Preparing to dry hop

I'm making a Chinook IPA (Northern Brewer extract kit). I racked to secondary after 8 days (been in secondary for 6 days now) and am getting ready to dry hop for 10 days before bottling. This will be my first time, so I ask:

To keep the pellet gunk out of the beer, I would guess I need to use a sock. How best to sanitize these? Just soak in sanitizer for a minute? Then sanitize hop packet and scissors and dump in? Seems thats the best way, but it's always good to ask.

Cheers.

Use a nylon mesh hop bag. I use those for 1oz of whole hops when adding to the serving keg. I found that I like that significantly more than dry hopping in fermenter.

Also, you don't need to rack to secondary for ales. You also don't need to rack to secondary to dry hop. I've dry hopped in primary with good results. Of course (as I mentioned) I like it even better when I dry hop in my serving keg. I still have great hop/aroma once carbonated (2 weeks at temperature and pressure before pulling a glass). Plus, it remains stable for the entire keg. No more fading over time as you go through the bottles. :rockin:

Just soak the sock/mesh bag in sanitizer and you will be fine.

I haven't bothered to put the hops in a bag when i dry hop. Just be careful when racking to bottling bucket or keg, or even wrap some cheese cloth around your auto siphon. But if I used a bag I would just soak it in star San solution for minute or two

bd2xu said:

I haven't bothered to put the hops in a bag when i dry hop. Just be careful when racking to bottling bucket or keg, or even wrap some cheese cloth around your auto siphon. But if I used a bag I would just soak it in star San solution for minute or two

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I didn't use anything in the first batch I dry hopped (in primary). Plugged up the transfer. Since I'm fermenting in sanke kegs, it's hard to see where the levels are (no x-ray vision yet).

IMO, the nylon hop bags are cheap, reusable, and easy to use. The hardest part is removing them (when using whole hops) from something like a carboy. From a keg, it's not nearly as much trouble.

I do dip the bag into Star San solution before filling with hops.

Cool thanks all.

I pesonnaly do it in secondary, and add ''glass balls'' (not sure of the english term, i'm a french speaker) to the bag, so the bag is not floating. You can also hang the bag so it's stay in the middle of the fermentor, not on top floating, and not on the bottom with the yeast/hop/sh*t cake.

Past experiences with carboys tell me to now always dryhop in pails or large-mouth fermenters, for obvious reasons.

1 minutes or 2 in the starsan for the bag. Or 24h in whisky

I have dry hopped in carboys before without a problem. I use a sock/mesh bag, add a fermentation marble or two for weight, and tie some (unflavored) dental floss to the bag. Once dry hopping is done, gently pull out the hop bag with the dental floss.

Yhea. Marbles. That is the word I was looking for.

I like the marble idea. Heading to LHBS tomorrow after work to grab a bag. Hopefully some marbles too. Dental floss idea is a great one too! Thanks all!!

Couldn't come across any marbles but I found cheese cloth and got to work. Sanitized my scissors, pellet pack an cloth. Poured the hops into the cloth, tied a know and jammed it into my Carboy. The pouch is floating on top. I'm guessing it will stay there? Is there anything else I should do to get the most out of it? I'll leave it for 12 days and then bottle.

Thanks.

Try to stir it a bit to keep the hop wet, in the beer, not in the air. But try not to shake the yeast cake at the bottom.

I don't see the "fermentation marbles" at any of the online homebrew stores. My local homebrew supply carries them; they are white in color.

Something like this would probably work -

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00176C8ZQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

You just want an inert (non reactive) weight to keep the hops in contact with the beer.

Thanks Jonathan - I'll be grabbing some to drop in the bag next time. Tiroux, thanks - I'll see if I can move the hop bag around enough without disrupting the yeast - if not, I'll use my suction thing (for gravity readings) to move it around during readings. Hoping for the best...the beer does smell amazing!

You don't need ''fermentation'' marble!! Glass marbles are glass marbles. I bought mines in a toy store. Wash them well, boil it or soak it in star san.

Even though I'm a supporter of racking as little as possible, I discourage dry hopping in a primary fermentor. I used to do this, but I had several beers lose huge amount of dry hop flavor in the keg when the yeast settled out. Those oils really stick to 'em.

At first I didn't realize what was happening, but I figured it out when I had a beer so good that I was willing to drink the last pint of sludge-beer when it came out of the keg. It had so much intense hop flavor - amazing. So now if I'm dry hopping with pellets I'll use a secondary, and if I'm using whole hops then I'll just put then in a hop sack directly in the keg. I love tasting the evolution of the beer as it continues to dry hop, and if it's gone too far then I can bottle.

Tiroux said:

You don't need ''fermentation'' marble!! Glass marbles are glass marbles. I bought mines in a toy store. Wash them well, boil it or soak it in star san.

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LOL - you mean they don't make FERMENTATION MARBLES! I looked at EVERY story..haha..kidding. Yeah, I've got to grab some.

Again - thanks EVERYONE for your input; can't wait to bottle this one.