Dry hop removal

It seems I always have trouble with my dry hops(I use pellets), I put them in secondary and then when I go to rack to keg or bottle approx 10 days later I have hops floating in my finished beer. I tried dry hopping in a bag, terrible time getting them out. I have put mesh on my siphon intake but that seems to aerate it and it slows to a crawl and stops. I put a mesh bag on my disharge end of the siphon and watch the floaties roll by and hope they get stopped by the bag and know that I am aerateing again. It seems like racking to a tertiery fermenter is the best way. Any you fellas got any tricks you like?

I use a Wilser hop sock to hop with. When it is full of wet hops 'mush' it can be fun to get out of the tiny opening in the carboy, but I pull the bag out as much as I can, then use a spoon or something to dig the hops out until the hop sock is mostly empty and can be pulled out.

Baby spoons work really well for scooping the pellet mush out of the neck of the carboy. I guess this is one of the benefits of having a toddler around the house.

Another option when using a hop bag in a carboy is to pull the mouth up to the top and opening out wide outside of the carboy. Once there I drop it back in and fish out one of the corners to dump the contents into the carboy.

Yup, talk to @wilserbrewer about getting a bag that will do the job right.

i use a fine nylon bag to filter out the hop pellets. i just place the racking cane tube in the bottom of the bag when i rack into the bottling bucket. works great and you can add the hops to your spent grain compost.

I did my first ever dry hop on my last batch. I hopped for 4 days in primary once the fermentation was done (about 10 days), then cold crashed for about 2 days. Everything seemed to drop quite nicely and I was able to rack to the keg.

I've read that cold crashing can cause you to loose some of the effects of the hopping, but I still had plenty of flavor and aroma left in the beer.

I dry hop in the primary and cold crash after that for a few days. Everything sinks to the cake and I am able to rack nicely off the top. If cold crashing isnt an option, they make stainless mesh tubes that are easily retrievable from a carboy. Or you can dryhop in a corny keg with a bag tied to a piece of unflavored dental floss. A lot easier getting the hop bag back out.

I dry hopped in a carboy exactly one time. Trying to get the mesh bag out when it if full of hops convinced me to NOT do that ever again. If a beer need long-term aging after dry hop, then I'll rack to a glass carboy. Otherwise, give me a bucket, please.

I tried dry hopping without a mesh bag, maybe twice. I didn't learn as fast as with dry hopping in a carboy. No more - I gallon mesh paint bags from Home Depot for me. I do wash the bags first in PBW. I went without the bag once and my dip tube and poppet got clogged so many times, I learned my lesson.

My process - ferment 2 - 3 weeks in a bucket. Pellets in mesh bag with something glass of stainless to weigh it down for about a week. Keg. When kegging, keep siphon away from bag until you can pick it out of the bucket with your fingers. I don't squeeze. I hold it over the bucket (close to the beer to keep from splashing/aerating) and drain for a bit.

Cold crash; maybe add gelatin. Crystal clear after about 3 weeks at keg temp. Looks pretty good after a week at keg temp, but really clear after about three weeks.

I use a 1" diameter × 6" long made from a fine mesh grain bag on the discharge tube of the auto siphon. The bag does not float, so no problem with aeration. After seven days the hop debris has dropped into the yeast/trub layer, of the primary, so very few pellet remnants go through the siphon.

I do just 2.5 gallon batches, and I really like the big mouth of my Brewdemon fermenter.

Usually when i dry hop, i'll use a 7 gal plastic fermenter and a hop sock. no mush ... :beard:

thanks for the help, I am cold crashing right now, then I will try again.

I never bag my dry hops, just cold crash for 2 or 3 days before I transfer. Haven't had an issue with a clogged siphon or hop material getting into bottles

I coldcrash to drop out the pellets. Shake or swirl the carboy a little bit( please don't think that means pick it up) after 5-10 hours and any hop material that hasn't dropped will.

It may be a big no no, but I just gently swirl my carboy every other day to get the hop pellets into suspension. After a few days, they pretty much sink to the bottom. Even dry hopping with 2oz in a 5gal batch hasn't caused any siphon clogging. I occasionally get a tiny bit of hop sediment in bottles, but I don't think that's entirely avoidable.

Hizah! Cold crashing worked great, thanks for all the help.
Cheers!