dry hoping with pellets

[hobbsj]

so the guy at the brew store had me add some dry hopping to the recipe. i've never done this before and am worried about sanitation. he gave me a hop bag (i figure i can put it in sanitizer). but what about the ho pellets. they can have crawlers on them too. or is that not an issue? also, do i need to weight the bag? he said to use a marble or steel washer. i can not find either one of these in my apartment. its sad but true. can i just throw the hoe bag in there? also, is there a limit on how long they should be in there? they're going into my secondary. i figured 1-2 weeks in there. is that too long. oh yeah. they also didn't give me an amount. i have one 1 oz package. the sales guy told me they were still tweaking the recipe and i didn't get an amount. its a cascade hop in a california pale ale. thanks.

 

[doubleb]

hi hobbsj

I don't know the specifics but.. the very nature of hops I believe repel bacteria in a way. I understood, w/ 1 dry hop batch w/ pellets under my belt, that they can be dropped in the fermenter w/ little or no worry. I did it without any hop bag and used pantyhose to strain at bottling time.

I wouldn't put the hop bag in the sanitizing solution unless you've got star san or something like it. The bag will absorb the solution and be difficult to rinse away. You could just boil that sucker for 5 minutes to sanitize it.

If you really want a weight I'd just get something a the hardware store.

I dry hopped w/ 1 oz of cascade, its not ready yet but It sounds like a legit part of a recipe.

 

[doubleb]

erased oops I hit enter twice and double posted.

 

[Professor Frink]

I typically dry hop with 1-2 oz of hops for 1-2 weeks. You can use any type of hops, pellets are fine. I usally boil the hop bag with a few marbles, add the hops and put it in the fermenter. There shouldn't be any nasties on the hops, virtually nothing can live on hops.

 

[Brewer3401]

With APA and IPA, I always dry hop........with pellets.
Never had an infected beer.
It's scary, but do it anyway.
How do you think the pros do it - they just do it.
We get so hung up on sanitazion that this seems scary, but it's not. If you have a good beer before dry hopping, you'll have a good one after.

 

[Trencher]

I had the impression that pellets wouldn't give as much flavor when dry-hopping as whole leaf would. I've only made one dry-hopped beer, using whole hops, and plan to dry hop another batch with whole hops this weekend. The last one had TONS of aroma.

What's the consensus on pellets vs. whole hops for dry-hopping?

 

[david_42]

Given the choice, I'll use whole hops. Pellets won't give the same aroma as whole hops, but at the levels we use for dry hopping, it almost doesn't matter.

 

[raceskier]

I've dry hopped with whole leaf hops in a skinny hop bag weighted with glass marbles from a crafts store. Just boiled everything, added the hops and dropped them in. Worked great.

I was just talking to another homebrewer I work with and he exclusively dry hops with pellets. He says they settle out just fine. His IPA just took first place at the LA County fair.