Evil dog, hopped too early, what can I do?

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Brett74

Brett74

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I have been fermenting my first kit, the Bulldogs Evil Dog, for 18days now, it had an OG of 1064 and all went well have dry hopped after 16 days and 3 days @ 1011, but when the hops went in it started up again, thought I would bottle now on Sat, woke up today and it was stil going strong and has dropped to 1010. My problem is I leave for 2 weeks of work on Monday, so the next chance to bottle isn't until 2 weeks time, can I order new hops pellets and re-hop 2 days before bottling? What would you do?
Should I take out the 2 bags if I leave it for another 2 weeks?
 
I would take out the hops and then leave it, I probably would not add any more hops to it and just bottle it when I next had the time
 
+1. Take out hops (you can leave them in but the flavour might go "grassy" after a long soak), make sure the vessel it's in is well closed and has an airlock fitted (I guess that's already done and its the airlock telling you its still fermenting), bottle when you get back. 18 days it quite a short period to think about bottling so leaving it is no bad thing.
 
If you had a spare FV you could decant your brew into it, seal it up, then bottle when you get home again.
I do the same thing with a spare, none gas-tight pressure barrel, occasionally when I'm waiting for enough bottles to be empty.
 
I would just bottle it now. If it has reached 1.010 from 1.064 it won't be 'going strong' any more. Dry hopping can release CO2 as it gives the bubbles lots of nucleation sites, meaning you might get some airlock activity but it isn't going to drop in gravity much any more. I would be very surprised if it went below 1.010.

Transferring the beer and leaving it for a couple of weeks risks infection. I'd get it bottled and safely tucked away so that you can crack your first bottle when you get home.

If you did leave it then by all means take the hops out but I recently left a beer with dry hops in for 20 days without ill effect.
 
I would probably bottle it tomorrow, or rack it and bottle on return. But as others say, it is now pretty much fermented out and will be fairly resilient now.
 
Sorry guys, forgot to mention that, it is already in secondary...thanks for all the replies, keep em coming!
 
Still not sure but I will take another reading this afternoon if it is still 1010, I think I will bottle it, I think....🍾
 
Brett74 said:
Still not sure but I will take another reading this afternoon if it is still 1010, I think I will bottle it, I think....������
Click to expand...
Relax.

It's safe in a secondary that's obviously air tight (because you imply the airlock bubbles) and the beer is destined to be bottled. A couple more weeks will probably be a benefit. The only disadvantage is there wont be any bottles to open when you come back in a fortnight (but a 1.064 beer could probably do with a couple of months in a bottle anyway).

What wont be a benefit is interfering with it; taking the lid off to take gravity readings, letting in air, ...
 
Wow, just checked it now, 1008! Think I am going to leave it and see, some guys have had it go as low as 1004! Will remove the hops and just bottle it when I get home in 2 weeks.
 
A lot of differing advice so I'll just add my experience with this brew. 23 days fermenting and finished at 1.006, I decided to use a 1 litre flip-top bottle for a trial beer to be drunk first and added a level spoonful of sugar to it. (I now do batch priming).

I went away on holiday for a week and came back to bits of glass all over the kitchen and the laminate flooring bulging at the joints from liquid damage. Several lessons learnt in one go for me, my review of the finished beer is less than complimentary too.
 
Brett74 said:
OK, so it's racked to thirdendary now without hops...
Click to expand...

Could be "tertiary"?

Anyway, the beer is slightly more important than the terminology on a brewing forum. I usually add a few grams of sugar to a racked beer to push out the air with CO2. Never seen anyone else do that, though. :whistle:
 
Even in tertiary it us still bubbling away, going to be interesting to see what I come home to in two weeks....like that idea of just waking the yeast a bit with the sugar though....
 

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