Cake of Hops (Dry Hop) - Is this normal?

[iworkatinitech]

Okay I apologize if this was already asked, I searched and didn't see anything, but I just brewed my first IPA and wanted to dry hop. So I added 1 oz of Centennial and 1 oz of Cascade to the last week in the secondary and noticed that the hops (pellets) formed a cake on the top of the fermentor. Is this normal? I mean should I be agitating the carboy to get them to potentially circulate?

Thanks.

[captain carrot]

Yeah agitate it. Then rack off leaving the hop material behind. You could add the hops after primary fermentation is done and dry hop for a week and then keg or bottle. Skip secondary, IPA's should be drunk young and fresh. I dry hop in the keg for the best effect.

[iworkatinitech]

Okay thanks! Yeah I'm not quite at the kegging level just yet. I actually am just buying my 2nd carboy to add to my setup because waiting 3-4 weeks between batches is killing me!

[Spelt]

That's an awful lot of hops. Don't know if that effects caking very much but I usually find about a 1/2 oz gives you all the hop aroma you need. I've dry hopped in the secondary and the primary. I kinda prefer the hop aroma in the secondary. I think the hop oils get less bound up by all the proteinaceous material in the trub.

Love to hear how the aroma turns out with whole two ounces in there. Who knows, may be kicking!

[iworkatinitech]

That's an awful lot of hops. Don't know if that effects caking very much but I usually find about a 1/2 oz gives you all the hop aroma you need. I've dry hopped in the secondary and the primary. I kinda prefer the hop aroma in the secondary. I think the hop oils get less bound up by all the proteinaceous material in the trub.

Love to hear how the aroma turns out with whole two ounces in there. Who knows, may be kicking!

I will definitely keep you posted. So far it smells insane! I'm trying to compensate for starting with a rather bland pale ale recipe that originally called for 1 oz of yakima golding and 1/2 oz cascade to bitter and then 1/2 oz of cascade at 10 min. So I converted it to keep the bittering hop bill but added 1 oz of amarillo at 15 min, 1/2 oz cascade at flame out, and then the dry hop as mentioned above. I'm a big hop head so that's why I'm going nuts. This is only my 3rd brew and I'm really just sort of experimenting a bit.

BTW this forum rocks! So far I've absconded the Blind Pig recipe and another rye-IPA recipe that I will be brewing in the very near future. I also used this forum to help me decide between getting a second Better Bottle carboy or glass carboy for my 2nd. So a HUGE thanks to everyone who posts/answers here!

[Spelt]

Just a thought...if you're going for knock your socks off hops, two things will help in addition to enough hops. 1) Make sure there is sufficient hardness in your water. Softened water or water low in Ca and Mg has limited ability to extract the hop oils. 2) Generally lower gravity worts are better able to optimize hop utilization. The more sugar there is in the water, the less room there is for the water to take hop goodness into solution.

[iworkatinitech]

True...I noticed our water was too "hard" here with my first batch so I've been using spring water. Hopefully it helps, my porter was good but not a hop-based brew by any means.

[Chunk]

Just a thought...if you're going for knock your socks off hops, two things will help in addition to enough hops. 1) Make sure there is sufficient hardness in your water. Softened water or water low in Ca and Mg has limited ability to extract the hop oils. 2) Generally lower gravity worts are better able to optimize hop utilization. The more sugar there is in the water, the less room there is for the water to take hop goodness into solution.

Lower FG not OG? I thought alcohol was also responsible for improving hop utilisation ... so if you had a high OG and a low FG, you're getting the best utilisation you can?

Also, when it comes to aggitating the beer to move dry hops around ... what techniques do you use? I've just physically swirled my firmenter, but Ive always been a bit worried about oxidation.