how much dry hop to use?

[MatthewS4]

I have the following beer brewing and it is around 33 IBU calculated with brewtarget. I want to add some hops after most of the fermentation has finished at around day 3-4 using a 50-50 mix of B SAAZ and Cascade, so how much do I add before it would be over the top? Are their any guidelines or charts to use when calculating this?

Also from people on this forum I plan to use a CHUX for the hops, what do people use to tie the chux up?

 

thanks for any help to get this brew tasting good.

 

Brew in question....

 

Fill my 30L electric urn which I use as a brew pot with 24L of water.

Raise to 72 degrees C

Add 270 grams Crystal Malt (60) crushed

Steep for 30 minutes moving bag around every few minutes

Sparge in saucepan with 1 litre of water at 70 degrees

Sqeeze crystal before and after sparge to remove as much wort as possible.

Add 700 grams Light Dry Malt Extract

Add 1.7kg coopers draught original series.

Add 1.5 kg coopers light malt extract

Rinse cans of extract out with sparge water to remove more extract from them.

Mix all extracts into water by stirring with power turned off on URN.

Bring water to boil for 20 minutes till the wort clears.

Add 1 gram each of B saaz and cascade. (no chill being used so calculated with software 20 minutes longer, 26L boil size)

Boil for 10 minutes.

Add 8 grams B saaz and cascade, tie up hop bag and throw into Urn. (no chill being used so calculated with software 20 minutes longer, 26L boil size)

Turn off heat at 3am.

Cover URN with foil.

Clamp down lid over top of foil, fold foil back over top of lid to cover the vent on the lid of urn.

50mm air space was left in the urn.

Sleep.

In the morning at 8am guessing wort is now at 55 degrees as I can touch sides of urn for 8 seconds before it feels too hot.

Pore directly into fermentor after using no rinse santiser and left 1.75 L in the URN with the trub, looked at Fermentor level and amazingly it is right on 23L.

Take sealed fermentor to the bath tub full of cold water and sit it in so temp drops faster.

11am take the fermentor out stir and throw in 3 packets of 7gram coopers dry kit yeast. Temp is 23 degrees C when pitching.

4 hours later no activity, good sign no infections picked up during no chill.

12 hours later air lock activity is very vigorous and still at 23C so removed blankets to drop temp back to 19C.

24 hours temp is 19C and turned on electric blanket on low to keep at temp.

 

 

[AndrewC5]

Dry hopping is really good for adding aroma and little bit of flavor. And its most probably up to you how much is too much! First of all, if your using pellets, just chuck them in as is, they will fall out after a few days so u can bottle.

I use about 20g dry hop for my 19L batches, otherwise the results can be a bit grassy for me. So i'd suggest 12g of each hop and see how it goes, if u want more next time then say 15g of each ect.. until you like it.

[PB2]

MatthewS4,

are you working up to full mash brewing?? I ask this because you could get the same result in a fraction of the time by just steeping the crystal in 3 to 4 litres then bringing it to the boil and adding the hops. Fermentation could be underway within an hour of starting to mix the brew [cool]

 

I used 80g of Motueka flowers (=B Saaz) in the "Motueka Slam IPA" - stunning!!

It is up to personal taste - so start conservative and work your way up. 12g, as Andrew suggested, is a good start. The amount of grassiness is somewhat dependant on the variety - once again, a personal taste thing.

 

[MatthewS4]

PB2, yes I am going to try BIAB soon and wanted to try out the gear with extract first to fine tune things. Fingers crossed this beer works out good as I would prefer to make low cost beer faster with extracts as it is taking me 4 to 5 hours of work to brew a batch of beer, which includes getting the gear out, brewing, cleaning and putting it away again.

 

Wow 80g of dry hops, sounds like a tasty beer that I will have to try especially since I have loads of B Saaz left over. I think for this brew I will play it safe and go 8-10g of each and then on my next brew I will up the amount a fair bit once I know what the end result will be like.

 

Thanks for the replies, will let you know how this beer turns out after 2 weeks all up in the primary and then 2 more in the bottle.

[MatR1]

MatthewS4, What you are doing is more of a "slow chill" rather than a "no chill". If you wanted to keep doing that you may be better off draining into a jerry can, removing the air and sealing. (The proper no chill method). This way you cool submerge it and cool more effectively. Then splash into fermenter to aerate and pitch the yeast.

 

As PB2 said you will be better off doing a concentrated boil using the steeped spec grains. I would also add some malt to bring the liquor up to 1040. You obviously have some software so it would work it all out for you.

 

Sounds like you are doing it the hard way champ...[pinched] [lol]

 

 

[AndrewC5]

MatthewS4, What you are doing is more of a "slow chill" rather than a "no chill".

 

I'd call it a half chill :P.

You right but, either full ice bath it from boil, or full no-chill. No point screwing around with both.

[MatthewS4]

You are all correct. It is a slightly longer way for extract brewing, but for AG it is necessary to boil large amounts. I simply wish my equipment and skills to be able to brew either one in the future so it is a good learning oppertunity. I will use 'cubes' (food grade plastic jerry cans)like you suggested soon. I had 30 people comming over for lunch and needed to get rid of the beer out of the kitchen in time so a 'half chill' allowed me to get sleep and still get the beer done whilst the kitchen was spotlessly clean for guests. A full chill would have meant no sleep, no chill would have meant a higher chance of infection as I dont own cubes yet, so I figured a combination of the two made sense in my situation until I have some cubes.

 

Another factor why I boil everything is my local brew store is also a pet shop in one, Imagine buying things that are a few meters away from pet rats and mice! I kind of like the idea of boiling everything that touches or makes up the beer. I save time on sanitising as I only sanitise the fermentor, yeast packets, sissors and nothing else. I also save time on converting AG recipes to extract as having the same boil size means less conversions need to be done and this takes me a while as I am new to it. What little time I loose by walking away and leaving the beer to cool down (this is actually easy and I am alseep when it happens) I feel I gain in other areas.

 

 

[MatR1]

Another factor is my local brew store is also a pet shop in one, Imagine buying things that are a few meters away from pet rats and mice!

 

Geez.. Make sure you reach for the right type of pellets.. [biggrin] [biggrin]

[MatthewS4]

LOL, will try to remember that. It's a strange combination for a single shop but that is how they survive being in a small country town.

[John]

Haha - my first AG biab was almost 6 hours. Took forever to heat 35L of water on 2 single ring burners. Now takes me closer to 4 hours with a great big stonking 4 ring jobbie from start to finish (finish being start of no-chill)

 

 

[MatthewS4]

Just bottling this at the moment. I waited until the 3rd day when the air lock was slowing and threw in 9g of each hop so 18g in total. A week later I took a sample and it was not enough for what I was after so I threw in 12g of Amarillo that I wanted to use up. A week after that I took a sample and it was over the top. Now 3 weeks all up in the fermentor, I am bottling this tonight and it tastes great with the hops just right. Will be interesting to see how the hop armoa ages in the bottle.