Dry hopping

[njohnsoncs]

I've read a few threads on how people dry hop. What I'm planning on doing is putting the hops pellets in a nylon bag and tossing the bag in the primary for 3 days. After that, I will remove the bag (somehow?), clean and sanitizing it, then put it around the tubing in my bottling bucket which is attached to my autosiphon/racking cane in the primary and rack to the bottling bucket.

In this way, I can remove most of the hop debris from the primary before racking and during racking catch whatever is remaining. A couple questions.

1. How to I remove the bag from the primary? I'm using a fermonster so I can reach in and remove it but I'm thinking I should instead use a sanitized spoon and lift it out rather than risk touching the beer with my fingers.

2. I've heard that straining debris with a bag at the end of a tube in the bottling bucket can aerate the beer. Is this true and do I need to worry? It seems a lot easier than trying to get the bag around the autosiphon/racking cane in the primary and avoiding a clog.

Thanks!
Nick

 

[Kwitty]

You can do all of this and many people have done things like this. Any time I've tried things like this it's always been a pain in the a**. I think most experienced brewers here are going to tell you one a few things. 1 You don't need the bag. Toss it in, let the hops settle, and just keep the syphen above the tub when you rack. 2 leave the bag of hops in the bottom until you rack off. Fishing them out you risk oxygen exposure and infection with the added steps. 3 Skip the screen on the syphen. I wouldn't worry about added oxidation from it, but it slows the syphen, it plugs up, and you still need to stay above the trub or it'll definitely plug up. If you secondary, anything you suck up will settle to the bottom and you can leave it behind when you rack again, so it's not a big deal. I hardly secondary and barely pick up trub at all anymore. Just practice! That's my $0.02. Good luck! Let me know what you do and how it turns out.

 

[A2HB]

Kwitty nailed it!

 

[violinguy]

2 leave the bag of hops in the bottom until you rack off. Fishing them out you risk oxygen exposure and infection with the added steps. I hardly secondary and barely pick up trub at all anymore. Just practice! That's my $0.02. Good luck! Let me know what you do and how it turns out.

^^This.

I dryhopped with a bag once and just left it in there. I bottle directly from primary (has spigot) so I don't touch anything before opening the valve. I dryhopped one other time without a bag and had all manner of funk in my beer. Hence the bag.

 

[SunnyDownSnuff]

Have used all sorts of methods, including just toss the hops in, but then no matter how well I crash I seem to get hops in my beer. The mesh on a siphon is a recipe for frustration as mentioned above.

I ferment in a bucket so I've settled in on using a paint strainer bag, elastic holds it on rim, hops go in, then before I rack I just pull it out. Easy. I clean and reuse the bag.

 

[Kwitty]

When I used a bucket I always kept the syphon well above the trub. As the beer gets low enough I lower the syphon until the beer is so low I can now see the trub at the bottom. I stop syphoning when I feel I'm getting too close. I also watch the beer passing thru the syphon tube. It's a bit of an art. It's a lot easier if you have a clear fermenter but it can be done in a bucket. Also get it as cold as you can without freezing. If you haven't heard of it this is known as "cold crashing". I know this isn't easy unless you have a fridge set up with a temp controller or a ton of ice. However if you can it really helps everything fall to the bottom nice and compact making it easier to rack clear beer.

 

[brandonnys]

Kwitty speaks my language.

 

[njohnsoncs]

I would love to cold crash but I don't have that ability (i.e., no fridge/freezer available). I happen to have a hop bag and grain bag (paint strainer). I wonder if the paint strainer is fine enough to strain out the hop pellet debris? If so, I can use the hop bag to keep the hops in the primary then rack to secondary through the grain bag. That way I can leave the hop bag in until I'm done racking so I can minimize the chance of infection and introducing oxygen.

Thoughts?

 

[eadavis80]

I put a paint strainer bag over my siphon and never had a problem. Works well for me when I dry hop or when I'm doing a fruit beer. Maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[dyqik]

Hold the paint strainer bag around the racking cane/siphon inlet with a tiewrap or similar, and put a large stainless washer in the bag to prevent it closing down on the end of the racking cane.

(as seen in one of the threads on closed pressure transfers from the carboy, I think)

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

You can get 300 micron stainless steel filter things for this but yeah what you are asking about can cause real problems. SS filter is probably easiest, I saw them on Amazon cheap.

 

[njohnsoncs]

So I decided to just throw the pellets in without a bag. I was a bit short on time. I figured I will strain when I rack to the bottling bucket.

One question, why should I put the straining bag around the racking cane/autosiphon in the primary rather than around the tube in the bottling bucket?

 

[brandonnys]

To keep the trub out of your autosiphon.

 

[dyqik]

One question, why should I put the straining bag around the racking cane/autosiphon in the primary rather than around the tube in the bottling bucket?

Because if you put it around the output end of the tube, the stuff caught by the straining bag will back up in the tube and block it. You need to stop it getting into the tube in the first place.

 

[eadavis80]

Put the strainer bag around the siphon that goes into the primary - not the end of the tube that empties into your bottling bucket.