New to dry hopping

Michael_biab · Mar 26, 2018

I haven't dry hopped in a long long time, so essentially I'm considering myself new to it. Yesterday, I dry hopped my barleywine. It had been sitting in the secondary for about a month or so. It's now showing some action (bubbling near the surface, see picture attached) although I don't see much movement in their airlock. Is this normal for those of you who are more familiar with dry hopping? Should I proceed to allow the hops to be in contact with the beer for another 5 days as called for in the recipe? Any other advice? Thanks!

Hawkbox · Mar 26, 2018

It looks fine to me. You're going to have a ton of fun getting that hop sock out of the carboy though.

Nosybear · Mar 26, 2018

Hawkbox said:
It looks fine to me. You're going to have a ton of fun getting that hop sock out of the carboy though.

I rack the beer, then pull the sock out. It's still the challenge but if the sock burst, I don't contaminate the beer.

Hogarthe · Mar 26, 2018

Its just a bit of co2 coming out of solution. Nothing to worry about.

HighVoltageMan! · Mar 27, 2018

Hogarthe said:
Its just a bit of co2 coming out of solution. Nothing to worry about.

Absolutely. This is pretty common to see what looks like fermentation starting up. The vast majority of my pale ale and IPA's do this and I just ignore it. The beer hit it's target gravity, so the beer is de-gassing because of nucleation. The small hop bits create a sharp point for the CO2 to form. This is especially true if the beer is cool (55-60F).

thehaze · Mar 27, 2018

Everything said above is on point, so no need to worry. Brew on!

Michael_biab · Mar 28, 2018

Thanks everyone! Glad to know it's all ok. Now, if I could just stop over/undershooting my target gravity. This started out as an American IPA (1.068) but will end up closer to 1.080 or something approaching a Barley Wine. Oops!