Fellow Home brewers,
I will be brewing a Pale ale that calls for dry hopping.
The original 6 gal recipe calls for 10 days dry hopping. I will be scaling down the recipe to 1.5 gallons.
How many days should I dry hop a 1.5 gallon batch ? I will be using pellet hops for the recipe. How or will the pellet hops effect the beer versus leaf hops?
Cheers.
Volume won’t change the length of time for the dry hop although FWIW I think a ten day dry hop is a little long for most beers.
Pellets will probably break up on you and turn to sludge. Could be a little messy when racking so consider using a nylon hop sack.
I agree, most of the recipes I have read have been 3-5days dry hopping.
I think I’ll stick to 3 and see what happens.
I have a small conical fermenter so I’m not to worried about sludge.
Thanks for the input.
yeah I’m about 3-4oz in 5gal for 5 days most of the time and happy with that.
I put 1-3 oz. in the serving keg and leave it there til the beer is gone, 2-3 months.
submersed or tied off at certain level so beer level falls below hop bag? just curious as depending on how long your consumption period is. Ive even gone back in with another couple ounces for few days to add more aroma…but always just pull the bag.
Sometimes I put them in loose with a SureScreen over the end of the dip tube. More often I put them in a muslin bag and use monofilament to tie the bag to the diptube so it hangs near, but not on, the bottom of the keg.
I add to keg in a paint strainer bag weighted with marbles and leave in. Sometimes I add more, depending on how long the keg lasts. I dry hop APA @ 2.5-3oz in 5 gallons, AIPA @ 4-6oz (5 gals).
Ya know, you don’t need to weight it. It will drop on its own. Save yourself the time and effort.
I agree mostly Denny, but I’ve had a few bags come up with the top layer of hops not totally dissolved. In the big scheme I doubt it dropped off aroma noticeably. I have an OCD streak. ;D
Thanks for the info gentlemen.
This was my first attempt at a hop burst brew.
All mosaic hops so it can’t be too bad.
R,
Curtdogg.
I always use nylon Knee Highs. They are cheap and efficient. I have dry hopped for as long as 4 weeks with no apparent down side. What am I missing here with the short duration?
You’ll extract the hop character from hops in just a few days - less than 5 IMO. Past that, some people who keg hop (like me) leave the hops in keg and don’t notice a negative to doing it. Others feel that leaving the hops in contact with the beer for too long causes a vegetal character in the beer. Boils down to personal preference.
Yes I have heard that about vegetal character but have not noticed it. I generally only dry hop with 1 ounce of pellet.
I don’t necessarily believe a long contact time is a surefire recipe for vegetal flavors and I especially do not believe that is the case at serving temperatures in a keg where the breakdown of the vegetal matter in the hops occurs at a much slower pace. There is probably a volume of hop matter in which a given contact period releases enough vegetal matter that it can be tasted but I suspect the volume necessary over any reasonable contact period would exceed any volume one would use in a beer.
The real issues for me are what is the benefit and what is the harm of a longer contact period during dry hopping? Generally the hop oils are procured from the hops in five days or less and I’m not sure what additional benefit is gained from there. On the other hand, the longer the beer sits at warm temperatures the more young flavors in the beer fade. Does the right balance of time favor a longer dry hop? I think most people would say no.
Dump in the pellets for a few days at fermentation temp. If they are all sitting on the bottom they aren’t really doing much. I guess you can’t see if they’ve fallen out with a conical. Once you chill the beer they usually drop out. Either way, don’t worry about it. But your patience will probably be tested, and I bet you go with a short dry hop. 