Stirring When Dry Hopping

[cpsmusic]

Hi,

I'm attempting dry hopping for the first time (for an ESB).

I've used pellets in a hop bag and I've racked off to a secondary vessel.

Just wondering if I need to stir the liquid occasionally to circulate the hop oils or will they diffuse by themselves?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[manticle]

I've never stirred when dry hopping.

 

[peaky]

Probably best not to stir it. I'm assuming the beer has finished fermenting? Even if fermentation has finished it's probably not a good idea to open the lid and go stirring around in there risking infection. I believe fermented beer is less likely to become infected than unfermented wort but still not worth the risk I reckon.
My dry hopping works well and I never stir, or use a hop bag.

 

[cpsmusic]

Thanks Guys, I think I'll leave it as I don't want to risk infection.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[dkaos]

The other thing to be mindful of is oxidisation. Aerating wort is fine when it's wort, aerating beer is not good

 

[craigo]

should you rack into a secondry container or just use the one and bottle from there?

 

[manticle]

Personal experience suggests racking once during the process is a good way to reduce sediment.

Having tried doing it at various points during fermentation for a number of reasons, I now find I get results I want by leaving it in primary until I am about to botle - then I rack to bulk prime.

Thus for me - dry hop in primary (usually while cold conditioning).

 

[peaky]

should you rack into a secondry container or just use the one and bottle from there?

For me everything is done in the primary vessel. I ferment the beer, once fermentation is finished I tip in the dry hops, and bottle from this vessel also.


EDIT: +1 for dry hopping during cold conditioning.

 

[mje1980]

Hop socks, or pantyhose ( boiled and sanitised of course ), mean you don't need to rack to secondary. Yes, i am a lazy brewer.

 

[peaky]

Hop socks, or pantyhose ( boiled and sanitised of course ), mean you don't need to rack to secondary. Yes, i am a lazy brewer.

I'm even lazier. I don't rack or use hop socks or pantyhose. In the hops go, then after several days I bottle.

A while back I a dry hopped a single batch of APA with 120gms of Cascade in the primary (while cold conditioning) with no hop sock etc. Hardly any floaties in the bottles. Disappointing, I was hoping for some hops to be floating around in my beer!

 

[dkaos]

I'm even lazier. I don't rack or use hop socks or pantyhose. In the hops go, then after several days I bottle.

A while back I a dry hopped a single batch of APA with 120gms of Cascade in the primary (while cold conditioning) with no hop sock etc. Hardly any floaties in the bottles. Disappointing, I was hoping for some hops to be floating around in my beer!

I had hops in a fat yak clone once (in the bottle) When I cracked the bottle open, the hops formed a nucleation point for the beer and it gushed everywhere! Don't wish you had it

 

[Fat Bastard]

I'm even lazier. I don't rack or use hop socks or pantyhose. In the hops go, then after several days I bottle.

A while back I a dry hopped a single batch of APA with 120gms of Cascade in the primary (while cold conditioning) with no hop sock etc. Hardly any floaties in the bottles. Disappointing, I was hoping for some hops to be floating around in my beer!

I've just dry hopped with 90g (total) of B Saaz and Pacific Hallertau flowers and it's formed a raft. The last lot I did 40g total and it had a raft too, but they seemed wet through at least. It makes me wonder about the utilisation of flowers in dry hopping and the law of diminishing returns!

 

[peaky]

I've just dry hopped with 90g (total) of B Saaz and Pacific Hallertau flowers and it's formed a raft. The last lot I did 40g total and it had a raft too, but they seemed wet through at least. It makes me wonder about the utilisation of flowers in dry hopping and the law of diminishing returns!

I've never used flowers for dry hopping so I have no idea. Interesting to see how good it works, obviously not so well if a lot of the flowers are sitting high and dry above the beer. I've only used pellets for dry hopping and in my experience they seem to sink straight to the bottom. I would imagine if the flowers are submerged in the beer you would be getting full dry hopping effect :icon_drool2:

 

[Fat Bastard]

I've never used flowers for dry hopping so I have no idea. Interesting to see how good it works, obviously not so well if a lot of the flowers are sitting high and dry above the beer. I've only used pellets for dry hopping and in my experience they seem to sink straight to the bottom. I would imagine if the flowers are submerged in the beer you would be getting full dry hopping effect :icon_drool2:

When I've dry hopped with pellets, I normally use a hop sock or cheap calf high pantyhose and 8 M12 stainless steel nuts. It sinks initially, but it's always floating a week later. When I did the 40g dry flowers the sock wouldn't go through the hole in the cube so I just dumped them in. Didn't get any floaties in the beer at all. It'll be interesting to see how this next one goes!

 

[manticle]

I've dry hopped with flowers, chucked straight in, no problem in terms of flavour, aroma or floaties. However, they do have a tendency to block taps so a loose hop sock or grain bag suffices.

 

[ledgenko]

I have been using Hop flowers in the cube prior to putting the HOT wort into them ... I possibly , stupidly or naively thought this was dry hopping .. but Damn it smells Good !!!