Dry Hopping - anybody use tea balls/infusers?

No matter how carefull I am with racking, it seems that in my dry hopped beers, I always get some sediment in my bottles. I dry hop simply by throwing the pellets in and letting them settle. My last batch I waited 3 weeks for the hops to settle and they really never did. Regardless, I got a ton of hops in my bottles. Dry hopped in the bottle i guess!

So my frustration just led me to order up two 4 inch stainless steel tea balls and I already have two 2 inchers. I am thinking that the combination of these four infusers should allow adequate space to use up to two ounces of pellets, allowing for expansion.


Does anybody have any experience using these for dry hopping?

i haven't used those although I have looked at them. I usually sanitize a muslin bag and dry hop with them. It works for me athought they can be tricky to get out when cleaning the carboy. I usually flip it upside down and cut open the hop bag.

I ferment in a 9 gallon fermenter with 12 inch lid, not a problem removing or adding large items from/to the fermenter!

I dryhop with pellets straight naked into the carboy all the time. 7 day dryhop then 2 day cold crash then gelatin for 3 days. Use a sanitized 1 gallon paint strainer bag over the suction end of your racking cane to help keep any rogue hop bits out.

dstar26t said:

I dryhop with pellets straight naked into the carboy all the time. 7 day dryhop then 2 day cold crash then gelatin for 3 days. Use a sanitized 1 gallon paint strainer bag over the suction end of your racking cane to help keep any rogue hop bits out.

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Man, wouldn't a hop bag or infusion balls be a lot easier?

I cold crash and gelatin on beers that don't get dryhopped too, depending on yeast strain.

I used three 2-inch balls to dry hop my last brew; It was an easy way to keep the hops out of the brew; I put about .33 oz in each ball; the hops really absorb a lot of brew and the balls were full of soaked hops. The first tasting was good, I'll do the same thing again. I switched to this method after having a similar experience to yours with hops in the bottles.

I used to use these to dry hop but they only fit 1 oz of pellets and don't work as well as just dumping the pellets in.

I sanitized a new nylon stocking and zip tied it to my racking cane in the batch I just finished.

I've used them in my cornies for dry hopping. I attach a wine cork to the chain to keep them suspended in the beer and make them easier to pull out.

bentonre said:

I've used them in my cornies for dry hopping. I attach a wine cork to the chain to keep them suspended in the beer and make them easier to pull out.

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Great idea!!!!, I plan on dry hopping my bitter in the keg.

A hop bag and a handfull of marbles in the secondary works for me.

If you don't want to risk hop bits in your beer, just do a hop tea. It's much faster than dry-hopping and the vegetation stays in your French press.

I should add that I own an aprox. 2.5 inch diameter tea ball, but have never used it for hops because I think they would be too confined, esp. pellets which expand so much.

The nylon stocking would work well too (they have 1001 uses). But please dispose of them properly as they can kill wildlife and damage machinery.

I am going to split my 1 to 1.5 oz normal dry hopping amounts between four 4 inch balls. That should do the trick nicely.

I dry hop in my keg with the tea ball... I just tie it on the lid with plain dental floss... Works like a charm!

I plan on just dropping the tea ball in and letting it settle to the bottom.
Don't pack pellets too tightly into the ball, they expand.
I did not plan on removing them.

Any advice?