Floating hops...

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lewishowardm3

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Hi all. I dry hopped my primary last night, I used marbles to which I thought was heavy enough to pull the hops down but it is floating on top. Any advise on weather I could rich my bag out and add more weight? All sanitised of course. I've used whole hops.

Thanks
 
Are you using a carboy or a bucket? If everything was sanitized, it wouldn't be a problem to add more weight, but digging a hops bag with marbles out of a full carboy would be pretty tricky. Considering the amount of time it would probably take, you would be letting a lot of air in risking oxidation and/or infection.
 
I'm not sure why you even want them on the bottom.

I would leave them where they are.
 
You could do that if you wanted pretty easily then, but I, like Amanda, just let them float and I always get good results.
 
I read that whole hops are better at the bottom and that hop pellets on the top?
 
I read that whole hops are better at the bottom and that hop pellets on the top?

IDK where you read that at. It doesn't matter where the hops are. Some people argue that whole hops produce a better dry hop and are less vegetal than pellet hops, but I haven't noticed it in my own brewing.
 
+1 with GASoline71
But when I syphon the beer out I but a couple paint strainer bags over the suction of it. : )
 
+1 with GASoline71
But when I syphon the beer out I but a couple paint strainer bags over the suction of it. : )

I did the strainer thing for awhile... then didn't have a strainer one time. So when I racked it into the keg I just made sure to watch the tube to see if anything was getting sucked up when the hops were getting closer to the bottom. I always use whole hops to dry hop. Just how I roll. So maybe... maybe a couple of hop particles made it into the keg. So now I don't even use a strainer.

If I was using pellets for dry hopping... I would almost certainly use a strainer.

Gary
 
I think you're good to go here. I read about the marbles and hop bag trick to submerge the hops for dry hopping. I didn't have any of that so I most recently dry hopped and just let all of the whole hops sit on top. It was a ***** to clean out of the carboy but it worked just fine.

Probably could get some science person to tell it like it is...but I imagine that what you're leeching out of the hops is more dense than the beer and sinks anyway. Not to mention even if the "flavor" does hang out at the top, you're going to be stirring in some priming sugar at the end anyway. It'll mix in.
 
Hops are fine floating, as the beer still permeates and "wets" the hops and that is what you're after. I'd even suggest that no bag is better, since a bag can bunch the hops together and impede the hops actually soaking in the beer.

I've never weighed down a bag, but you could if you feel you have to. Still, there is absolutely no science to suggest that having them "on the bottom" is in any way better than in the middle or top so that's not really a good reason to mess with it at this point.
 
Yooper said:
Hops are fine floating, as the beer still permeates and "wets" the hops and that is what you're after. I'd even suggest that no bag is better, since a bag can bunch the hops together and impede the hops actually soaking in the beer.

I've never weighed down a bag, but you could if you feel you have to. Still, there is absolutely no science to suggest that having them "on the bottom" is in any way better than in the middle or top so that's not really a good reason to mess with it at this point.

Thanks for the advice. But i will be bottling straight from the primary so I was worried that the hops would get in my bottles.
 
You still need to transfer to a bottling bucket or a lot else will get into your beer besides hops . You need to get it off of the trub, especially since you'll be mixing in priming sugar.
 
My post above is even more true if you'll be bottling by gravity off the bottom of the bucket.
 
smiller said:
You still need to transfer to a bottling bucket or a lot else will get into your beer besides hops . You need to get it off of the trub, especially since you'll be mixing in priming sugar.

He doesn't "need" to depending upon how careful he is with mixing in the sugar, siphoning, etc. It's just a major pain in the ass and you're going to end up with a lot of sand at the bottom of the bottle. A $20 bottling bucket is a worthy expense to negate that kind of a headache.
 
smiller said:
You still need to transfer to a bottling bucket or a lot else will get into your beer besides hops . You need to get it off of the trub, especially since you'll be mixing in priming sugar.

I've only done it this way so far and I don't seem to be getting loads of sediment in my bottles?

The crap at the bottom is below the tap so surely it won't pick up anything?
 
I've only done it this way so far and I don't seem to be getting loads of sediment in my bottles?

The crap at the bottom is below the tap so surely it won't pick up anything?

How do you add the priming sugar? Directly to each bottle? If you add priming sugar/solution and then stir up the beer to dissolve it into the beer you risk oxidation plus having all the trub stirred up.

But if you go from the fermenter to the bottle by racking it or through a spigot and have the carb tabs or sugar in the bottle, that should work if the trub is below the spigot.

Of course, in my case, the trub is never below the spigot, instead it's inside, and the act of opening the spigot "sucks out" the trub anyway. So I need to use a bottling bucket, which is my preference anyway.

I have just a light dusting of sediment in my bottles (from the carbonation action of the priming sugar), so I'm doing something right I guess.
 

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