Hi. I’m ready to take my Rye IPA from bucket to carboy for secondary and my recipe calls for dry hopping at this stage with 2oz Cascade pellets. The kit also came with two grain bags. I’ve not dry hopped a brew yet so I wanted to know if I sure bag these pellets or let 'em loose in my carboy for the next part of the journey. Thank you.
I like to just drop them straight in, if you put to much hops in the bag its hard to get out so you would have to split it into two bags. If you just drop them in they will settle out eventually it helps it you cold crash it for 24 hours.
Either way will work. As gdtech said, a cold crash could help with clarity. So might bagging the hops. If you do bag them (which I normally do), make sure you soak the bag in some sanitizer prior to dropping it in the beer. The hops are good to go right out of the foil pouch.
UPDATE question…So I threw in my 2oz of Cascade pellets about 10 days ago and there remains a crown of hops. Should I rack it out now - for bottling - or should I continue to wait until all the hops drop down (unsure how long that might take)
Thanks!
[quote=“GGriffin”]UPDATE question…So I threw in my 2oz of Cascade pellets about 10 days ago and there remains a crown of hops. Should I rack it out now - for bottling - or should I continue to wait until all the hops drop down (unsure how long that might take)
Thanks![/quote]
The hops may or may not drop down to the bottom of the fermenter. In my experience sometimes all the hop particles end up sinking to the trub. Other times, they stay on the surface and I rack around them. The appearance on the surface shouldn’t be the reason you rack.
Two things to consider. First, is 10 days the duration you intended to dry hop? I think 10 days is a good time to rack. Some have stated that there is a concern with getting grassy flavors if the dry hopping goes on for too long. You don’t need to worry about that after 10 days, but you have probably extracted most of what you were hoping to get from the hops by this point.
Second, what’s your schedule? Do you have time to rack the beer today? If so, go ahead and do it. If not, tomorrow or the next day is fine too. I normally try to follow my plan for each step, but I don’t worry about it if the schedule needs to be adjusted by a few days either way.
In my opinion, the bottom line is “did you get what you wanted from the hops”. If the beer has the hop flavor you are looking for then it is mainly an issue of convenience. Enjoy the beer.
