RECIPE PLANNING - Couple of new questions

[somethingspecial]

Afternoon all,

Just had a couple of questions re process.

Firstly, having not dry hopped before today is the day and I'm wondering how to go about doing it. I've got some sealed and some unsealed versions of the hop I'm going to use and I'm wondering about sterilisation. Is one better than the other? Do I need to pop them in boiled water and then add? What's the best way to do it to avoid contamination?

Secondly, my previous (and first) effort was quite cloudy and I want this one to be clearer. I've improved some of the process including using a hop bag and I now have a bottling bucket but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do or add at this point to improve clarity or have I missed the boat?

Any and all advice appreciated.

[BrannigansLove]

If you have a brewing fridge, you can cold crash the beer to near 0c to drop particulate material to the bottom of the FV (this works especially well when combined with a gelatine (take a look on the Brulosophy site for method). Beyond that, time and gravity will eventually drop the beer clear.

[orlando]

Dry hopping has been done for centuries so don't worry about sanitation. The reasons for this are the environment they are going into is rather harsh for bacteria as it is now alcoholic, acidic and the bitterness from the boil hops acts as an inhibitor too. As for technique and how to avoid clarity problems I suggest you add them loose or in a hop bag, keep them in longer if they are in a bag. There is a lot of talk about how long and to be honest if you ask 3 brewers you will get 4 answers. No one really knows but I suspect it depends on the hop and temperature, you will just have to experiment but I tend to think 3 days is plenty. At that point crash chill, as advised above, this will not drop out all of the hops but it will help clarity when refrigerating your beer later. The key then is to rack off into a clean and sanitised bucket onto some gelatine, the Malt Miller sells sheets designed for our brew length, and leave for a day or two then rack into bottle or keg, leaving behind the sediment. If your process to this point has ticked all the other boxes you will have the clearest beer short of filtration possible.

[somethingspecial]

Dry hopping has been done for centuries so don't worry about sanitation. The reasons for this are the environment they are going into is rather harsh for bacteria as it is now alcoholic, acidic and the bitterness from the boil hops acts as an inhibitor too. As for technique and how to avoid clarity problems I suggest you add them loose or in a hop bag, keep them in longer if they are in a bag. There is a lot of talk about how long and to be honest if you ask 3 brewers you will get 4 answers. No one really knows but I suspect it depends on the hop and temperature, you will just have to experiment but I tend to think 3 days is plenty. At that point crash chill, as advised above, this will not drop out all of the hops but it will help clarity when refrigerating your beer later. The key then is to rack off into a clean and sanitised bucket onto some gelatine, the Malt Miller sells sheets designed for our brew length, and leave for a day or two then rack into bottle or keg, leaving behind the sediment. If your process to this point has ticked all the other boxes you will have the clearest beer short of filtration possible.

Thanks for the information orlando.

I dry hopped yesterday and by god the beer smelt good when I opened it up.

Can't wait to get this bottled up on Saturday and try it out shortly after.

[MTW]

I didn't see this thread in April, but I hope it goes well.

For my money, your friend in Oz is the one doing it the hard way, starting with extract. My experience with extract (and kits) was most frustrating, for many years, as I was not in control of what was in the extract tins - arguably the main ingredient! The LME often had the same 'kit twang' that as hopped kits, while the first time I made an all grain beer, I just had really good beer that I'd pay money for! I wish I'd gone straight in the 'deep end' from the start.

Nearly all my best all grain beers have tasted good straight out of primary. While there are some flavours that mature and byproducts that calm down over time, if the brew has gone well, recipe aside, it will almost certainly be quaffable out of the primary... not that you should! As a kit and extract brewer, I seemed to be waiting forever for it to suddenly taste like it did from the pub, which it rarely did.

Good luck, and I hope your AG brew persuades your friend to go the the whole hog.