Dry Hopping Beer Reduction

BrainYYC

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Hi all, just getting going, started with a Brooklyn Brew kit and now onto my fourth batch buying ingredients from my local Home Brew supply. I’m still using the small 1 gallon fermenter and have been having a bunch of fun so far. My challenge is with the small vessel, when I dry hop - I seem to lose alot of drinkable gold to hop schmeg. Any tips on maximizing yield when dry hopping?
Thanks,
Bryan.

Silly thought but if I cold crash could I gently pour the fermenter contents through a brewers sock to drain (hopefully without the cake at the bottom).
 
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Hi all, just getting going, started with a Brooklyn Brew kit and now onto my fourth batch buying ingredients from my local Home Brew supply. I’m still using the small 1 gallon fermenter and have been having a bunch of fun so far. My challenge is with the small vessel, when I dry hop - I seem to lose alot of drinkable gold to hop schmeg. Any tips on maximizing yield when dry hopping?
Thanks,
Bryan.

Silly thought but if I cold crash could I gently pour the fermenter contents through a brewers sock to drain (hopefully without the cake at the bottom).
That could introduce oxygen which you don't want to do at this point.
You could get a larger fermenter (2 gallons) and make enough to end up with one gallon after removing the schmeg.
 
Just the really unhelpful one of increase the fermenter and batch size (which is exactly what I did when I was in your position a few years ago).

Or practice your zen like acceptance of losses knowing that you don't have to get caught on the spinning mouse wheel of constantly increasing your equipment and complicating your process.
 
I'm going to go with Zen-like acceptance of losses and a bigger fermentor. You can get a food-grade two gallon bucket at the local hardware store for next to nothing - they make perfectly good primary fermentors for small batches.
 
Welcome, BrainYYC.
I have a 3 gallon kettle that fits on my gas stovetop, and I use the brew in a bag (BIAB) method. My batch size is usually 1.5 gallons into primary fermentation, which I divide evenly between two 1-gallon glass carboys. While all of my brews have been American Pale Ale (APA) or India Pale Ale (IPA), I have only dry hopped a few times. I tend to load up on late boil and flame out hops additions, which I put in the kettle using a mesh bag suspended by a hop spider. When I have dry hopped, apparently I did not use the quantity of hops that you did, based on your photo. When transferring from primary fermenters to my bottling bucket, I use an auto siphon, taking care not to suck up trub (sediment at bottom of fermenters).
There are several ways to skin a cat; you’ll find your way.
Have fun!
 
What they all said, but to answer your question, cold crashing for a few days will compact things a bit.
In order to get that lovely hop aroma, and flavor you must dry hop.
If you dry hop you sacrifice some beer to the absorption.
That my friend is life in the big leagues!
Welcome to BF, and good luck!
 
Or practice your zen like acceptance of losses knowing that you don't have to get caught on the spinning mouse wheel of constantly increasing your equipment and complicating your process.

Mark shhhhhhhh.....my wife doesn't know this! :D


@BrainYYC, I found that when I moved up from 1 gallon to 5 gallon batches my brews became more consistent. I think that was because at 1 gallon, a very small deviation in ingredients or process can have a significant impact on the resulting beer. So, increase batch size if you can and cold crash to compact trub and hops and get a little more beer out of each batch.
 
Thanks gents appreciate the comments. Im assuming I will eventually move up a size or two as I can drink a gallon of beer in pretty short order if I put my mind to it
 
Speaking of hops and not having much of a clue. I just finished getting a fresh batch into the fermenter and when I input the recipe into the BF recipe builder is says my IBU’s are high 200’s!!!! I kinda felt like I was using a similar amount of hops used in my past two batches which I enjoyed.

Anyone care to comment on if my recipe is that far off, or just my recipe data entry skills. For 1 gallon batch I added 45 mins into 60 min boil:
.5 Oz Citra pellets
.25 Mosaic pellets
.25 Simcoe pellets
.25 Chinook pellets

Had another 1.5 oz. Citra pellets I was planning on adding in the next two days at the end of primary fermentation. High 200’s doesn’t sound palatable to me :(
 
Depends on when you added them. That is not a lot of hops for a batch, but it is an insane amount of hops if you threw it all in at 60 minutes.
 
15 mins left in the boil.
Sorry, have been distracted with brewing yesterday, and catching up with work today.
So you added that whole mess of hops all at 15?
 
If I were doing 1 gallon batches, I'd hop burst or steep instead of dry hopping. You'd get a good amount of flavor and aroma without the loss in your fermenter. The losses in a one gallon batch are a high enough percentage without adding more by dry hopping. The opening size of a 1 gallon jug pretty much limits other options.
 
If I were doing 1 gallon batches, I'd hop burst or steep instead of dry hopping. You'd get a good amount of flavor and aroma without the loss in your fermenter. The losses in a one gallon batch are a high enough percentage without adding more by dry hopping. The opening size of a 1 gallon jug pretty much limits other options.
You are at another level @BOB357 , to me at least:)
 
Hi yes added all of them at 15. I also realized I entered them into the recipe builder with 45 instead of 15 so my ibu dropped to 135ish. Still seems way higher than something I’m going to enjoy.
 
If I were doing 1 gallon batches, I'd hop burst or steep instead of dry hopping. You'd get a good amount of flavor and aroma without the loss in your fermenter. The losses in a one gallon batch are a high enough percentage without adding more by dry hopping. The opening size of a 1 gallon jug pretty much limits other options.
Thanks Bob I’ll do some googling/learning about these terms/methods. Cheers!
 
Hi yes added all of them at 15. I also realized I entered them into the recipe builder with 45 instead of 15 so my ibu dropped to 135ish. Still seems way higher than something I’m going to enjoy.
He who drinks his mistake, shall learn his lesson good!
The rule of thumb for timing of hop additions is loosely...
60 minute additions - pretty much bitterness only, maybe a bit of flavor, very little aroma
40-20 minute additions, mostly flavor, some bitterness. some aroma
10-0 minute additions, mostly aroma, some flavor, very little bitterness
I would suggest that you may divide those hops into various stages of the boil and you will get a decent amount of each character in your beer. Some beers have a 60 minute addition only. Some beers get no hops in the boil at all, whirlpool and dry hop additions only.
Let us know how your future endeavors go, ask lots of questions!
I really like Bob's ideas to save wort.
 
So today I removed my airlock and dry hopped my last batch of beer and apparently primary fermentation wasn’t done. Filled my airlock with beer and spit out a bit of beer. Is my whole batch f’d? Would star san get into the fermenter when this happens.

Cleaned everything up and changed back to a blow off for a few more days.

learning all my rookie mistakes early I guess :)
 
You're probably OK. As long as the beer is producing CO2 it's unlikely that anything bad will get in it. The amount of Starsan in the airlock won't hurt anything either.
 

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