Dry Hop Troubleshooting

Orpheus · 09-03-2006, 02:27 PM

I dry hopped my first IPA with 1 oz. of Centennial and 1 oz. of Cascade.

I had one week in the primary. I transferred it to a secondary clearing vessel and this is when I dry hopped it. It has been in secondary for two weeks and I'm getting ready to keg. The thing is, I was fully expecting the hops to fall to the bottom, but this never happened. They floated at the top and remained there.

Obviously, this is going to create problems for racking to my keg. Any suggestions on how I can accomplish this without sucking hops into my keg?

**Baron von BeeGee** · 09-03-2006, 03:39 PM

Whole hops, I assume? They will definitely float. Just rack out from underneath them. I also tie a nylon hop bag (like some people use for boiling hops) around the end of my racking cane to act as a filter.

NEPABREWER · 09-03-2006, 03:47 PM

I use hop plugs which eventually seperate into a big leafy mess. Just stick your racking device into the container and rack away

Orpheus · 09-03-2006, 04:53 PM

They were actually hop pellets. It sounds like I'll boil up some of the hop bag and attach it to the end of the auto-siphon.

Thanks!

DAAB · 09-03-2006, 05:51 PM

Scoop them out with a seive.

Orpheus · 09-03-2006, 06:00 PM

On a related note, THANK YOU ALL!

I'm a fan of IPAs and I'm a fan of hops, and I just took a hydrometer reading of this beer and it's ready and it's AMAZING!

My god, exactly what I was going for! I put my hydrometer reading into a wine glass and took a sniff and WOW! It was the next best thing to sticking my nose in a package of cascade hops and inhaling deeply.

Thanks for all the help and all the suggestions! I can safely say that this is probably my favorite beer that I have ever brewed! I think all my beers will end up dry-hopped now!

I've always loved this board, but boy do I love this board!!