Dryhopping with pellets - am I doing something wrong?

So I've dryhopped two beers now and am wondering if I'm doing it correctly. For the first beer I transferred to secondary and racked on top of the hops. I ended up with an inch thick sludge of hops that just sat on top of the beer. Unfortunately with this beer I scorched the LME and it came out undrinkable. There wasn't much hop character in the several beers that I tried to choke down, maybe it was just covered up by the excessive extract twang.

The second beer is a one gallon Citra IPA that I just bottled on Sunday. I was planning to bottle on Saturday but when I opened the bucket there was a sludge of hops sitting on top of the beer. I cold crashed overnight and all the hops had settled out.

Are pellet hops just supposed to sit on top of the beer, or should they eventually fall through the beer? I'm about to dryhop a Pliny clone that requires two dryhops and want to be sure I'm doing everything correctly since this beer cost a good bit to make.

Thanks!

I just toss mine in. They float at first but eventually sink. If they don't you can give them a gentle swirl (read: not shake) and that can help them drop out. If you put a strainer bag over the end of the racking cane, it doesn't matter if they float, sink, or otherwise though.

In my experience pellet hops won't really settle out unless you cold crash - sounds like you have the option to cold crash so I'd just stick with that.

The guy at my LHBS suggested using part of the sack I used to steep my grains in (I cut the sack in half as it was way too big...) though I'm considering using a paint strainer (after some star-san on it of course) to dry hop to prevent a lot of the mush from being left in the beer....

I have never worried about it. I just rack from under the sludge and I haven't noticed any ill effects

I just throw them in either before secondary and rack on top, or if its a long secondary for whatever reason, throw the dry hops in the beer for the last 7 days. As I usually only dry hop for 7 days, they mostly settle out by then. I try to move the carboy to the kitchen a day or two before I bottle as to avoid rousing anything up before I siphon to the bottling bucket since I have no means to cold crash. This works fine for me and I get minimal hop sediment in most all my bottles. The last few I bottle always get a bit more sediment in them, but I don't mind. I find this is the easiest and most practical way for me.

Correct me if im wrong, but dry hopping does not give you to much hop character in taste. To my understanding dry hopping is more or less for a good strong hop scent. Maybe the scorched smell was taking over?

I just cold-crash. That usually sinks the hops pretty quickly.

The "twang" you are attributing to scorched extract sounds more like an infection to me.

I use a hop bag with marbles but also cold crash. They almost never touch the surface once they are in.

Thanks all! Glad to hear I'm not doing anything wrong. Cold crashing really cleared up the Citra IPA, but unfortunately I'm going to have a hard time cold crashing anything larger than a gallon.

I suppose an infection was possible for the first IPA I dryhopped, but I doubt it. The color was about on the same level with Coca Cola...maybe even darker. I've never seen an IPA that dark before.