Dry hopping with pellets.

[Bazz]

Hi all, i'm looking to swapping over to pellets for my dry hopping, is it better to contain them or just chuck them loose into the fermenter? I won't be re-using the yeast slurry so that's of no concern, but having not used pellets to any great extent before i'm unsure as to whether they float or sink and whether the beer will clear with just crash cooling.

Thanks.

[alexlark]

Hi Bazz, Similar question being discussed here:

viewtopic.php?p=844843#p844843

[guypettigrew]

Recently I've started dry hopping with pellets, but in the King Keg, not the FV. My experience is they happily sink to the bottom. I was worried they might stay suspended in the finished beer.

Mind you, I do use auxiliary and isinglass finings in the KK, which might explain why the pelleted hops sink so well.

Guy

[Kev888]

These days I never bag pellets in the FV; I like them to float around freely infusing the beer. They mostly sink given time and any that do remain floating are at the top, so racking off the beer in between isn't too difficult. Sometimes you can get gas buoying them up, but a bit of a stir helps.

That said, I don't normally make insanely hopped NEIPAs so wouldn't necessarily know if these find any limits.

[alexlark]

I've used the same method with highly hopped DIPAs Kev and no issues here.

[Kev888]

Thanks, thats good to know!

[orlando]

If you are not looking to recover the yeast it gives you the option to "layer" your dry hopping. There is growing evidence that early dry hopping, when the yeast are still highly active, creates different flavours and aromas than later hopping, called biotransformation. Try it and see what effects you achieve. Bagging the pellets will reduce the exposure to the fermenting Beer and reduce aroma extraction. Remember though dry hopping does introduce slight bitterness even though it doesn't undergo isomerisation.

[Bazz]

Thanks all, i'll try chucking them in loose when i get round to brewing my next hoppy pale ale.

[nigelnorris]

They're going to clag up your syphon, have a little nylon bag handy to wrap around and use as a filter.

[LeeH]

You will need to cold crash if only dry hopping for a few days. They take a while to sink through and settle.




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[ArmChair]

I add pellets into the FV loosely, usually when the beer has dropped to 1020, this helps reduce any oxygen getting into the beer, then i cold crash to 7c for 3-4 days, then transfer to conditioning tank, where it would sit for another week before packaging.

Sometimes i might add co2 to the FV and rouse the pellets when fermentation is complete.

[orlando]

I add pellets into the FV loosely, usually when the beer has dropped to 1020, this helps reduce any oxygen getting into the beer

Earlier means the yeast scavenges the oxygen introduced with the pellets, later there are less viable yeast to do so. 1.020 is a reasonable compromise, it just depends on what you are trying to achieve with the dry hopping. Earlier is more about biotransformation (converting geraniol to citranellol), which changes the type of hop aroma and flavour, later is more about aroma.

[LeeH]

I add pellets into the FV loosely, usually when the beer has dropped to 1020, this helps reduce any oxygen getting into the beer, then i cold crash to 7c for 3-4 days, then transfer to conditioning tank, where it would sit for another week before packaging.

Sometimes i might add co2 to the FV and rouse the pellets when fermentation is complete.

Do you not let is sit a fermentation temp?

I read an article that did a side by side comparison and the warmer dry hop results were favourable.


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[PeeBee]

I'll use pellets to dry hop (sometimes) and tend to do it in the secondary. Pellets sink and there is not much chance of introducing oxygen as it has been pressed out.

But I do "bag" (not really, I "cage") them for the quite unfounded reason that by adding them loose they sink into the yeast sediment and are rendered ineffective . I'll bag whole dry hops too (with marbles as weights) 'cos they'll just float dry on the surface.

Here's a small "cage" (3" sphere, but I have 300x70 cages too). It only holds about 20-25g of pellets and has a Fermentasaurus float attached to keep it out of the sediment.

[ArmChair]

I add pellets into the FV loosely, usually when the beer has dropped to 1020, this helps reduce any oxygen getting into the beer, then i cold crash to 7c for 3-4 days, then transfer to conditioning tank, where it would sit for another week before packaging.

Sometimes i might add co2 to the FV and rouse the pellets when fermentation is complete.

Do you not let is sit a fermentation temp?

I read an article that did a side by side comparison and the warmer dry hop results were favourable.


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Sorry lee, I should have said when the beer is near FG I put on chill. Due to the volume of beer I usually put on chill 2 points above FG