39 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

BrewWho mentioned dry hopping in another thread and I mentioned that I'm trying to get better at it. I don't have a lot of experience with it but I will do it occasionally. First, the timeline has always been confusing for me and the timing to get the beer to the taps can be tricky too because you really want the beer on tap while the dry hop character is fresh. In the thread about the recipe I got from a commercial brewer, he mentioned that adding dry hops to cold beer in a keg can bring out much more vegetal character (my experience) than when you add hops to room-temp beer. Also, adding the hops to room temp beer brings out much more of the essential oil that you want. I have never heard this. So what other pearls of wisdom do you guys have? How long do you leave the dry hops, is there some wiggle-room? Pellets or whole/leaf hops? I always have pellets [only] and would probably use them here too. Does the timeframe change based on how many hops you're adding as a dry hop? What happens with multiple dry hops? Give me your dry hop bullets, if you please.

[HVB]

I am sure I DH different than most.

• First addition added to primary as fermentation slows
• that addition stays in for 4-5 days, no more than 5.  This is typically done at 65.
• After Day 5 I will move the beer to a keg, closed transfer with CO2, with a cut dip tube and a SS dryhopper with the second addition and some biofine.
• That says in for 4-5 days at cellar temps with some CO2 pressure on the keg.  If too low I will warm the keg.
• After 5 days I push that beer to a serving keg, chill and carbonate.

I will use both pellets and leafs depending on what I have on hand.  I do not like to leave hops in the keg while I sever.  Nothing wrong with it I just do not like it.

Edited by drez77, 21 January 2015 - 09:56 AM.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I don't have a standard process yet. I'm going to try something new for the DCRIPA I brewed a couple weeks ago. I'm going to add hops every other day until I get to two weeks of dry hopping. Then chill and keg the beer through my hop rocket. It ought to be well hopped by then.

[positiveContact]

I say start out with a fairly basic dry hop procedure and do it once in the bright tank for 5-7 days at cool but not cold temps.

 

I've done a fair amount of keg dry hopping at cold temps.  I have not experienced excessive grassy flavors from doing this.  I think dry hopping warmer gives you a bigger initial hop burst but for whatever reason this initial hop burst dies down really quick for me and settles into a place not much different than when I dry hopped cold.  I think you do get some different flavors/aromas out of the hops at warmer temps that could be better or worse depending on what you are going for.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I have a question - does anyone worry about using gloves when they throw their dry hops in the beer? I know that hops are naturally anti microbial, but to what extent? Personally I've never used gloves and have never noticed contamination in my beer after dry hopping. I don't always touch the hops, but sometimes I do. 

[positiveContact]

I have a question - does anyone worry about using gloves when they throw their dry hops in the beer? I know that hops are naturally anti microbial, but to what extent? Personally I've never used gloves and have never noticed contamination in my beer after dry hopping. I don't always touch the hops, but sometimes I do. 

 

I avoid touching them.  I usually pour them out of the bag into a "clean" plastic container on a scale.  then I pour them into the beer or sanitized hop straining device.

[Big Nake]

I have a question - does anyone worry about using gloves when they throw their dry hops in the beer? I know that hops are naturally anti microbial, but to what extent? Personally I've never used gloves and have never noticed contamination in my beer after dry hopping. I don't always touch the hops, but sometimes I do.

I always wonder about sanitation when dry hopping which may be another reason I don't do it often. I get a muslin bag and pour the hops directly from the 1-oz foil bag(s) into the muslin bag, carefully tie it shut and drop it in. I will probably be adding this to any future beers after the beer has been sitting in secondary (as opposed to putting the bag of hops in the secondary and racking on top) because I can control the timing of the beer getting into the keg better. I can't remember a time when I botched up a batch of beer by adding dry hops so I think it's relatively safe.

[HVB]

I avoid touching them.  I usually pour them out of the bag into a "clean" plastic container on a scale.  then I pour them into the beer or sanitized hop straining device.

same for me

[Big Nake]

Would anyone consider putting a muslin bag into Starsan before filling it with hops and putting it into the beer? Overkill?

[positiveContact]

I always wonder about sanitation when dry hopping which may be another reason I don't do it often. I get a muslin bag and pour the hops directly from the 1-oz foil bag(s) into the muslin bag, carefully tie it shut and drop it in. I will probably be adding this to any future beers after the beer has been sitting in secondary (as opposed to putting the bag of hops in the secondary and racking on top) because I can control the timing of the beer getting into the keg better. I can't remember a time when I botched up a batch of beer by adding dry hops so I think it's relatively safe.

 

you aren't worried about your lake MI water in the racking hose but you are worried about dry hopping? 

 

Would anyone consider putting a muslin bag into Starsan before filling it with hops and putting it into the beer? Overkill?

 

I do it.  pretty cheap insurance.

[neddles]

I avoid touching them.  I usually pour them out of the bag into a "clean" plastic container on a scale.  then I pour them into the beer or sanitized hop straining device.

This. I don't touch them. Although I should say that I usually sanitize my hands with a spray of rubbing alcohol before touching anything I might be worried about.

 

 

I am sure I DH different than most.

• First addition added to primary as fermentation slows
• that addition stays in for 4-5 days, no more than 5.  This is typically done at 65.
• After Day 5 I will move the beer to a keg, closed transfer with CO2, with a cut dip tube and a SS dryhopper with the second addition and some biofine.
• That says in for 4-5 days at cellar temps with some CO2 pressure on the keg.  If too low I will warm the keg.
• After 5 days I push that beer to a serving keg, chill and carbonate.

