Sanitizing Dry Hops?!?

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Jeffro74

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Just a quick question as to whether people sanitize their dry hops, if it's even possible, and what technique they use to do it..?

Thanks in advance, kids!
 
I'm yet to make anything that requires dry-hopping, but from what I've read, you can just soak them in vodka before tossing them in.
 
Nope I never have but I do sanitize the hop bag first. The hops themselves were used in beer to prolong the shelf life of the beer because they have antiseptic qualities. Might be the wrong word but same idea.
 
I've never sanitizer them and haven't had an issue. I sanitize the bag I put them in, but thats it. I understand that the hops are pretty much sanitary already due to the acids in them. They are a preservative in the beer after all. But that could all be my brain that hasn't turned on yet today.
 
I figured it was just a case of tossing them in... wanted to double check. This site is awesome - y'all are ON IT!! Thanks!
 
Really? So if a fly, bird, or other bug craps bacteria on my hop plants, they are sanitary enough to throw into my beer? Sounds fishy to me.

Just last week I saw a picture here of an infected batch. Everyone said "yep, it was the hop bag" because hops don't have bacteria? Yet IIRC he boiled the bag first. I'm not a food scientist, but what little research I've done says 165 degrees will kill just about anything. Thus boiling would be sufficient.

We spend all this time freaking out about sanitation and religiously soaking stuff in starsan that ends up in our beer, yet we throw un-sanitized hops into it in the end.

Yet, dry hopping has been done forever without consequence.

Just saying.

I'm confused.
 
I don't mean to sound like a naysayer. I just think that it "could" happen to get an infection from hops. However, I'm not going to worry about it. Past practice (and a book or two) has told us that it "doesn't happen".

Brew on.
 
Really? So if a fly, bird, or other bug craps bacteria on my hop plants, they are sanitary enough to throw into my beer? Sounds fishy to me.

Just last week I saw a picture here of an infected batch. Everyone said "yep, it was the hop bag" because hops don't have bacteria? Yet IIRC he boiled the bag first. I'm not a food scientist, but what little research I've done says 165 degrees will kill just about anything. Thus boiling would be sufficient.

We spend all this time freaking out about sanitation and religiously soaking stuff in starsan that ends up in our beer, yet we throw un-sanitized hops into it in the end.

Yet, dry hopping has been done forever without consequence.

Just saying.

I'm confused.

So just how are you going to sanitize hop pellets? :drunk:

Rick
 
I'm not arguing on how to sanitize hops... Just trying to prove that it could be possible to introduce bacteria via hops. However mr. book writer says "Infection from the hops just doesn't happen."

I'm not going to worry about it.
 
Hop acids kill certain types of bacteria, though certainly not all of them. The kilning process of hop pellet manufacturing will probably kill a lot of microbes. The alcohol present in fermented beer will kill a lot more bacteria than hops will. Fermented beer is also acidic and largely devoid of fermentable sugars, so it's hard to infect by much other than acetobacter (which needs oxygen), brettanomyces and a few other fungi that can eat dextrins.
 
My understanding is that the properties of hops (oils etc) and beer (alchohol, low pH, low/no free oxygen) do not kill bacteria so much as inhibit their growth and reproduction.
 
Well, I (unintentionally) sanitized 2 ounces of lovely, fragrant 2012 Centennial last night while making a Two-Hearted Clone. Had just run sanitizer through the keg, forgot that I had about a quart left in the bottom of the keg. Popped the lid and dropped my sanitized paint strainer bag full of hops in without looking, closed back up. Realized there was an issue about 5 minutes later when I went to pick up the "empty" keg to fill up, and got way too much sloshing about. Dumped the dry-hopped Star-san into another bucket, and it came out a nice golden color with a lovely aroma. I kind of wanted to cry a little bit. Moral of the story = Star-san and Centennial do not mix. I have done 7 batches thus far where I have dry hopped, and aside from giving the hop package a good shot of Star-san from the spray bottle and soaking the hop bag in Star-san, I haven't worried about it and (thus far) have had no problems.
 
I don't bother, You could drive yourself nuts trying to come up with ways to sanitze Dry hop additions. My feelings are that if your doing it right, your dumping them into an alcohol rich enviroment.....;) I also don't use a hop bag either, after all it all settles to the bottom eventually. Just dont siphon that layer, or use your dump valve if a conical
 
I'm yet to make anything that requires dry-hopping, but from what I've read, you can just soak them in vodka before tossing them in.

where did you read this? there would be no point in adding hops to a beer that have already been soaked in vodka since the hop oils are soluble in alcohol. the long and the short of it is that hops DO NOT need to be sanitized before dry hopping.
 
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