Advice for first time dry hopping

[Andrew Dixon]

Hi,

I brewed a clone of the Mash Up this on Sunday (recipe here).  This is the first beer I've brewed that involves dry hopping so I could use a little advice in getting it right.

I'm brewing in a plastic bucket fermenter and I don't use a secondary.  The hops I'll be using are pellets.

My questions:

From what I've read so far I should just wait until fermentation has nearly finished and then just throw the hops into the fermenter (advice seems to be split on whether to use a hop bag or not).  Is this what others here do?  Or is there a better option?

How long should I then leave the beer before bottling (I've read everything from 3 days to 2 weeks)?  How long does it take for the hops to settle in the fermenter?

Anything else I should know about?

 

Thanks

Andy

[Smiffy]

For simplicity and consistency, I dry-hop after one week then bottle/keg after another week.

If using a bag, make sure it is big enough for the hop pellets to still have plenty of space after they swell up. (Don't forget to sterilize the bag.)

Without a bag, some of the hop solids sink, and some float. This can result in some getting into some bottles. I overcame this by adding a stainless steel gauze strainer to the inside of the fermenter tap.

[Sam]

I did this same recipe. I dry hopped around 3-4 days directly in the primary, and then for various reasons wasn't around to bottle it for three weeks! I don't think it suffered much, if anything flavour/aroma/bitterness might have lessened due to that extended time... I have nothing to compare it with, so time for an experiment perhaps!

The bonus to leaving the hops in for this period of time was that they had sunk to the bottom and so I had no hop particles in my bottles or in the siphon...

[Tim]

Hi Andy,

I'm interested to know how you got on with your Mash Up brew? Tasty?

I was contemplating having a crack at it but don't seem to be able to get any Riwaka hops at present.

Cheers, Tim 

[Ralph]

You will have big trouble finding Riwaka this year. The crop was not good and they do  not appear to be on the market for homebrewers.

I would suggest substituting something like Motueka.

[Tim]

I've got a brew in the fermenter currently where I've made liberal use of Motueka so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

[Chris P]

Hi Tim at present only the breweries have Riwaka and the next lot isnt due till next year. I will be in line for some when they come back as I started brewing when the shortage had already struck. Also only had one go with Amarillo so may need to go to Craftbrewer and get some sent over at some point.