won't get an infection from hops or hop pellets. Just chuck em in your sterilised secondary fermenter dry and rack your beer onto them.

India Pale Ale is hopped so heavily because it helped to preserve the beer - prevent infection - on the long sea voyage from England to India. The same properties are there when you dry-hop. No need to complicate the process with an extra boil.

Just my 2c :)
Post Modern

i dont boil the hops - i just add boiling water to them and leave them for 2-3 mins.

As i use Hop Pellets - you get an initial just cut grass clippings smell - once you add the boiling water.

2-3mins later - this smell/volatiles are gone and you are left with a nice hop aroma.

I would rather have hop aroma than any cut grass clippings smell/volatiles.

Try it if youself...
 
just racked to secondary and added the hops to that. fermented in primary for four days.

my question is this... is it ok if fermentation has stopped before racking to secondary? i mixed the hops in some boiled water and dumped that into the secondary, then slowly emptied what was in the primary on top of that. i was expecting some bubbling in the secondary but i think it has just about stopped and im not getting anything out of the airlock. i am probably worrying over nothing but its the first time ive used a secondary so im not sure what to expect. thanks
joe
 
Joe,

Normally you'll get a bit more activity once you rack into your secondary for 2 reasons.

The first is that you've 'roused' the yeast a bit so it's going to have a go at any fermentable still easily available. This though will be fairly slow and there may not be much at all due to this, particularly if the primary has all but finished.

The other thing that happens is that some of the CO2 that has been produced during the primary fermentation will now come out of solution. Not all the CO2 that id produced leaves the fermenter - some goes into the wort in solution, effectively giving it a small carbonation. This should kick the airlock along just a little bit. Don't expect anything too dramatic, it's just that you normally get just a little bit of activity after the racking for a day or so.

If you've got absolutely nothing at all whatsoever then I'd just check that it's properly sealed. When you press down on the lid and force a little gas out through the airlock, does the levels stay different for quite a while?

BTW, did you take an SG when you racked it?

Trev
 
The last four brews I have done, the fermenting has died after racking.

I rack the beer and it continues to bubble gradually slowing then stopping over about 12 hours. It stays stopped for about 48 hours and then kicks back in. I have been trying to rouse it with some raised temps and gentle rocking but don't want to get too vigorous. It has kicked back in again after a couple of days.

It could be the temperature but it's been 18-20C so not too cold. Coincidentally, it has all happened with the liquid Thames Valley Wyeast. Maybe it's a characteristic of the strain?
 
Trev,
i took an sg before racking and it seemed a bit high (around 1010 and initial was 1030). i am only expecting about 3.5%abv but thought this wasnt much of a drop.

i have tried "pushing" a bit of air out the airlock and the level tends to get back to neutral after only a few seconds which made me think i may have a leak. the thing is i cant tighten the lid any more than it is. anyway thanks for the advice so far.
joe
 
Joe,

The 1010 reading may well be right, depending upon what fermentables you used as malt/dextrose mixtures and particularly those with maltodextrin (Corn Sugar) will always finish higher

As for sealing, check that the grommet around the airlock is OK, maybe wriggle it around a bit to see.

Trev
 
Hi there -

So if i read the posts correctly -

When racking from primary to secondary, I can dry hop & bulk prime at the same time? Or should I bulk prime just before bottling, I don't have a keg setup.

Cheers,

Dog.
 
Dry hop in secondary. After a week or two, rack into clean second fermenter with hops at the bottom. Leave for perhaps a week. (Alternatively, just skip this step and dry hop in primary by simply chucking the pellets in.)

Bulk prime just before bottling. Rack into a clean, second fermenter with sugar solution at the bottom. Make sure the tubing is coiling at the bottom of this second fermenter to create a whirlpool which will mix in the sugar solution. Very gently stir to ensure mixing. Bottle from this second fermenter. Wait till carbonated. Drink. :chug:
 
From my 1 misadventure of throwing the hops in directly(pellet form) to primary it left plenty of floaties when bottling even after 7 days in primary, 14 days in secondary with finings added. - Its now only cleared in the bottle after 4 months.

I cant recommend the hop tea bag enough.
 
Drew,
Sorry to hear about your misadventure, BUT there were a few things you could have done to eliminate pellet debris.

1. Rack into secondary,
2, Use a sanitized sock for the pellets and not throw them in loosely,
3. Filter,
4. Use alternative types of hops either flowers or plugs which would have produced less debris.

I wouldn't advocate using the hop tea bags, unless you want a tasteless non aromatic beer. (No point in adding them in the first place). If you've used fresh hops the aroma when you open the bag is incredible just what you want in your beer. IMHO the hop tea bags are usually old, poorly stored and don't have anywhere near the amount of aroma compared to fresh hops.

Try the stocking if you want to dry hop pellets, but make sure it's large enough to allow the pellets to expand.

Cheers
AC
 
lol i just dropped a hop tea bag in to a mug of hot water for 10 mins.The package said add water from mug and entire contents and bag into fermenter . :huh:

ha! so i opened the bag (yes the hop tea bag) and tipped the hops in, silly i know maybe next time i wont have a few beers while brewing i thing this batch is gunna be full off floaties (scuba divers ) :eek:
 
Back
Top