Is Dry Hopping Sanitary?

I know I'm being paranoid, and it's quite a common practice, but doesn't throwing something unsanitized into our fermenting (or nearly finished fermenting) beer fly in the face of one of the first rules homebrewing?

Well...some things to consider...If you are dry hopping from a sealed package, more than likely the pack is somewhat sterile.

At the point of dry hopping (in secondary) you are adding it to alcohol...alcohol kills germs....

Hops are one of the best antiseptics/preservatives known to man...they were added to preserve beer, not to spoil it...That pretty much means that you should be okay.


The first rule of homebrewing is RDWHAHB....Everything else flows from there.

Revvy is correct.. the alcohol will kill most things, thats why you add it to the secondary after most of the fermentation is complete. However if you still worry some you can sanitize the package ( assuming its plastic ) with a spray of StarSan prior to opening it and dumping into the secondary.

RDWHAHB... I dry hop a lot and I've never had an issue...

No worries....

BierMuncher said:

No worries....

Click to expand...

Ditto.


TL

I've never had a problem, but I worry about DH with home grown hops, for some reason.

I have only dry hopped once, and it was the only batch of mine to get an infection (a gusher infection it was).

I don't actually think the dry hopping caused it, but it has made me a little leery.

The plastic package may be sterile but the hops them self are not. They grow outside and have wild yeast and mold all over them. Most hops are frozen which kills some of the wild yeast and mold but in a low alcohol beer you may have an issue.