dry hopping with whole hops

what a mess! poked 2 oz of whole leaf hops down the neck of a sanitized carboy. racked a barleywine over the top...as the hops started to absorb the beer and swell up, out the airlock it all came. when I initially racked it over, I had an extra half gallon that would not fit in the carboy so I bottled it seperately... then I had to siphon off some to keep it from making a mess in the floor.

Good to know. I am going to do my first all grain, homegrown hop, with dry hopping in the next week or so. Remember to leave space for the dry hopping.

Glad I had enough room in my fermenter for the hops to fit after absorption, but I think it helps to have leaf hops, instead of the WHOLE hops (even though whole hops seem like they'd be MUCH easier to drop in the mouth of a carboy rather than stuffing 2oz of loose leaves-that was a pain!)

Use a bucket. No problems

impur said:

Use a bucket. No problems

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Agreed. 8 Gal Plastic Bucket FTW!

The big thing that turned me off with the buckets is how much you really have to scrub to get the last beer out of the bucket, because its somewhat porous surface compared to glass. Maybe I didn't use enough PBW/water ratio. It was especially bad in the case of one of my "tainted" batches, it took forever for that smell to come out. I actually tainted another beer because the bottling bucket still had the residue/smell in it when I went to bottle. Do you just use a highly concentrated PBW solution or would you suggest using a different cleaner?

Buckets are definitely cheaper, lighter and safer! I just wish they were see-through