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Dry hopping is
the process whereby hops are added uncooked or
"dry" to the beer at different stages of
fermentation. Many beer styles, such as pale ales or
IPAs, are traditionally dry hopped to produce the authentic
fresh hop flavor.
Many beginning
brewers are fearful of contaminating their beer by adding
the uncooked dry hops. While it is true that uncooked
dry hops may harbor some bacteria, the practice of dry
hopping virtually never
contaminates a beer. Never. Therefore, don't
worry, dry hop, and be happy.
By far, the
best time to dry hop is after most or all fermentation had
taken place. Once wort has fermented into beer, it has
become a more biologically stable. For example, after
fermentation is complete, beer is anaerobic,
meaning there is no oxygen dissolved in the beer. Many
beer spoilage organisms are aerobic, and in the absence of
oxygen, these spoilage organisms remain permanently
dormant. Second, the beer now contains alcohol, which
further inhibits spoilage organisms. Finally, the
process of yeast fermentation drops the beer's pH, making
the environment inhospitably to the bad guys. Three
strikes and you're out.
How to Dry
Hop:
1. When
racking your beer into the secondary fermenter*
(i.e., glass carboy), add the dry hops. For
convenience and ease of use, we recommend using hop pellets
instead of hop leaves or plugs. Of course, every
brewer has his or her own hop-form preference, but we find
hop pellets to be the easiest. Before beginning the
siphon, simply cut open the package and dump in the
hops. Now siphon in the beer. That's it!
2. For optimal
extraction of the hop flavors, let the dry hops rest in the
secondary for two weeks. When you have first added the
hops, the pellets will break down and float, and the green
surface layer of hop sludge will resemble slimy,
algae-covered swamp water. If this doesn't make you
want to grab a beer, what will? Over the course of a
few weeks, much of these beer-soaked hops will sink to the
bottom, though some of the green gunk will continue to
float.
3. When
racking the beer prior to bottling, try to leave behind as
much of the hop matter as possible. While racking, the
hops still floating will tend to whisk off to the
fermenter's sides and stick to the glass. If you
should vacuum up some hops, don't worry. Most of the
solid matter will drop to the bottom of your bottling bucket
instead of flowing through your spigot into your
bottles. In the unusual event that some hops should
get into your bottles, who cares? The scant hop matter
will sink to the bottle's bottom with the yeast. When
you decant the beer into your glass, you'll leave behind the
yeast and hops. Voila! If a miniscule hop
particle should wind up in your friend's glass and he
grimaces, just claim it's a blob of mold, and send him off
to drink some lousy, flavorless American factory beer.
No, scratch that - friends don't let friends drink
flavorless American factory beers. When faced with
this unpleasant situation, drink wine, spirits, cough syrup,
Sterno, floor wax, or if desperation mounts, then float a
shot of vodka into carbonated water with a dash of yellow
food coloring - but remember - just don't, for the love of
all that's good and pure, reach for the factory beer!
An entire nation of beleaguered livers and deprived taste buds
will thank you!
*
For brewers who don't have a secondary glass carboy or who
are lazy or who simply relish in cheating the system, then
dry hop right in the primary. After five or so days
when most of the fermentation is complete, open your
fermenter, dump in the dry hops and close up the fermenter
again. Then let the beer sit for the requisite two
weeks and then proceed to bottling.
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