Dry Hopping Question

[alebelly788]

So primary fermentation stopped about 5 days after starting it. I then decided to rack it to a secondary carboy and add a 1oz Cascade dry hop. I first but the hop bag in the carboy and then racked it, making the hop bag stay floating at the top. Its been 3 days and it still hasn't sunk. My question is: should I attempt to submerge it or just leave it and will it eventually sink on its own. I assume you want the hope the submerged to get the best possible flavor out of the hops.

 

[jkendrick]

So primary fermentation stopped about 5 days after starting it. I then decided to rack it to a secondary carboy and add a 1oz Cascade dry hop. I first but the hop bag in the carboy and then racked it, making the hop bag stay floating at the top. Its been 3 days and it still hasn't sunk. My question is: should I attempt to submerge it or just leave it and will it eventually sink on its own. I assume you want the hope the submerged to get the best possible flavor out of the hops.

I just asked this question yesterday in another thread. I was advised to use a sanitized spoon to try to submerge the floating hops. I did that (mine are swimming, not in a hop bag) and now everything is nice and wet.

 

[jonnyp1980]

My hops never sink. I use whole hops. Citra mostly no bag. Comes out great every time so far

 

[jwalk4]

I just asked this question yesterday in another thread. I was advised to use a sanitized spoon to try to submerge the floating hops. I did that (mine are swimming, not in a hop bag) and now everything is nice and wet.

Has anyone ever tried a sanitized small weight in the bag? I'm only wondering because a sanitized spoon might be clean, but you would be adding unwanted oxygen into the the beer which would affect the taste anyways.

I don't have any suggestions of what to use for a small / light weight, but I'm sure someone could come up with something.

 

[yeastluvr]

I have only dry hopped a couple times. I used whole hops the first time and sanitized about 1/2 cup or more of glass marbles, added it to the hop bag and tossed it in. Hops are extremely bouyant. They floated like a cork for a week. If your using whole hops you need a pretty good weight to get it to submerge. I used pellet hops the next time and it wasn't nearly as hard to get them to submerge.

 

[eanmcnulty]

I sanitized a bunch of marbles and added them to the hop bag. It didn't actually sink, but it pulled the bag under, which is good.

 

[eanmcnulty]

I have only dry hopped a couple times. I used whole hops the first time and sanitized about 1/2 cup or more of glass marbles, added it to the hop bag and tossed it in. Hops are extremely bouyant. They floated like a cork for a week. If your using whole hops you need a pretty good weight to get it to submerge. I used pellet hops the next time and it wasn't nearly as hard to get them to submerge.

Same idea!

 

[jkendrick]

Has anyone ever tried a sanitized small weight in the bag? I'm only wondering because a sanitized spoon might be clean, but you would be adding unwanted oxygen into the the beer which would affect the taste anyways.

Well I didn't stir, I just used the spoon to push down the hops that weren't in the liquid.

 

[drives_a_bike]

I just put my leaf hops in a sanitized knee high stocking, drop it in the secondary, and syphon on top of it...making sure it gets good and soaked. Has always turned out great

 

[jkendrick]

I just put my leaf hops in a sanitized knee high stocking, drop it in the secondary, and syphon on top of it...making sure it gets good and soaked. Has always turned out great

I still have to do another hop addition for this beer and I think I'm going to bag them. But I'm less worried about getting them out because this addition is just .75 oz whereas the first addition was 3 oz. I suppose I could have used three or more bags to make them small enough to remove but letting them swim seemed to be common enough that I didn't sweat it.