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Author Topic: Dry hopping at bottling time?  (Read 1658 times)

Offline Megary

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Dry hopping at bottling time?
« on: June 30, 2019, 05:13:42 pm »
This is undoubtedly a ridiculous idea but I can't imagine someone around here hasn't tried it already!   ;)

For dry-hopping, I have read at least a hundred different theories on when, how much, how long, what type of hops...etc.  You can't dry hop too early, can't be too late, should be in primary after high Krausen, should be before high Krausen, should be off the yeast altogether, should be after cold crash, should be in the keg, should be in a bag, oxidation worries, no oxidation worries.  I can't recall where I saw it, but I'm certain one person even suggested an optimum moon phase.

How dumb is this?

Before bottling (I'm a bottler!):
Boil priming sugar.
Steep bagged dry hops in the still hot syrup for x minutes.
Remove bag.
Add hopped-up syrup to beer and bottle.

This has to be wrong, because it seems too easy.  My concerns would be that the hop bag could be a contamination risk and hop residue could end up in the bottle which would really throw the flavor way off.

Thoughts?  Has anyone tried anything like this?

Offline Bob357

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2019, 06:48:42 pm »
The biggest problem I see is the amount of priming solution the hops would absorb. I wouldn't worry about the hops contaminating the beer. They have an antibacterial quality. I would definitely soak the bag in Starsan for a few minutes to sanitize it though.
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Offline RC

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2019, 07:12:24 pm »
I love the out of the box thinking with this. I don't bottle, but even if I did, it would never occur to me to think of this. But...

Issues here: 1) Only a small volume of priming solution is used. It's hard to imagine picking up a level of hop aroma/flavor from this procedure that would be noticeable in 5 gallons. If that were the case, you'd be wasting hops. 2) You'll definitely pick up bitterness if you steep hops at any temp over 150, and possibly less. (steeping hops at 150 degrees is the limit of my experience.) You may not be isomerizing alpha acids at this temp, but no question, you'll definitely extract a lot bitter compounds from the hops. If you didn't adjust for this extra bitterness on brew day, you could end up with bitter bombs.

It's a neat idea but I think it would be a total crapshoot, bitterness-wise, with low/no gain in hoppiness.

And a waning gibbous is the best phase to dry hop in. This is settled science.

Offline Robert

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2019, 07:23:25 pm »


The biggest problem I see is the amount of priming solution the hops would absorb.

Ditto.  You'll never know how much sugar is going in, unless you base it on the amount of sugar in a given volume of solution, make way more than you need to plan for significant loss in the hops, and then add a calculated volume of the hopped syrup. Also not sure how much hoppiness you'd get steeping in a small volume for a short time, but you'll only find out if you try it.  There are some hop oils available online you could add at bottling as an alternative.  (I've never tried either.  I have tried making a hop extract by steeping hops in a Mason jar of hot wort on brew day and adding it later in the process.  I didn't like the effect.  It was grassy, and added perceived bitterness.  This may or may not be relevant.)
Rob Stein
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Offline Megary

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2019, 12:53:09 pm »
The biggest problem I see is the amount of priming solution the hops would absorb.

Issues here: 1) Only a small volume of priming solution is used. It's hard to imagine picking up a level of hop aroma/flavor from this procedure that would be noticeable in 5 gallons. If that were the case, you'd be wasting hops. 2) You'll definitely pick up bitterness if you steep hops at any temp over 150, and possibly less. (steeping hops at 150 degrees is the limit of my experience.) You may not be isomerizing alpha acids at this temp, but no question, you'll definitely extract a lot bitter compounds from the hops. If you didn't adjust for this extra bitterness on brew day, you could end up with bitter bombs.


Ditto.  You'll never know how much sugar is going in, unless you base it on the amount of sugar in a given volume of solution, make way more than you need to plan for significant loss in the hops, and then add a calculated volume of the hopped syrup. Also not sure how much hoppiness you'd get steeping in a small volume for a short time, but you'll only find out if you try it. 


Good stuff, thanks.

My reasoning was to try and find a less obtrusive way to "dry hop" for flavor/aroma. I'd prefer to handle my wort/beer as little as possible.  I guess sending a few hop pellets off the high dive into primary isn't the end of the world...unless it is.  I'm sure it is to somebody.

In my scenario I would be using the bottles with priming sugar as a secondary.  I am only sending 2.5gal to the fermenter and even less to the bottling line.  If I give this a shot, I could try a very small amount of hops...say .25 oz.  And really, they don't have to steep in the syrup.  I could pre-boil and cool another small amount of water for the steep.  Question would be what temp to steep at, and for how long.  Maybe 125 for half an hour? This is all rhetorical, I'm not sure I would have the nerve to go through with it!

I could try a test steep and add a smidge (technical term) to a basic lager to gauge the impact.  Though I can't see how that would be flavor-comparable to 2 weeks in a bottle with a little carbonation going on.

Offline Robert

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2019, 01:33:30 pm »
You really don't get a lot of effect from making a hop "tea" in plain water.  The pH and other aspects of wort chemistry have an impact on the solubility of the hop oils and acids, besides temperature.  At least as far as I can tell.

As I mentioned, hop oils are available for this purpose; MoreBeer has Chinook and El Dorado, and I think others are available from other retailers.  As I also mentioned I've never tried it myself, but it's piqued my interest.  Read the description here and see if it fits the bill

https://www.morebeer.com/products/distilled-hop-oil-chinook-1-ml.html
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

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Offline denny

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2019, 02:37:50 pm »
You really don't get a lot of effect from making a hop "tea" in plain water.  The pH and other aspects of wort chemistry have an impact on the solubility of the hop oils and acids, besides temperature.  At least as far as I can tell.

As I mentioned, hop oils are available for this purpose; MoreBeer has Chinook and El Dorado, and I think others are available from other retailers.  As I also mentioned I've never tried it myself, but it's piqued my interest.  Read the description here and see if it fits the bill

https://www.morebeer.com/products/distilled-hop-oil-chinook-1-ml.html

I'm about to start producing my own hop oils with the PicoStill
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Offline Robert

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2019, 04:14:41 pm »
Another link with some further links at the bottom on homebrew products:

http://glacierhopsranch.com/hopzoil/

dug up in an old thread that really doesn't offer much more enlightenment:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=32020.0

(I said in there I was going to order some.  Never did.)
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

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Offline Megary

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2019, 04:21:55 pm »
Thanks for the tip on the oil, but I think I'll wait till the jury comes back on that.  The amounts seem rather dicey...off by half a mil and you could have a completely different beer.  I guess I'll stick to dropping pellets into primary a few days before bottling.

Offline Robert

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2019, 04:30:09 pm »
If it ain't broke don't fix it, right?
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question.

Offline Megary

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Re: Dry hopping at bottling time?
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2019, 05:51:48 pm »
True that.



Umm...of course....at some point I'll talk myself into trying my shortcut method.  Then I'll report back how it was just a waste of hops.