Can I squeeze my dry hops?

Yes, I know I'm capable of squeezing them, but will it have a negative effect on my beer if I lightly squeeze out some of the liquid? I dry hopped with 2.5 oz. of whole leaf and want to reclaim some of my precious beer, and possibly add a little extra hoppiness. I've read that it's fine to do with kettle hops, so how about dry hops?

Not a good idea. Not only from a sanitary standpoint but you will introduse post fermentation aeration.

hmmm... what if they were squeezed into a keg which had been completely purged with co2?

Anyone with firsthand experience? How did the beer turn out?

i do everytime i dry hop in the keg. i gently squeeze with sanitized kitchen tongs. the beers have all been great.

Yes you can definitely, absolutely squeeze them as long as you haven't dry hopped excessively long. 5-7 days max. After that the hops start getting grassy, and you really don't want to squeeze that sour crap into your beer. If I use 6 ounces of dry hops that's about a gallon of beer in there! And it's the good stuff, too.

bottlebomber said:

Yes you can definitely, absolutely squeeze them as long as you haven't dry hopped excessively long. 5-7 days max. After that the hops start getting grassy, and you really don't want to squeeze that sour crap into your beer. If I use 6 ounces of dry hops that's about a gallon of beer in there! And it's the good stuff, too.

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Excellent, glad to hear it. I only used 2.5 oz. in this batch, but hey that could be close to 1/2 gallon of liquid! The hops were in for 5 days before I cold crashed earlier today, so I'm gonna give it a shot tomorrow after I rack to my keg. Would you advise against using sanitized latex gloves? I could do tongs but seems like it might be more tedious.

I squeeze to get out that delicious hop juice. I just sanitize my hand thoroughly. No issues yet, KoW.

BassBeer said:

Excellent, glad to hear it. I only used 2.5 oz. in this batch, but hey that could be close to 1/2 gallon of liquid! The hops were in for 5 days before I cold crashed earlier today, so I'm gonna give it a shot tomorrow after I rack to my keg. Would you advise against using sanitized latex gloves? I could do tongs but seems like it might be more tedious.

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I just wash my hands with hot soapy water and grab the sack then I squeeze from the top down so I'm not having beer run over my hands into the bucket. Also I keep it close to the surface so there is less risk of oxygenation. I bottle exclusively, so when I do this I cold crash for a couple days more because there is a lot of particulate that comes out when you squeeze.

As others have stated, I also wash my hands with hot water and soap, squeeze as tight as I can close to the surface, then cold crash for a few days. I have dry hopped for up to 11 days and done this with no adverse effects whatsoever. I usually squeeze the hop bag on 2 or 3 different occasions during dry hopping and haven't had an infection or problems with aeration.

If you squeeze the hops more than 3 times, you're playing with them.