I just dry hopped for the first time last week (four days ago today). I just dropped the hops in the wide mouth fermentor and put the lid back on. That was for a blonde ale (CHB) that is still resting and waiting to be kegged.
In the meantime I did an all grain 5 gallon batch of Northern Brewer’s Kama Citra. Hit my OG on the dot at 1.050. I have higher hopes for Kama Citra and want to make sure I don’t screw up dry-hopping. (1 oz cascade 1 oz citra)
I guess I have three options currently. 1. take the airlock off and drop in the hops in w/o transferring. 2. Transfer and then drop the hops in (exactly like I did with the blonde CHB or 3. Dry-hop in my Corny keg.
I’ve heard good things about dry-hopping in the keg IF you can remove the hops when it starts tasting the way you want. I bought some bags and can rig it up with a stainless weight to get it to the bottom, but keep a string tied up THROUGH the seal of the lid to remove the whole bag when needed.
Any suggestions? In a few months I plan on upgrading to a pressure sealed fermentor with a hop addition sight glass, but for now I have to decide on the simple method of open lid drop in (exposing to Oxygen for short time) or try the dry hop in the keg route.
As you have discovered there are a lot of ways to skin this cat.
If I only add one dry hop charge, I like to dry hop in the primary fermenter a few points shy of FG when fermentation is still active. That way, I don’t get so concerned w/ inadvertent oxidation b/c fermentation CO2 can purge the headspace for me. After three days, I then close loop xfer to a keg.
I haven’t found opening the fermenter for the 3 seconds it takes me to dry hop to cause any oxidation issues, so I wait til fermentation is done, lower the temp to 35-40F, and dry hop in primary.
Hi Nate. Welcome to the world of dry hopping! As Denny said, I wouldn’t worry too much about popping the top off the fermenter for a brief amount of time. I started out using the bag of hops with sterilized marbles and a stainless coated magnet inside the fermenter (above the wort). By removing the corresponding exterior magnet, I could drop the hop bag into the wort whenever I wanted without opening the fermenter. After forgetting to set that up one time, I just opened the wide-mouth plastic fermenter and dropped in the hop pellets. Neither I, my friends (who think my beers are great because it’s free) or competitions I’ve entered noticed any difference. I still am diligent about O2 during transfer to the keg. Since you mentioned kegging, I do sometimes dry hop in the keg as you described so I can empty the fermenter sooner. Using the string method, I have realized that after a few pints, the beer level gets below the suspended bag of hops and there is no need to remove the bag before the keg kicks. Again, that’s more for convenience rather that oxygen worries. I only bottle for competitions and my beers don’t stick around too long. I think a lot of our worries are based on pro brewer concerns when long-term packaging and distribution come into play.
All I do is dry hop in keg. I am drinking this beer that I brewed in January when I added dry hops Don’t open the keg to retrieve the hops. My experience has been the hop aroma and flavor saturates and does not increase over long periods of time.
This beer has 2 oz of Mosaic pellets again dryhopping since mid January and is a joy to drink
