How to Dry Hop With Leaf AND Muslin Bag?

I'm tired of losing so much beer when I dry hop with whole leaf. Also, the last half gallon usually is a PITA to siphon through all those hops. I thought I could solve the problem, so here is what I did:

I stuffed two ounces of leaf hops in a regular size grain/hop muslin bag, along with a shot glass (bag and shot glass were boiled to sanitize). I thought the weight of the shot glass would push the "hop balloon" to the bottom, but it did no such thing. The damn thing is still floating, with half the hop bag above the beer. Any suggestions on how to make this "hop boat" sink the next time I try it???

I use stainless steel nuts. Boil them, then you add as many as you need. I tend to dry hop with .5 to .75 oz of hops and use 4 or so of these nuts. Depends on the size and weight of them. You'll have to figure out how many to use. You need to be careful when you put into a carboy if that's what you're fermenting in. Don't drop them too hard and crack it. I use a string to tie the bag off and hold that to lower the bag into the wort.

nice! thanks for the advice, i'll definitely try SS nuts next time.

You could use rocks too, if you don't like the idea of steel nuts in your beer!

i use a home made hop bag in all my kegs with no weight at all and things turn out fine. i do shake the keg like hell when carbonating which may saturate the hops enough to allow the process to work during consumption. every time i clean the keg, the bag is always on the bottom. wink-nod!

ghpeel said:

You could use rocks too, if you don't like the idea of steel nuts in your beer!

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If they're stainless steel, they don't rust or otherwise give off any flavor. So why would anyone mind using them? Or is this some wordplay on "balls"? ;-)