Beer Forum

Some years back I stopped using secondary ferms on the advice of Jon and Jamil and have yet to look back. However, I was looking for a resource for a buddy of mine who insists that I secondary and I saw that people secondary when they dry hop. I don't secondary even when I dry hop. Uh....why would you need to secondary because you are dry hopping? What am I missing?

SoCal Surfer wrote:Some years back I stopped using secondary ferms on the advice of Jon and Jamil and have yet to look back. However, I was looking for a resource for a buddy of mine who insists that I secondary and I saw that people secondary when they dry hop. I don't secondary even when I dry hop. Uh....why would you need to secondary because you are dry hopping? What am I missing?

Some folks say if you want to reuse your yeast you should collect it before dryhopping, but I've found ways around that. Honestly I can't remember the last time I've used a secondary & I've done fruit, oak, dryhopped, reused the yeast, whatever. If you are reusing the yeast it can get a little more technical with a few extra steps, so if you're not a yeast geek or a glutton for punishment, I wouldn't try it. Your general cleaning/sanitizing techniques as well as yeast rinsing techniques have to be 110% solid.

Some folks say if you want to reuse your yeast you should collect it before dryhopping, but I've found ways around that. Honestly I can't remember the last time I've used a secondary & I've done fruit, oak, dryhopped, reused the yeast, whatever. If you are reusing the yeast it can get a little more technical with a few extra steps, so if you're not a yeast geek or a glutton for punishment, I wouldn't try it. Your general cleaning/sanitizing techniques as well as yeast rinsing techniques have to be 110% solid.

OK! that's what I was hoping to hear. I've let my fermentation finish, toss in some dry hops, crash the temp down to 35 or so and rack to the keg. I haven't had any problems yet but thought that I might be compromising the quality of my brew.

muchos grassy ass!

I dry hop right in the keg after a 3 week primary and I won't go back to dry hopping in the primary/secondary anymore. You can always treat the kegs as a secondary and rack it off to a new keg after all of the yeast settles out. I dump my gelatin and a muslin bag with hops on some dental floss and it's perfect and crystal clear after 3 days.