First off, a big thank you to everyone in the homebrew forums here who are active. I've lurked for awhile and learned a ton about brewing from everyone here. Now to the beer... ... This Sunday my brother and I finally got around to our first brew day after over a year of research, preparation, and accumulation of equipment. Everything went well on brew day, minus my thermometer giving me some hokey readings, and I have confidence day 1 was success. I have a few questions on what you all think my next steps should be. 1. 2 Packets of London Ale III was pitched into 5 gallons of 1.064 OG wort hit with 60 seconds of pure O2 in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy. Set up with a blow off hose. This was Sunday at 6pm eastern. By 10 pm, we had signs of fermentation, and by 6 am the next morning vigorous fermentation. Vigorous fermentation kept up until Tuesday around 6pm, and has since gradually slowed down to about a bubble every 8 seconds. Starting fermentation temp was a bit high (71) and has since dropped to (68). My question is, when should I take an initial gravity reading w/ my hydrometer, now, when fermentation is still active and co2 will refill the carboy, or wait a few days for the fermentation to really slow down?
Forgot to finish off there, but also, when I rack to secondary (which I plan on purging all the O2 out of with CO2), do you guys normally rack on top of your 1st (or only) dose of dry hops, our would you recommend racking first and then adding the dry hops after?
You should have already taken an initial gravity reading w/ your hydrometer when you were finished with your brewday. That would be your OG. The only other time you need to measure gravity would be to determine FG (Final Gravity) which is when fermentation is completely finished. When it is not showing any more signs of fermentation, and maybe a little bit after that, check gravity and then compare that reading with another one several days later. If its stable, you've hit your FG. No reason to check your gravity if you have reason to believe it will drop further. Either way is fine. Adding first may give you better contact if you are just putting them in loose. How long do you plan to secondary? Dry hopping for an extended time may not be the best. 5-7 days of dry hop seems to be the standard. Longer than that may risk vegetal flavors.
@ssam haha yeah sorry I understand my OG is prior to pitching the yeast, just didn't quite word that properly. You hit the nail on the head though, I was more unsure of when the proper time was to take a gravity reading post pitching of the yeast. I'll let the yeast keep churning away and check when there are no signs of fermentation. Thank you. And I do plan on having the dry hops (pellets) loose.
@ssam I planned on dry hopping anywhere from 3-5 days, hadn't quite decided upon that entirely. I'll be using Citra, probably 4oz.
The new recommended/acceptable norm is to dry hop in your primary. That way you avoid any accidental introduction of air into your beer during the racking process to the secondary. (Plus the extra work.)
It has already been mentioned that there is no need for a secondary when dry hopping. Two reasons to not conduct a transfer to a secondary: Eliminates the extra oxygen exposure that occurs during the transfer; reduces the oxidation of the beer Eliminates the potential risk of infection from a secondary Cheers!
When I dry hop, I do a little combination of all the things said prior. I spilt the dry hops in half, and add one half when the yeast is still fermenting, but almost done. I let that sit for 3-5 days then rack into the secondary onto the second half of dry hops for an additional 3-5 days. I've tried just secondary additions and just primary additions, and this method gives me the best aroma contributions.
Thanks guys! I'm thinking I'll do a dose of dry hops in the primary when fermentation is inching, and then transfer right to the keg with another dose of dry hops.
No need to secondary for dry hopping for reasons @Mothergoose03 and @JackHorzempa pointed out. If you're planning on adding that much dry hops, I hope you're using a bucket or Big Mouth Bubbler so you can add them into a hop bag and avoid the loss of beer due to absorption. You can sanitize the bag and anything else that touches it while adding the hops to the bag and then into the primary and when you are ready to keg/bottle, you can sanitize and allow the beer to drain from the bag to minimize loss. If not, just add them into primary and at cold crash before bottling/kegging most will precipitate out and add to the trub.
