TUTORIAL
Dry-hopping by adding loose hop pellets.
Alternatively you could also use a strainer, which is described in this article.
In this example we brewed our “Intergalactic Pale Ale” and fully fermented it so that it now is ready for dry-hopping. The amount of hops for it according to this recipe is 3.5 grams per liter.
How to:
- You put the loose hop pellets into a separate container and then rack the beer on top. If you lack a second container you may also add the hops to the primary fermentation vessel.
- Then you close the container as you would do for primary fermentation (e.g. with airlock).
- The hops will over time settle at the bottom of the container (provided your beer was fully fermented before).
- The process of the hops settling may take a few days, probably about a week. And you shouldn’t let the beer sit on the hops much longer either. We recommend a contact time of at least two and at most five days.
- As soon as the hops have settled you can bottle (or rack into a keg) your beer from above the sediment of hops and yeast.
- If the finer hop particles don’t settle as desired, you can additionally rack the beer through a strainer (hop bag, tea filter or the like) into a second container from which you then bottle it. Another solution is cooling the beer at the end of the dry-hopping phase (“cold crash” at 1-8°C).
- Attention: Act carefully at every racking process (dip the tube under the surface of the liquid and let it flow slowly) so you don’t loose too much of the CO2 dissolved in the beer and avoid unnecessary contact with oxygen which could cause unwanted oxidation of your beer.
One advantage of this method compared to the option with using a strainer is, that as far as our experience goes you get a little more of the aroma out of the hops into your beer.
Q & A:
When do you best dry hop? Usually you do it after your primary fermentation is completed. When brewing New England Style IPA (NEIPA) dry-hopping is also done during active fermentation
For how long? We recommend a contact time of between 2 and 5 days.
What amount of hops? We recommend amounts from 2g/l for slight aroma to about 7g/l for very strong aroma. Good skills assumed you could even raise this limit even further.
Course of action:
1. Put hops in an empty vessel.
2. Put the young beer on top
3. hops soak with wort and float on top
4. After 5 days nearly all the hops have settled at the bottom
(If not you can filter the beer with a tea or mesh filter before bottling.
If the hops settled out completely you can skip filtering and fill your bottles.)
5. (Optional) Filtering with a tea filter for example.
Cheers!
