brewagentjay

Recipes 

So I bottled two batches today.......Dang I hate to wash and sany bottles.....
Anyway my Pete's Wicked was a dry hop beer and I did it in secondary with hop pellets....

I made the mistake of direct dry hopping with pellets. So the pellet material was mostly on top and in cake....However some still in beer.

I heard no problems just use the auto syphon and it'll keep it out. I looked at it and said no way. I heard also about panty hose on tip so I wen that route. I got 4 gallons out but once I got to the last gallon it choked and I couldn't get it started again.

Also noticed the pellet material had got kicked up so it was all over the last gallon so I did the un thinkable and let it go..........

I got 1 and 3/4 of a case instead of my classic 2 cases with some to spare but damn it smelled and tasted good so I'm gonna have to go with acceptable loss.

Now the question is what should I do in future? I'm thinking a hop bag but will this allow the beer to get all the benefit of a dry hop?

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Teufel Hunden Brewing Company

Primary - Apfelwein v2, JChrapewein, Light Scottish Ale, SW 420 v2, Devil Dog Ale Version 2
Secondary - OxiClean
Just Bottled - Jay's Irish Stout
On Deck - The Orginal Fat Tire
Planning - "Hail to the Chief -IIPA", "The Straw Berry Blonde"
NTBA - Wicked Ale

Semper Fi

jbambuti

Recipes 

I use a hops bag with good results.

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Primary 1: 4 Hop IPA

Primary 2: Apfelwein

Primary 3: Air

Bottled: Hammered Squirrel Nut Brown Ale (btl. 5/9/10), Jamil's Evil Twin (btl. 3/29/10), Crazy Ivan RIS (btl. 2/14/10), English Pale Ale (btl. 12/29/09), Apfelwein

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toman8r

Recipes 

I dry hop with pellets in the primary and just gently swirl it a few times a day. The hops all settle to the bottom and racking is easy.

pkeeler

Recipes 

You can use whole hops, which are superior for dry hopping in two ways. They (mostly) float, and they have all the aroma oils still intact. But if you can't get them, then pellets in a bag will work as fine as pellets can work.

WildGingerBrewing

Recipes 

I use a hop sock for all dry hopping, heck for ALL hopping period. Boil the sock for 10 or 15 min to sanitze it, drop the pellets in, tie it and drop it into secondary. I did an IPA a few weeks ago where I dry hopped with whole leaf hops. I was told by my LHBS that I didn't need a bag with whole leaf hops. Huge mistake in NOT using a hop sock or panty hose. Like you, I lost a lot of beer by not being able to get around all of the leaves. They expand, by the way! The beer is incredible. One of the best I have ever made, so I will do it again. But next time I will use something to contain the leaves.

JayInJersey

Recipes 

Here's a question: (I don't bottle anymore so I'm only guessing here)

If you use the "Bottling Bucket) can't you just auto-siphon it off normally then let it settle again and just bottle away?

From what I remember of my bucket it was never really good at getting all the beer on the bottom to begin with.



As for kegging with the dry-hopped pellets...I just say "Fug It" and write that first glass off to sediment.
(And since I only clean the lines every 4 kegs, it usually is tossed anyway as it blows out the last bits of the older beer)

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Hazard Brewing

Yankeehillbrewer

Recipes 

I prefer whole hops for just about everything in brewing, especially dry hopping. I just throw my Dry Hops in loose then when it comes time to bottle I sanitze the biggest spoon I have and scoop out as much as possible. Then the little bit that is left over gets filtered out by the Bottle Filler. Takes a little extra time, but I like knowing that as much as possible of the Dry Hops is touching the beer. And the loss is minimal, maybe 1 beer's worth.

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Kegged:Kolsch,Motueka Pale Ale,Simcoe/Amarillo IPA , 3C's IPA

Primary #1:Stout
Primary #2: An experiment
Secondary:
On Deck:Pilsner,DIPA, Brown

Berlbrew

Recipes 

This is something I've also struggled with.

The first time I used pellets and a nylon hop bag, results were mostly good but the bag closed with a little tie-string which could not keep some of the pellets from finding their way out of the bag and into the beer. Another time I just threw them in there sans bag after someone had told me they would all sink to the bottom after a week and I could auto-siphon around them. That just wasn't true, they didn't sink and the auto-siphon did not keep them from ending up in my bottling bucket.

I've yet to try whole-flower hops but I'd have to either order those online or go pick them up at the store whereas I have pellets in my freezer. Has anyone come to an absolute conclusion on the best method?

KyleWolf

Recipes 

I have yet to ever dry hop, so I don't know if this is out of the question, but if you are having trouble with the hop bag getting in the way, why not string it up? Tie a string to the bag and then to the outside of the bucket (handle perhaps) and the hops will be suspended in the beer and wont interfere at the bottom of the bottling bucket, or you could simply pull out the bag coming bottling.

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Currently in the works...

Primary 1:Honey Rye Saison
Primary 2:
Primary 3:
Secondary:
Secondary:

Up next: Rye Amber Ale, Brett Braggot.

jlpred55

Recipes 

I regularly DH big amounts of pellet hops in primary. I never get hop particles. I always cold crash my beer for a good 3-5 days before racking to keg or bottling bucket. No issues. I used to have issues but not that I cold crash everytime with that method, no more issues.

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Kegged: Millenium Galaxy IPA, German Pilsner. Apricot Blonde Ale, ACE Witbier, ACE American Wheat.
Bottled: Smoked Red Rye, Old Tanglefoot Barleywine, Tripel, Dubbel, American Farmhouse Ale