When dry-hoping, use a weight?

I am dry hoping my IPA with 2oz of Cascade pellet hops. I have 4 grain bags that I was going to put .5 ozs each into and then drop them into my secondary fermenter where the beer has been for 2 weeks now (2 weeks in primary). I note that when I put hops in hop bags normally during a boil, the bag is only about 1/2 submerged with about 1/2 out. Normally I just poke and prod it to move it around but when dry hopping, I cant do that.

Should I put a weight (sanitized) in the bags so they sink to the bottom? Does it matter? There is a small layer (1/2 inch) of yeast fallout in this fermenter as well, that a problem for the hop bag?

Thanks!

You dont need to put them in hop bags. I just put the hop pellets in whole and let them sit in there for 7-10 days. They will eventually fall to the bottom with the rest of the junk.

You can then rack off and get most of them out of the beer.

Next time you should put the hops in the secondary before you put the beer in it. This will help.

I never use bags either, at this point you can either fish it out and weight it down, OR just pour the hops in. They settle out nicely, no need for the bags $$

TheMan said:

Next time you should put the hops in the secondary before you put the beer in it. This will help.

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I thought about that but i was only going to dry hop for 10 days but I was going to secondary for about 3-4 total so I left it in the secondary for a while. One might ask why I didnt leave it in the primary the whole time and the reason is I needed the primary for another beer I was brewin.

Thanks for the suggestions all. So just dump the hops straight into the fermenter, no bag or nothing? Sounds like a plan to me! When I rack to the botteling bucket, just siphon above the fallen out hops?

I dry hop a few days after I rack to teh secondary, just to get the yeast and other stuff a chance to settle. Not sure if it makes a difference, but its how I do it.

To answer your question, yes, just siphon from above the sediment as usual and you should be fine. In about 7-10 days most of the hops will fall to the bottom. Before that, you will have a green film on top of your beer that looks tasty

chode720 said:

Before that, you will have a green film on top of your beer that looks tasty

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Good to know, I might of freaked out if I saw that.

Just to make sure, I do not have to worry about hops causing an infection, right?

Nope, the hops wont cause an infection. Even if there are any nasties on them, the alcohol from the beer would kill it off. It is harder to infect your beer after fermentation.

Also, hops help prevent to prevent infections. The acids in the hops coat the cell walls of any nasties and help to prevent them from multiplying.