Dry hopping with muslin bag?

I want to dry hop my IPA with an ounce of centennial pellets. I was thinking of using a muslin bag with a marble in it to dry hop. My only reason is to avoid more floating hop matter before I bottle it and waste less beer as I might leave more in the bottom to avoid the trub in the bottling bucket.

Will this make my dry hopping less effective? Is it ok, to soak the bag in starsan before I put the hops in it? I am going to suspend it in the carboy with fish line.

Yes, I also use a hop bag when dry hopping, for similar reasons. I don't use the marble or fish line, though, just toss it in the carboy. Sounds like you've got a system!

I do a quick soak of the bag in sanitizer.

If you're interested, Seven Bridges Co-op sells a specially made hop bag - long and narrow, shaped like a tube, to make it easier to get in and out of the carboy. Their website is www.breworganic.com

I'm not sure a muslin bag has a fine enough mesh to contain the hops. I use a nylon hops bag, has a finer mesh and keeps everything contained.

I used nylon mesh bag to dryhop my last IPA. First attempt at dryhopping, and I just boiled the bag, added the hops, and tossed it in my primary for 7 days after primary fermentation had wound down. It was easy to retrieve, kept most of the hop gunk in the bag, and worked well in the finished product. It's only been a little over 2 weeks in bottles, but I sampled one last night and the dryhopping really made a difference. My nylon bag was a buck or two at my LHBS and can be used over and over. I'll be using this with all my IPA's from now on.

+1 for muslin bag.

I do it all the time. I soak the bag and then dry hop. I don't weight it down and haven't had a problem. The only issue I ever run into is getting the bags out of the carboy once they expand.

bguzz said:

Will this make my dry hopping less effective?

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This is what I am curious to know. It may be less of a pain and clean up, but won't it have a less effect?

DavidSteel said:

This is what I am curious to know. It may be less of a pain and clean up, but won't it have a less effect?

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I don't think it'll reduce the effectiveness of dry hopping, but if you're concerned, just add a few extra hops.