Dry hop methods

[FirebladeAdam]

I am currently doing a Saison which I'm going to dry hop. I'm only using a plastic bucket as a fermenter, and what I normally do is dry hop with a mesh tube I got from eBay, it's basically a cylindrical mesh cage but my feeling is it's not very efficient, sometimes I find hops still compressed and almost dry in top of it.
Can I just drop them in and when I bottle Syphon carefully?
Thanks lovely knowledgeable crowd

 

[The Baron]

Yes you can some brewers drop the dry hops in altogether and relie on a cold crash for them to drop to the bottom so you could do that method or you could dry hop in your tube and add any excess to one of those veggie bags you get at the supermarket for 25/30p and add in some SS dessert spoons to weigh the hops down so they do not float.
Ps tie a bit of fishing line to the bag and hang it outside the bucket to help retrieving it easy

 

[FirebladeAdam]

Awesome, yes fishing line is what I use now to retrieve the mesh thing. 'Hop spider' I think is the phrase. Yes I think I'll just chuck em in, then cold crash... How long do I cold crash for?

 

[The Baron]

A couple of days as low a temp as you can, well not below freezing though
Put a filter sock over you syphon tube too and that will help with the transfer

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Awesome, yes fishing line is what I use now to retrieve the mesh thing. 'Hop spider' I think is the phrase. Yes I think I'll just chuck em in, then cold crash... How long do I cold crash for?

Until the beer is clear, 4 days usually does the job.

 

[FirebladeAdam]

Like the idea of a filter sock! I'll make something, I do have those mesh bags for supermarket veg. Thanks

 

[Agentgonzo]

Oooh, weighing down the mesh bag with cutlery is a great idea!

I used 150g of dried hops in a recent brew. I just chucked them in without any bag/mesh tube. Some debris still floated on the surface after fermentation was complete, so the last 4 bottles all have crud in them. I would heartily recommend containing your hops

 

[FirebladeAdam]

Ah ok! I'll use a mixture of bags and tubes!

 

[Braufather]

I am currently doing a Saison which I'm going to dry hop. I'm only using a plastic bucket as a fermenter, and what I normally do is dry hop with a mesh tube I got from eBay, it's basically a cylindrical mesh cage but my feeling is it's not very efficient, sometimes I find hops still compressed and almost dry in top of it.
Can I just drop them in and when I bottle Syphon carefully?
Thanks lovely knowledgeable crowd

I use those tubes. The key is to only fill them about 30 percent because of expansion. Do that and they work well.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Borrowing the thread a little, I plan on doing hopstands for my best/premium bitters. 0.5g/L in the boil for 15 min and then 2g/L for a 20min/80c hop stand.
But I though of doing one batch with said hop schedule, but also adding 0.5g/L in the keg at racking in a teaball or something, and just let it sit until it kicks.
Black Sheep Ale and TT Boltmaker are probably my favourite bitters, and both definitely have a dry hop arome
This modest amount should not give any grassy off flavours even if sitting for a while right?
I naturally carb in the keg so letting the teaball with hops sit in the freezer for a few days to sanitise then just chucking them in with the priming sugar should be no problem.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Just throw the hops in. When you syphon the beer fit one of those small filter socks over the end of the syphon.

This is me using one a few days ago and shows what I’m referring to…

 

[Buffers brewery]

Well, here goes. THE COMPLICATED OPTION.
Firstly, I don’t bottle from the plastic fermentation bucket. If I do bottle it’s from a PB after transfer.
Just transferred a dry hopped pale ale that called for 300 grams of hops, that’s twenty quids worth, for dry hopping.
I use a plastic hopper that I made myself, that holds the hop pellets magnetically under the fermentation bucket lid..pics time..

This shows the hopper fixed by magnets to the underside of the lid and filled with 300 grams of pellets.

This shows the the lid in place. The group of 4 magnets hold the assembly to the lid and the group of 2 magnets secures the hopper in the closed position. Moving the group of 2 releases the hopper and drops the hops into the brew.

The fermentation bucket has a tap in it’s bottom that is connected to a float tube. When it’s time to transfer after cold crashing the float keeps the tube clear of the hop debris and settles onto it when finished.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Just throw the hops in. When you syphon the beer fit one of those small filter socks over the end of the syphon.

This is me using one a few days ago and shows what I’m referring to…

Just what I do except I use a BIAB grain bag as a filter.
I find hop pellets usually form a thick cake on the bottom of the FV after cold crashing whereas whole hops are more of a problem and sit in a raft on the top so usually only use them in the boil.

 

[DocAnna]

Just throw the hops in. When you syphon the beer fit one of those small filter socks over the end of the syphon.

This is me using one a few days ago and shows what I’m referring to…

Or just chill down to zero or thereabouts and it all clears anyway.

 

[Braufather]

Just what I do except I use a BIAB grain bag as a filter.
I find hop pellets usually form a thick cake on the bottom of the FV after cold crashing whereas whole hops are more of a problem and sit in a raft on the top so usually only use them in the boil.

I haven’t used whole hop for a few years but that would actually suit better If they stayed on top as I decant from a tap at the bottom. I guess they would also provide an extra protective layer from oxygen when transferring. Only downside would be the extra veg material,

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Just what I do except I use a BIAB grain bag as a filter.
I find hop pellets usually form a thick cake on the bottom of the FV after cold crashing whereas whole hops are more of a problem and sit in a raft on the top so usually only use them in the boil.

I don’t use leaf hops for dry hopping, in particular for highly hopped beers. This is because of the possibility of oxygen, trapped between the individual leaves, getting into the beer.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Or just chill down to zero or thereabouts and it all clears anyway.

That would certainly help but I don’t have that option currently.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I’ve dry hopped a Mosaic IPA today with the hops in a weighted bag. I transferred the beer to the 2FV then added them. My question is what temperature do I leave the beer at? It’s in the garage at about 11C, I put todays brew into the beer fridge at 19C.

 

[Paul7189]

I’ve dry hopped a Mosaic IPA today with the hops in a weighted bag. I transferred the beer to the 2FV then added them. My question is what temperature do I leave the beer at? It’s in the garage at about 11C, I put todays brew into the beer fridge at 19C.

I usually go for 18-21°C.

 

[Eskdale]

Just a paragraph from Scott Janish you can Google the whole article, makes light reading than Peter Wolfes Thesis.
A Case for Short And Cool Dry Hopping
Using the latest hop science as a guide.

Wolfe’s results indicate that dry hop extraction times are much quicker than most of us originally thought. Even at colder temperatures of 34-39°F (1°C-4°C), Wolfe suggests that extraction could still occur in less than three days. Looking closer at temperatures during dry hopping, a paper tested dry hopping at 39°F (4°C) and 68°F (20°C). Tested linalool solubility over the course of two weeks, the authors found the lower temperature resulted in slightly faster extraction, which peaked around day three, but was near maximum extraction on day two. The warmer temperature followed a similar extraction pattern but was just under the lower temperature’s linalool concentrations. After the full fourteen days, they were both at same levels.