I will use both pellets and leafs depending on what I have on hand.  I do not like to leave hops in the keg while I sever.  Nothing wrong with it I just do not like it.

 

This is basically my procedure up until the clarifying step drez takes. I don't clarify my dry hopped beers. That said, if you want clarity after a dry hop, I think Drez has a very solid procedure for doing so. And, his pics are the evidence. 

I will add that I have dry hopped warm and cold and I have removed hops from the keg and I have left them in. I have also dry hopped for long periods and short. I have not found grassy flavors from any one or any combination of those factors. Until proven otherwise I am now of the mindset that grassy flavors from dry hopping comes either from grassy (read:shitty) hops or from people not waiting for the tannins/polyphenols introduced in dry hopping to crash out. 

 

One last thing Ken, I know you like gelatin. I would not gelatin anything with dry hops. Drez says Biofine does not strip hop flavor from the beer and I trust he is correct. I haven't tried it. But I will not touch another dry hopped beer with gelatin again. IME it takes out almost everything you just put into it with the dry addition.

[Big Nake]

you aren't worried about your lake MI water in the racking hose but you are worried about dry hopping? 

The LM water has a good amount of chlorine in it and nothing is living in there. Plus... I send that water to a container and then only wort/beer goes where it's supposed to.

[neddles]

you aren't worried about your lake MI water in the racking hose but you are worried about dry hopping? 

If you smelled the mount of chlorine added to that water you wouldn't worry either.

[Big Nake]

One last thing Ken, I know you like gelatin. I would not gelatin anything with dry hops. Drez says Biofine does not strip hop flavor from the beer and I trust he is correct. I haven't tried it. But I will not touch another dry hopped beer with gelatin again. IME it takes out almost everything you just put into it with the dry addition.

I would probably send the beer to secondary with a gel solution first. When I knew it was close to getting that beer on tap, I would dry hop it then (after the gel did some work) and go for the 10-14 days, rack to keg and go from there. If any haziness presented itself from the dry hopping, clarity be damned. Something tells me that I would be okay with that small level of cloudiness.

[HVB]

Would anyone consider putting a muslin bag into Starsan before filling it with hops and putting it into the beer? Overkill?

I have spritzed the hop bags before but these days I do not use them.  I just dump the hops in for the most contact.

[neddles]

Would anyone consider putting a muslin bag into Starsan before filling it with hops and putting it into the beer? Overkill?

I just dump them in primary. For the keg I put them in a sanitized nylon bag. Muslin is cotton, no? Seems like it would absorb a significant amount of sanitizer. Cant say for sure.

 

I would probably send the beer to secondary with a gel solution first. When I knew it was close to getting that beer on tap, I would dry hop it then (after the gel did some work) and go for the 10-14 days, rack to keg and go from there. If any haziness presented itself from the dry hopping, clarity be damned. Something tells me that I would be okay with that small level of cloudiness.

 

That sounds like a solid way of doing it with just one unknown in my mind. I don't know hop much non-dry hop flavor is being removed with gelatin. That is to say, I would have a better grasp on the effects of that process if I had gelatined a hoppy but not dry hopped beer. Hope that makes sense. Drez vouches for Biofine, why not give it a try? Biofine cleared up my Red-X beer beautifully but the hopping was extremely light in that beer to begin with.

Edited by nettles, 21 January 2015 - 11:31 AM.

[Big Nake]

I won't pretend to know this definitively but I don't think gel strips out late hop additions. Or I'll put it this way... when I make something like my Amarillo-Citra APA where 4 ounces of hops are added to the kettle in the last 10 minutes, the beer is sent to secondary with a gel solution and the late-hop character is intact, AFAIK. I can't comment on whether gel strips out dry hop flavor/aroma because I haven't done it enough. I have an AAA on tap right now with Mt. Hood hops used for bittering and then a bunch of late Santiam hops in the last 10-15 minutes and it's clear as can be and has a great late hop character. But... I wouldn't risk it on a dry-hopped beer so I would probably use the approach I mentioned and I think I would be happy with it.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I've done it a bunch of ways, but I'm space restricted so I'm going to have to put on some sanitized gloves to dry hop the DCRIPA. (not enough head room).

[Big Nake]

With some of these ideas bouncing around in my head, I think I'll consider nettles' caveat on the gel. With the amount of hops going into the kettle and the extra work being done with the whirlpooling and steeping, I would hate to have gel take any of that away (I don't know that it would but just in case). I might go with primary and allow things to settle a little bit in the primary and then send it to secondary and let it naturally settle, then do the dry hop. With the water and pH adjustments I've been making lately, my beers have gotten clearer and clearer and it's possible that the beer would be clear without it. I had a few batches that sat in primary for 4-5 weeks which is not normal for me. It was the holidays and then I went on vacation. As a result, when I sent those beers to secondary (a batch of MLPA and a "Pale Bock"), they were filtered-like clear coming out of primary. So I may just screw the gel on this Amarillo-Citra beer I posted in the recipe forum.

[BarelyBrews]

Would anyone consider putting a muslin bag into Starsan before filling it with hops and putting it into the beer? Overkill?

 

I do this now. I had one bad DH experience (mold on the bag that floated) and after that i dip in starsan every time (with no problems since).

 

The last brew i tapped. I DH for 23 days (3oz pellets in a muslin bag- loaded w/ 20 or so sanitized Marbles.) It is a great tasting beer. And the hops came through nicely , without any grassy notes.And the beer was in the mancave around 50-55 degrees.