Opening the Fermenter to Dry Hop

[Scobieb]

Hey guys,

Quick question, I'm following a recipe that calls for my beer to be dry hopped after 5 days in the fermenter. However my air lock is still bubbling and I'm wondering whether its a good idea to open it up when its doing this.

Should I wait till fermentation is over (or at least the airlock stops bubbling) before dry hopping?

 

[Spiesy]

Prob good that it is still bubbling. Better chance that it's still undergoing fermentation, so the yeast will likely eat up any oxygen introduce during the addition of hops.

Go for it.

 

[Alex.Tas]

Agreed with the above. its good that its still fermenting.
My understanding is that you should dry hop once most of the fermentation is done. you dont want it to be fermenting too much as you can loose some of that aroma (which is what you are essentially trying to acheive through a dry hop). by adding too early. But you dont want to add too late because as spiesy says above you want the CO2 produced to displace the oxygen that you added to the top of the brew by opening the lid.
stress less, its gonna be good. I usually dry hop on day 5-7 depending on activity. I use glad wrap so i judge it based on what i see ie visually looking for foam.

 

[Scobieb]

Thanks guys. It's been in since last Monday so dry hopping now fits with the 5-7 days.

Just dry hopped and the airlock is now going crazy, bubbling every couple of seconds whereas before it was every 30 seconds

 

[Alex.Tas]

good good. 5-7 days isn't really a rule. more like guidelines, like the pirates code.
so long as the brew is still fermenting you should be right. but remember just because the airlock isn't bubbling, it doesn't mean your brew isn't fermenting.
have fun!

 

[Yeastfridge]

Dry hopping usually gets my airlock bubbling away again for a little too, I'd guess because it displaces some of the dissolved CO2 in the fermenting beer.

Also, just in case you haven't read/found out yet, hops have some antimicrobial properties, so adding them isn't too risky in terms of the hops contaminating your beer.

 

[Scobieb]

Thanks Alex. I've actually got a dodgy fermenter where the lid doesn't seal properly so I know all about fermenting but no bubbling

 

[Alex.Tas]

try some vaseline, works for me.

 

[jkhlt1210]

try some vaseline, works for me.

G'day Alex not sure if you remember giving me the recipe for my coopers draught tin with a cascade and clusters boil? Anyway it's been bottled for two weeks so far I opened one yesterday... And holy f$&@ it tastes and smells unbelievable!!!! By far my best and favourite brew to date!! Thanks heaps for that mate!

 

[Alex.Tas]

Sure do mate, glad to hear you like it. Enjoy your home made beer!

 

[Nizmoose]

G'day Alex not sure if you remember giving me the recipe for my coopers draught tin with a cascade and clusters boil? Anyway it's been bottled for two weeks so far I opened one yesterday... And holy f$&@ it tastes and smells unbelievable!!!! By far my best and favourite brew to date!! Thanks heaps for that mate!

Care to share?

 

[fletcher]

Thanks Alex. I've actually got a dodgy fermenter where the lid doesn't seal properly so I know all about fermenting but no bubbling

don't even bother with the lid. use gladwrap. many on here do with better success than lid hassles. use elastic bands or the o-ring from your lid to seal the gladwrap on. it will let c02 out but not let oxygen in.

 

[jkhlt1210]

Care to share?

Sure will share! It's nothing wild but simple a nd makes a beautiful beer.
Coopers Draught tin
1kg LDME
Boil 500g of DME in 5 litres water
12g Cluster @ 25mins
12g Cascade @ 15mins
Put all in fermenter fill to 22 litres
Day 5 dry hop 12g Cascade
I ferment at. 20 degrees for 14 days.
Hope you enjoy!

 

[Nizmoose]

Sure will share! It's nothing wild but simple a nd makes a beautiful beer.
Coopers Draught tin
1kg LDME
Boil 500g of DME in 5 litres water
12g Cluster @ 25mins
12g Cascade @ 15mins
Put all in fermenter fill to 22 litres
Day 5 dry hop 12g Cascade
I ferment at. 20 degrees for 14 days.
Hope you enjoy!

Sorry for being a total noob and maybe going off topic but if you want to steep in speciality grain for example, can you do that in a small amount of water (eg 5L) then just fill the fermenter with your extract, 5 litres of 'wort', and then your 18 or whatever litres of water to make a 23L batch?

 

[dicko]

Yes Nizmoose, you can steep your crystal grains in a litre or so of water then add that to the water that you will dissolve your dried malt extract in and then boil the lot for the time appropriate to the recipe and add the hops at the specified time, cool it and add it to the fermenter and top up as stated above.
You need to boil any liquid that you have steeped or mashed grain in to remove opportunity of infection spoiling your beer.

Cheers

 

[Nizmoose]

Yes Nizmoose, you can steep your crystal grains in a litre or so of water then add that to the water that you will dissolve your dried malt extract in and then boil the lot for the time appropriate to the recipe and add the hops at the specified time, cool it and add it to the fermenter and top up as stated above.
You need to boil any liquid that you have steeped or mashed grain in to remove opportunity of infection spoiling your beer.

Cheers

Okay thanks, and then how much water do you boil your dried malt extract in? Can you theoretically just boil the water for steeping and steep, and then add the extract to the fermenter and then only put boiling water into the fermenter along with the steeped water up to 23L or is that a ridiculous amount of boiling? And if so do you just boil the DME and dissolve it, add that to the empty fermenter then top up with cold water?

 

[dicko]

:icon_offtopic: Apologies OP

If you are adding cold water to the fermenter to chill the boiled wort down to ferment temps then use as little water as necessary to dissolve the DME.
In the recipe above the brewer states in the recipe that there is 1 kg of DME required but he only mentions 500gramms in the boil so I guess he justs dissolves the rest of the DME in the fermenter.
I prefer to boil anything that is going into the fermenter except for the tin of goo.

What ever way you choose to dissolve your DME is a personal choice, however you must boil a part of it to extract hop bitterness and flavour and you must boil the steeped grain wort after the grain is removed to ensure against infections in your brew.

I hope this helps without too much confusion.

 

[Nizmoose]

Yep awesome thanks heaps and sorry OP off topic my apologies!

 

[jkhlt1210]

Yep awesome thanks heaps and sorry OP off topic my apologies!

Hey bud yeah as stated above you can boil all the DME if you wish I just did 500 grams as I had an 8 litre pot. It seems a general rule of thumb is 1 litre water per 100grams malt ie. 10 litres water for the kilo. It is a very simple recipe for a really nice hoppy little beer! Please let me know how you go

 

[Nizmoose]

Hey bud yeah as stated above you can boil all the DME if you wish I just did 500 grams as I had an 8 litre pot. It seems a general rule of thumb is 1 litre water per 100grams malt ie. 10 litres water for the kilo. It is a very simple recipe for a really nice hoppy little beer! Please let me know how you go

Will definitely try this next and will definitely let you know how it goes