dry hopping without a bag

[Craigerrr]

I guess if you have said bag soaking in sanitizer prior to doing this you should be fine.

 

[Herm brews]

My usual fermentation time is 3 weeks or more, then I bottle. My fermentation closet maintains a pretty consistent 68*F. I want to dry hop, but I don’t have temperature control, and no means of cold crashing, except maybe a tedious ice bath? My West Coast IPA would love to see a healthy dose of Cascade, Centennial and Chinook as dry hops before bottling. What are your suggestions given those parameters, with least loss of beer as possible.

 

[Megary]

My usual fermentation time is 3 weeks or more, then I bottle. My fermentation closet maintains a pretty consistent 68*F. I want to dry hop, but I don’t have temperature control, and no means of cold crashing, except maybe a tedious ice bath? My West Coast IPA would love to see a healthy dose of Cascade, Centennial and Chinook as dry hops before bottling. What are your suggestions given those parameters, with least loss of beer as possible.

You will probably get a lot of different answers to this, but I always look for the easy way out first!

I would just drop your dry hops pellets loose right into primary about 3-4 days before you bottle and see what you think.

 

[Craigerrr]

My usual fermentation time is 3 weeks or more, then I bottle. My fermentation closet maintains a pretty consistent 68*F. I want to dry hop, but I don’t have temperature control, and no means of cold crashing, except maybe a tedious ice bath? My West Coast IPA would love to see a healthy dose of Cascade, Centennial and Chinook as dry hops before bottling. What are your suggestions given those parameters, with least loss of beer as possible.

If your fermenter has the headspace, just increase batch size a bit to compensate for the hop absorption. IIRC you have a speidel. You could use a thread, or fishing line to hang a bag of hops in the fermenter when you pitch, then loosen the lid and lower it in when it is time to dry hop. Easy to remove then as well. Maybe add a marble or two to help it immerse in the beer.
Not sure if this answers your question, but I hope it helps.

 

[Nosybear]

You will probably get a lot of different answers to this, but I always look for the easy way out first!

I would just drop your dry hops pellets loose right into primary about 3-4 days before you bottle and see what you think.

I like to put mine in at high krauesen but still, dumping them in loose is the way to go.

 

[Megary]

I like to put mine in at high krauesen but still, dumping them in loose is the way to go.

That’s a good option as well, but I wonder about Herms leaving his beer in primary for 3 weeks. Would dry hopping at HK be a bit of a waste in this situation?? I’ve never dry hopped that long before packaging, so I’m not sure.

 

[Nosybear]

That’s a good option as well, but I wonder about Herms leaving his beer in primary for 3 weeks. Would dry hopping at HK be a bit of a waste in this situation?? I’ve never dry hopped that long before packaging, so I’m not sure.

There's a limit to extraction. Basically once the hops settle into the trub they're done. I've read of vegetal flavors from the hop matter from dry hopping too long but can't speak to it directly. I happen to like what biotransformation does to hops so I stick to the high krauesen routine.

 

[Herm brews]

I dry hopped my Janet’s Brown Ale with loose pellets in the Speidel. That dry hop addition (~16 grams of Cascade) was in the fermenter for 7 days. When it came time to bottle, I filled only 11 bottles, instead of the usual 14 or 15. The beer ended up tasty, but it was a disappointment to leave behind so much as loss to trub and hop sludge.
For my current batch of West Coast IPA, I am wondering which approach to take. Free floating and dropping, or bag immersion. Luckily, I’ve got another week plus to figure it out.
Like @Megary said, I was bound to get multiple suggestions. There are multiple routes to the destination. Overcome inertia to select a route, see where it leads. Probably down a rabbit hole.

 

[Mark Farrall]

I only bag if I'm worried about blocking something at bottling or dispensing out of the keg. It's pretty hard to block that bottom tap on the Speidels, but enough dry hop will definitely do it. I've done it before and ended up using an auto siphon for that batch, with the end of the auto siphon wrapped in a sanitised hop bag.

These days I've got a fancy connector from Norcal brewing that allows me to attach a floating dip tube, very nice for avoiding any dry hop debris.

 

[Craigerrr]

I dry hopped my Janet’s Brown Ale with loose pellets in the Speidel. That dry hop addition (~16 grams of Cascade) was in the fermenter for 7 days. When it came time to bottle, I filled only 11 bottles, instead of the usual 14 or 15. The beer ended up tasty, but it was a disappointment to leave behind so much as loss to trub and hop sludge.
For my current batch of West Coast IPA, I am wondering which approach to take. Free floating and dropping, or bag immersion. Luckily, I’ve got another week plus to figure it out.
Like @Megary said, I was bound to get multiple suggestions. There are multiple routes to the destination. Overcome inertia to select a route, see where it leads. Probably down a rabbit hole.

If you prefer the end product with the big dry hop, just up your batch size to account for the hop absorption. If are happy with it without the big dry hop, skip it.

 

[Herm brews]

If you prefer the end product with the big dry hop, just up your batch size to account for the hop absorption. If are happy with it without the big dry hop, skip it.

