Dry Hop 101 Question

[Sooperhonk]

As I was stuffing some lovely leafy hops into a bag to drop into the fermentor this weekend, I wondered how and why this introduction of plant matter doesn't present a risk of introducing bacteria/wild yeast to a fermenting brew. Everyone's always careful not to introduce any foregin material post-boil, so why is dry-hopping an exception? Have the hops somehow been processed/sterilized? Am I missing something? Just curious.

Cheers

 

[RM-MN]

Hops are a natural antibiotic. That was the first reason to use them in beer, to preserve it.

 

[mrphillips]

RM is completely right. That's how IPA's weer first created; they weren't catering to colonial hop-heads, but rather they were excessively hopped to keep the beer from spoiling over the long sea voyages needed to transport the barrels of beer.

Plus, once your wart turns to alcohol, it's pretty resistant to most bugs. There's always exception, but alcohol plus the hops does a very nice job of keeping beer safe and happy.

 

[Sooperhonk]

Love it.