A better way to siphon dry hopped beer?

I've seen a number of posts where brewers attach a hop bag or other devices to the bottom of their racking cane to siphon beer. I've tried this a few times without much luck. Finally, as I was racking my IPA yesterday, I decided to place the hop back on the outlet hose rather than the racking cane. I used a sanitized funnel and then inserted the outlet hose into the sanitized bag and siphoned.

Worked very well and allowed me to make adjustments as I siphoned with no problems and easy cleanup.

So, what's the advantage to using rubber bands, etc. to attach a filter bag to the base of the racking cane? I say, go with the bag over the outlet.

Your thoughts?

My thought is that you quite possibly oxidized your beer by placing the bag over the outlet of the hose, you also risked clogging your siphon.

I can't picture how you did it on the outlet. If you can do it without any splashing or oxidation, that would be fine. I just can't see how to do it without introducing oxygen.

That said, I don't put anything over the racking cane. I just siphon as regular, although I start in the middle when I start the siphon. They loose leaf hops are usually floating, while the pellets have sunk (I use a combo of hops, loose and pellets) and if I start the siphon in the middle, I don't seem to disturb either layer. When I get near the bottom, I lower the racking cane to just above the trub layer. It works for me, and I don't use a filter/bag/funnel at all.

I just went through this exact thing the other day. For some reason I had a lot of floating hops throughout my beer after dry hopping. They never settled like I thought they would. I put a hop bag on the end of my autosiphon but stopped right away when I noticed a lot of bubbles when bottling. I removed it right away and just ended up getting a lot of pieces coming through the siphon.

I suppose I might have introduced oxygen to my beer. Should've known there was a reason to do it the PITA way on the racking cane. I don't think it created much in the way of bubbles, though. No more than usual, anyway. My siphon tube doesn't got to the bottom of the corny, so some foam is involved for me. Tough to tell if the foam is star san or air from siphoning. I'd say I had less than usual, but can't be sure.

I tried on the bottom of the siphon hose too, same experience---it just slows down the siphon and creates air bubbles that eventually stops the siphon. I went with a variant of what you're doing:

When I rack to a keg/bottling bucket, I just line the receiving vessel with a 5G paint strainer bag from Lowe's. Rack as normal with the output hose under the level of the beer to prevent oxidation. When transfer is complete, remove siphon and gently raise the bag out of the beer, hops and all.

Shroom; that's brilliant.

I sanitized a piece of panty hose & wrapped it around the intake of my racking cane. But I like shroom's solution much better.

Oh yeah, and make sure it's a sanitized paint strainer bag. I drop it in boiling water for 5-10 minutes before I use it.

Sound like PITA to me. I dry hop with a small muslin bag with weights (marbles) tied to a fishing line. Just pull it out and squeeze it to get the hop goodness. Rack and you are good to go, no worries about clogging and it makes for an easy clean up.

Crazy, that sounds great until you are dry hopping with 2 oz of whole hops in a glass carboy.

I also use a bag (Paint Strainer bags from Lowes) to dry hop with pellets. Put 5-6 marbles in there to weigh it down. When I use whole hops, I just let them float, the cap on my autosiphon keeps them out.

I also use a small paint strainer bag (the 1-gallon size) to dry hop. I don't even weigh it down, I just let it float in the keg near the top of the beer. No major problems with hop particles.

ArcaneXor said:

I also use a small paint strainer bag (the 1-gallon size) to dry hop. I don't even weigh it down, I just let it float in the keg near the top of the beer. No major problems with hop particles.

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How long do you leave those in the keg for? The entire time? If so how long does it take you to kick the keg?

wyzazz said:

How long do you leave those in the keg for? The entire time? If so how long does it take you to kick the keg?

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I suspend the bag using unflavored dental floss (which doesn't affect the seal), and pull it out when the beer tastes right. Usually between 5 and 10 days. It usually takes just a couple of short pours to get rid of the hop sediment, and the beer comes out particle-free.

tallybrewer said:

Crazy, that sounds great until you are dry hopping with 2 oz of whole hops in a glass carboy.

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True but I have yet to find a reason to dry hop in a carboy because of what you just said, messy, especially with whole hops. If you are doing so I think you have figured out the issue. I see no problem with pellets or buckets.

Just last week I bottled a Stone Ruination clone that I dry hopped 2oz whole hops in my primary. See above for how I did it with no problems.

However, I agree; I also see no problem with pellets or buckets.