I did my first dry on my last brew an American Pale Ale. It tastes fantastic, but i had an awful time trying to keep the hops from transferring to the bottling bucket and subsequently to the a few of the bottles. I would prefer not to use a hops bag because i am using carboys for all fermentation stages, and trying to stuff the bag into the carboy just screams risk of contamination do to excessive handling. I have seen mention that cold crashing would cause the hops sediment to go to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. Assuming that this will work for someone who bottles beer instead of kegging, what is the proper procedure.
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Dry Hopping and Hop Sediment in bottle.
- Thread starter cheffriz
- Start date
sbbish
Master Brewer
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- Jan 30, 2011
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I can't tell you a "proper procedure" but I can tell you what I have done with success.
My first batch of dry hopping, I just added the hop pellets directly to secondary like you did. I left it for a couple of weeks to let as much settle to the bottom as possible, and that worked okay.
My next batch, I used a small hop sock (bag). I added 5 or 6 glass marbles to the hop sock (for weight) and soaked the whole thing in a bowl of cheap vodka for the afternoon. That sanitized the marbles and bag sufficiently. I then dumped the hop pellets into the sock, tied a knot in the top, and had no trouble stuffing it all into the mouth of the carboy.
I did not have any problem with contamination, and the vodka soaked bag coated the mouth of the carboy on the way down. I actually had more issues getting it OUT of the carboy after I'd eventually racked to my bottling bucket, since the hop pellets swell. But at that point, sanitation is not an issue and I used one of those claw/pincher tool grabbers to reach down into the carboy and yank it out.
As a side note, the marbles were initially enough weight to pull the whole bundle to the bottom (I didn't want the hop sock just floating on top the whole time). After a couple of days, the hop pellets had swelled and the bundle floated slowly to the top, but continued to rise and fall inside the carboy. By the time Secondary was finished and I was ready to bottle, the bundle had settled back to the bottom to stay.
Scott
My first batch of dry hopping, I just added the hop pellets directly to secondary like you did. I left it for a couple of weeks to let as much settle to the bottom as possible, and that worked okay.
My next batch, I used a small hop sock (bag). I added 5 or 6 glass marbles to the hop sock (for weight) and soaked the whole thing in a bowl of cheap vodka for the afternoon. That sanitized the marbles and bag sufficiently. I then dumped the hop pellets into the sock, tied a knot in the top, and had no trouble stuffing it all into the mouth of the carboy.
I did not have any problem with contamination, and the vodka soaked bag coated the mouth of the carboy on the way down. I actually had more issues getting it OUT of the carboy after I'd eventually racked to my bottling bucket, since the hop pellets swell. But at that point, sanitation is not an issue and I used one of those claw/pincher tool grabbers to reach down into the carboy and yank it out.
As a side note, the marbles were initially enough weight to pull the whole bundle to the bottom (I didn't want the hop sock just floating on top the whole time). After a couple of days, the hop pellets had swelled and the bundle floated slowly to the top, but continued to rise and fall inside the carboy. By the time Secondary was finished and I was ready to bottle, the bundle had settled back to the bottom to stay.
Scott
shane
Master Brewer
Try putting your carboy in the fridge for 48 hrs before racking into your bottling bucket.(Lagering) This drops everything including clearing up the beer. I also dryhopped with whole leaf hops in a bag with a carboy. I twisted the bag tight and "screwed it in" the carboy.It opens right up and getting it out is not that tough. After you've racked the beer in your bottling bucket put some water in the carboy flip it ,grab a piece of the bag with a knife and cut it open. Shake the carboy with the water in it and the hops comes out of the bag and pour out. I've done this Atleast 15 times and never a problem .Either way works easily, just depends what you have on hand.
Hopmonster
Apprentice
I ve used a grain sock and tied it to the end of the transfer tubing to act as a hop filter, you can do this when transfering from your boil pot to fermenter or you can wait and do it at the end when transfering out of your secondary to your bottling bucket works great and the small grain socks are cheap, i just boil them for 15min to sterilize them. good luck!
mstrblstrpstr
Apprentice
i had this problem on the second batch i made. i had used pellet hops and they mixed with the proteins that fell out of solution and made a nasty mess. what i did was this: put 1/2 gallon of water into my brew pot, along with a ruler and large, fine-mesh strainer. put the lid securely on, and boiled the water for 10 minutes. basically turned the brew pot into an autoclave. i then poured all of the young beer through the filter, clearing as needed. from there, i mixed in the priming malt extract and bottled. worked well, but as expected i still got yeast sediment in the bottle.