Dry-hopping w/pellets in a secondary...

So I'm making a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone & it calls for some dry-hopping, which I have not done before. I am supposed to dry hop in the secondary, and my question is this: since I am using hop pellets, won't that negate the clarifying effects of the secondary? I don't want to end up with bits of hop in my beers. I've read that I could put them in a bag, but I'm afraid I don't have a bag with small enough pores to allow the hops to work their mojo without letting the disintegrating hops out. Any advice/thoughts on dry-hopping with pellets as it relates to clarity?

Thanks in advance.

I use the 1g paint strainer bags from HD or Lowes and some marbles for weight. I'll just dump the bag with marbles in my sanitizer bucket for a few min prior to using them.

The hops should fall out. I leave them in the secondary for a couple of weeks and then just carefully siphon off the dregs into a bottling bucket.

I dry-hopped with pellets for the first time a couple of months ago. Green scum on top of my beer didn't look too good, but in the end I had no clarity problems. Just be careful when siphoning to the bottling bucket.

I have some cascade pellets dry hopping in a nylon sock. working great.

Add gelatin with about 3 days left. Then siphon carefully.

I've found that using a hop tea instead of dry hopping gives better hop flavor with less hops and saves a lot of mess and hassle.

Beerbeque said:

I've found that using a hop tea instead of dry hopping gives better hop flavor with less hops and saves a lot of mess and hassle.

Click to expand...

How do you do that?

I use a 1 liter french press coffee maker. I put a half to 1 oz hops in pot, pour in very hot water, let it steep for at least an hour, press, and pour into bottling bucket. I spray my pot and spoon first with Starsan. The technique adds a Lot of hop flavor.

The best advice I have for dryhopping with pellets is to make sure that you have some headroom if you're doing so in a 5g carboy. The pellets expand so it you dump them into a carboy that's full ot the brim you could end up with a mess.

I just bottled an IPA i dryhopped with an ounce or two of pellets; the bits and pieces took about two weeks, but they all fell to the bottom of the bucket, especially after I cold crashed it for the second week. The beer is clear in the bottle!

Thanks all for the input!