So I will be brewing a 5 gal batch of Pale Ale this afternoon and I plan on transferring it after a couple weeks into two 3 gallon carboys and dry hop each with a different hop. I've got 1 oz of Citra for one and 1 oz of Zythos for the other. My question is, can I just dump the pellets into each of these 3 gallon carboys when the day comes or do I need to invest in another bag to suspend them in it. My concern is that the bung might not truly seal if there is a string or whatever dangling from the top risk contamination. Thoughts?
Just dump the pellets in. They will float on top for a couple days and then begin to settle out. I usually rack into a keg after about 5 days after dry hopping and have no issues with the pellets. If you have any issues cold crashing the carboys will cause the pellets to settle quickly.
I just dump the (pellets usually) right into the primary (lots of people dry hop in primary so they dont have any oxidation issues) Let them sit for 7 days. Put the fermenter in the fridge for a day or 2 to get the hop mass to drop out to the bottom of the fermenter. It's best if you can rack your beer from the cold fridge without moving it but I can't keep a siphon going with my fermenter in my fridge so I have to carefully move the fermenter to a nearby table to rack it to keg.
I just dump the pellets straight into the fermenter, but I also have temperature control and I crash cool my fermenter down at around 35F for a few days before bottling/kegging which enhances the hop settling process.
Dry Hop bags suspended in carboys are problematic. The hops swell and the bag becomes very difficult to remove.
I just did the exact same thing as you .. Brewed a Pale ale and one week in transferred over to a secondary but I used 1 oz of citra for the entire 5g. Just dump them into the carboy and siphon your beer over. Mine turned out to be an exact clone of Alaskan IPA with just the citra .. so tasty.
After you cold crash, do you rack the beer into the bottling bucket while it's still cold? Also, is there an optimum temp for cold crashing, or is there a wide temp range for doing this. The reason I ask is because I was thinking about cold crashing my fermenter in my garage which isn't temp controlled, but stays about 35-45 degrees this time of year.
I do think people cold crash at a range of temperatures and the one you mentioned should work. I keg my beer so transferring it cold is actually beneficial since direct co2 injection is quicker in colder liquids. I didn't cold crash when I was bottling but I don't see any reason why you couldn't rack the beer into the bottling bucket while it was still cold. After you bottle it, just let the bottles warm up to room temperature and the yeast should then ferment your priming sugar.
This. You will hate it if you dry-hop in a bag in a carboy. Absolutely miserable trying to get swollen hop bags out of the neck of a carboy. I don't bottle much anymore, but I heard somewhere (don't remember where now) that residual CO2 levels from fermentation could throw off carb volume calculations if you bottle cold. Anybody know anything about this?
The important temperature is the temperature near the end of active fermentation, or sometimes after fermentation (but only in the case of a higher temp after fermentation). Cold crashing doesn't increase CO2 levels because even though the beer is capable of holding more CO2 at the lower temp, there is no new CO2 being produced. IOW, it already gassed off while at higher temps.
I'm pretty sure it's because when an objects temperature decreases, it's density increases and it becomes less buoyant. I could be dead wrong though.
Based on all the nightmare issues people have with dry hopping fresh hops in a bag with a carboy I used an Ale Pale as my secondary for my first IPA. Used some cheese cloth I boiled and added 2oz of Crystal hops. I have a feeling they are going to break out of the bad when they swell and Im going to have an absolute mess. Oh well guess I will find out in 10 days.