My previous batch of West Coast IPA, I skipped the dry hop addition because of my experience (of loss of finished product) with Janet’s Brown Ale. I found the IPA to be a bit on the fruity side (Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops), and my wife and boss loved that beer. To me, there was something missing, maybe because I did not carry through with the original plan.
Interesting observation just now - my Speidel fermenter, which has had a wedge under the spigot side to get the trub to drop away from the spigot, has trub in the spigot. The trub line opposite the spigot is lower. Is gravity (not of the beer) broken? The krausen line is as expected - lower on the spigot side, much higher on opposite side. Puzzling!?!?!?

 

[Craigerrr]

My previous batch of West Coast IPA, I skipped the dry hop addition because of my experience (of loss of finished product) with Janet’s Brown Ale. I found the IPA to be a bit on the fruity side (Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops), and my wife and boss loved that beer. To me, there was something missing, maybe because I did not carry through with the original plan.
Interesting observation just now - my Speidel fermenter, which has had a wedge under the spigot side to get the trub to drop away from the spigot, has trub in the spigot. The trub line opposite the spigot is lower. Is gravity (not of the beer) broken? The krausen line is as expected - lower on the spigot side, much higher on opposite side. Puzzling!?!?!?

odd

 

[GFHomebrew]

My previous batch of West Coast IPA, I skipped the dry hop addition because of my experience (of loss of finished product) with Janet’s Brown Ale. I found the IPA to be a bit on the fruity side (Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops), and my wife and boss loved that beer. To me, there was something missing, maybe because I did not carry through with the original plan.
Interesting observation just now - my Speidel fermenter, which has had a wedge under the spigot side to get the trub to drop away from the spigot, has trub in the spigot. The trub line opposite the spigot is lower. Is gravity (not of the beer) broken? The krausen line is as expected - lower on the spigot side, much higher on opposite side. Puzzling!?!?!?

Someone Is F,ing with you man! Lol
Hey one other thing you can do to mitigate volume loss is on extra hoppy bears allow that extra bit of wort into fermentor to make up for the hop shrinkage I'm sure the calculator does that anyhow but just thought I'd put it out there.

 

[Herm brews]

I always empty the entire contents of the boil kettle into the fermenter. So I guess on hoppy beers, I need to adjust for more hops absorption, thereby increasing the mash water and pre-boil volumes.

 

[Herm brews]

odd

It is odd - with the spigot port rotated to the upper position (to be above the anticipated trub) the trub is definitely filling the horizontal part of the spigot.

If I try to empty the beer through the spigot, I’m going to be bottling a whole bunch of trub.

The horizontal tube leading to the downspout is actually completely full of trub. Would it do any harm to swirl the fermenter in an attempt to resettle the trub away from the spigot?

 

[Mark Farrall]

It is odd - with the spigot port rotated to the upper position (to be above the anticipated trub) the trub is definitely filling the horizontal part of the spigot.View attachment 13652If I try to empty the beer through the spigot, I’m going to be bottling a whole bunch of trub.

The horizontal tube leading to the downspout is actually completely full of trub. Would it do any harm to swirl the fermenter in an attempt to resettle the trub away from the spigot?

Gentle swirling won't harm it, I suppose the first beer out is for the hydrometer or a cup.

 

[^Tony^]

I've used both a hop sock and free floating my dry hop additions. First off, I have not noticed a flavor difference. I HAVE noticed a larger yield for the final volume; I can usually get at least 1 or 2 extra 650ml bottles if I use a hop sock. The final trub line is lower than if I free float the hops and I can just push the sock out of the way when I siphon, so in the end I get more beer.

I have tried all kinds of different ways to keep hop debris out of the bottles and tubes to maximize yield (some sort of filter over the auto-siphon, propping up the fermenter or bottling bucket, etc) and 9 times out of 10 the bottling wand clogged several times anyway or the flow was so slow it almost doubled the time it took to fill the bottles. If I held the siphon higher than the trub line I could get clear beer but lost more volume than I wanted , if I push it lower I get more beer but more debris. Now I use the sock for IPA's or any dry hop addition of more than 1oz for 6 gallons just to minimize the amount of debris that tends to clog up the tubes and bottle wand. This helps me maximize my final volume and avoids the hassle of a clogged wand.

That said, once I fill the bottles and let them condition for a few weeks any debris that DOES make it to the bottle settles out nicely. Sock or free floating, in the end, as long as I am putting at least a little effort to minimize the amount of floaties that make it to the bottle the final product is usually clear in the glass.

 

[naDinMN]

My usual fermentation time is 3 weeks or more, then I bottle. My fermentation closet maintains a pretty consistent 68*F. I want to dry hop, but I don’t have temperature control, and no means of cold crashing, except maybe a tedious ice bath? My West Coast IPA would love to see a healthy dose of Cascade, Centennial and Chinook as dry hops before bottling. What are your suggestions given those parameters, with least loss of beer as possible.

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