Long months no speak but....

[John Garrison]

Running low on my last brew, so thinking heavily about the next....American Ale was the first and I have been drinking them slowly, letting them age to see what develops...on the whole it's all good and drinkable, but development wise I'd say mostly the hops get more and more attenuated, not excessively, just noticeably. Next brew will be dry hopped and I will let them steep a good while to make sure they last. A little experimanetain too.....A lager conditioned at cool room temperature rather than colder....I read it can be done...just wonder if my brewing should have any adjustments to keep it from developing too fast? 

[Rob Courtney]

I'm a bit confused, are you going to make a hop tea and then put it in or just leave the hops in for longer than usual?

[John Garrison]

I'll just put the hops in when brewing is done, setting it for stand by mode. I reckon an hour or two is good enough, and then reset Brewdroid for bottling.

Drinking on one from first batch....it is quite good and now 3 months old give or take.

[Thagomizer]

You must be using BrewArt liquid hop sachets.  Dry hopping is very different.  Usually, pellet dry hops are added at the end of fermentation and left to stew for a few days.  Then the droid will cold crash the brew to clear the hops debris.

[John Garrison]

Ah so, will take that advice!

[Thagomizer]

Another thing just occurred to me. Do you have a dry hop filter?  If not, I suggest that you use a "hop bomb" or a muslin bag to secure your hops. You have, basically, three choices:

• Use the in-line hop filter supplied by BrewArt. Here, you just throw the hop pellets in, so they diffuse freely through the brew, but must be filtered out at bottling/kegging time.
• Use a hop bomb which is basically a large fine-mesh stainless-steel tea strainer.  This is probably the easiest method.  You just throw the pellets into the hop bomb, screw on the lid and dunk it into the brew.  Retrieval is easy.  Just pull it out at kegging.
• The cheapest method is to place the pellets into a muslin bag, then add some weights so it won't float and dunk it.  Another easy retrieval.  The Captain uses this method.

I hope this helps.  Dry hopping is a great way to make excellent beer.

🙂 Happy brewing.

[Steve Gyldenvand]

11 minutes ago, Thagomizer said:

Use a hop bomb which is basically a large fine-mesh stainless-steel tea strainer.  This is probably the easiest method.  You just throw the pellets into the hop bomb, screw on the lid and dunk it into the brew.  Retrieval is easy.  Just pull it out at kegging.

This one does a fine job for me. Amazon purchase.

[Thagomizer]

Yup.  I have three of them.  They work well.

[John Garrison]

I like it! Gadgets are my thing, will get!

[Rob Courtney]

On 01/08/2023 at 6:42 AM, Steve Gyldenvand said:

This one does a fine job for me. Amazon purchase.

So, with this bomb that I bought and had delivered, do you hang it from a chain or just drop it in and if you just drop it in, don't the hops sludge out the top...or are you doing something different?

[Steve Gyldenvand]

42 minutes ago, Rob Courtney said:

So, with this bomb that I bought and had delivered, do you hang it from a chain or just drop it in and if you just drop it in, don't the hops sludge out the top...or are you doing something different?

Just drop it in (easily, of course) and it works fine. I tend to end up with some hops kind of caked in the top, but if anything is escaping I haven't detected it in the brew yet. I guess if it was, it would be easy enough to put a layer of cheesecloth under the cap when I screwed it on.

[Rob Courtney]

42 minutes ago, Steve Gyldenvand said:

Just drop it in (easily, of course) and it works fine. I tend to end up with some hops kind of caked in the top, but if anything is escaping I haven't detected it in the brew yet. I guess if it was, it would be easy enough to put a layer of cheesecloth under the cap when I screwed it on.

Sweet. I used to use hops balls but they were smallish so it just got painful because you'd be throwing in two or three and you just increase the odds of infection. Cheesecloth sounds like a good idea

[Thagomizer]

50g of hop pellets will expand to fill about half of the hop bomb.  I wait until I have finished kegging to retrieve the hop bomb and rinse out the contents.  Also, I sterilize the hop bomb just before adding the pellets.

If you use a muslin bag, it should be sterilized.  You can put it in boiling water or dunk it in a Star San solution; then wring it out and toss in the hop pellets with a few ss ball bearings that have been sterilized.  Then close the bag with a loose knot so you can retrieve the ball bearings after kegging.  I do not recommend re-using the muslin bag.

One problem with the muslin bag is that it may clog the spigot.  I hate to open the lid until the droid has been emptied, but you can fish out the bag with a sterilized hook or tongs before kegging.

I hope this helps clarify some of the issues of dry hopping.

🙂 Happy brewing.

[Steve Gyldenvand]

1 hour ago, Thagomizer said:

I wait until I have finished kegging to retrieve the hop bomb and rinse out the contents.  Also, I sterilize the hop bomb just before adding the pellets.

Yes and yes. No need to remove the bomb before kegging/bottling. After using it, I rinse clean in hot water, spray with star-san solution, air dry, and store in a ziplock bag until I need it again. Then, another thorough spray with star-san before adding hops and putting it in the droid. Hasn't failed me yet.

[Thagomizer]

3 hours ago, Steve Gyldenvand said:

Yes and yes. No need to remove the bomb before kegging/bottling. After using it, I rinse clean in hot water, spray with star-san solution, air dry, and store in a ziplock bag until I need it again. Then, another thorough spray with star-san before adding hops and putting it in the droid. Hasn't failed me yet.

My procedure exactly.