Illustrious brewers,
Brewing my second beer, the Kama Citra IPA.
Dry hopped in the primary four days ago. Remembering now that I had lost the sanitized water in my airlock when adding the dry hops and forgot to refill. I just added vodka to airlock today.
Did I screw my beer with it dry hopping with empty airlock? Here’s how it looks today.
Still has a nice hop aroma. So hoping I’ll be ok, but appreciate any advice!
Thanks,
HoffPint
Odds are you’ll be just fine. It looks good in the photo, and the odds of anything getting in through an empty airlock in four days is probably no more than it getting in with the dry hops, which is to say, pretty low. Plus, the alcohol content of your fermented beer will help to prevent any infection, as opposed to fresh wort which is much more susceptible to infection.
Thanks for the quick reply Marty!
Next concern is whether those dry hops will settle and if I should consider filtering (muslin bag) when transferring to the bottling bucket.
Due to my schedule I might have to bottle tomorrow. Thinking next weekend will be too long a dry hop as it sounds like that gives a more grassy flavor I’d like to avoid.
Success,
HoffPint
I’ve dry hopped both with a bag and without. Without a bag almost all the hops eventually dropped this was on a 1 week dry hop beer. If it doesn’t settle out then I would say use some kind of filter or try to stop the suction when you transfer to your bucket before the hops get to the suction.
