I will be doing a pale ale here fairly soon and I was wondering if you can dry hop in primary. I can use a secondary if need be, however its not the greatest as far as possible oxidation… theres a lot of head space in my bucket.
What I was planning on doing is dry hopping in the primary (I use a carboy) and I was gonna use pellets. can I just drop the pellets in without a hop bag? I bottle so I would need to siphon off the trub anyway after a couple days.
Thoughts?
Before I started keg hopping I would dry hop in the primary after fermentation was complete. I just threw the hop pellets in. When they settled out is normally when I would package.
That’s what I was thinking I would do. You never had issues with this? Hop flavor came through allright?
Personally, I dislike the interaction you can get between yeast and hops and always remove the beer from the yeast before dry hopping.
I never had problems however that was back when I would dramatically under hop all hoppy styles. They were pretty lackluster back then but that was purely due to not using enough hops…
I believe some prefer results when the beer is clear and off the yeast.
What kind of results did you get? weird flavors?
I may end up doing the primary in the bucket and the secondary in glass since theres less of a chance of oxidation in that thing. Less headspace for the most part.
Yeah, weird floral flavors and aromas.
hmm. Ok thanks. Ill probably end up fermenting in my bucket and then dry hopping in glass then. Wish I had some C02 to purge the carboy with. don’t have a tank… should prolly get me one one of these days
I dry hop in primary. Turns out fine in my experience. I tend to use pellets.
As a homebrewer, you are obligated to try dry hopping in every way imaginable. Eventually, you will settle on your preferred method. Various dry hopping methods produce different results. All methods are good according to someone.
Well said.
For me… whirlpool gives me plenty of aroma. I quit dry hopping
^this. Again, agree with you Jim. I don’t know you but I’d love to collab with you. Actually nevermind. We’d probably still make the same beer we make already.
Ha! Could be
There are wrong ways (oxidation) and right ways. Big brewery has all sorts of contraptions to try and add hops without oxygen. If you are losing hop character at all during aging(within say 6 or so months), that would be the wrong way.
I’m dry hopping during the spund right now. Looking forward to seeing what I think.
Same here for the most part. Whirlpool gets me what I’m looking for in 95% of my beers. The rare instances where I do a dry hop is in primary.
The #1 problem with dry hopping is the introduction of oxygen. When you drop those pellets in they will drag o2 down with them. On commercial batches I have been using a 15 gallon yeast brink, adding all my hops and then purging that vessel with co2, letting some beer flow into the brink from the tanks and then blowing that back into the fermentor with the hops. This vastly improves shelf life and hop flavor stability.
If you have c02 you can add your hops to a secondary vessel (carboy or corny keg), purge that vessel with co2 and then rack your beer onto the hops to the same effect I mentioned above. Or you can add the hops to the primary vessel just near the end of fermentation so that the yeast scrubs the o2. Arguably if there is still yeast in the fermentor you will have a different hop character like Denny mentions. There is actually a theory out there called “Bio transfomation” which is what the “cloudy IPA” rage is all about but you will have to google that for more info.
The other problem with that latter method is you can expect to lose some hop flavor and aroma when the yeast eventually settles out because the hop resins bind to the yeast cell and fall out with them.
I will edit this to add: I tried to get away from dry hopping but there is nothing to compare with that aroma. It is well worth it.
To really purge you should try and put a vacuum on your yeast brink. Do a triple cycle of vac/purge. It will get your DO levels even lower.
I find whirlpool hops help keep the beer tasty for longer, but dry hopping makes for a much tastier beer. I dry hop in the keg using a stainless dry hopper or bags.
Excellent advice!