What am I doing wrong - re: dry hopping

[Just-a-Guy]

Hi Folks,

This is going to sound dumb (like all my questions, I'm afraid). But... I keep coming up against silly problems.

So... I brewed up a True Brew kit for Irish Stout three weeks ago. Strictly by the book. It sat in the bucket primary for three weeks, and tonight I decided to rack it into a secondary with some Cascade hops.

So... after thoroughly cleaning the carboy, I opened the package of hops... and tried to get them in the stupid thing. Um... how do you do this? I probably spilled about 1/4 of them (and that was with great care and a lot of time, trying to pour the stupid things into the carboy opening from the freeze-dried package). I tried a mesh bag last time, and that was an even more ridiculous scene (and was not fun to get OUT of the carboy after bottling, either).

Help?

Also... see the pic below, please. Am I doing something wrong? I got what hops I could into the carboy, then racked the beer in with the auto-siphon, carefully. And now the hops are sitting on top of the beer. Obviously, I'm new at this. Does this look right?

Help?

Mark

 

[carluchi]

Looks fine. The hops will eventually fall down, I wouldn't worry about it. Next time, get the hops into a small bowl and just drop them in by hand a little at a time.

 

[scottlabadie]

Looks fine. Next time use pellet hops, they are easier to handle. Although, leaf hops are great for aromatics!

 

[Huisache]

Looks fine. Next time use a funnel, that should make it a ton easier and quicker.

 

[Just-a-Guy]

Thanks, guys. FWIW, I tried using a funnel (big one that I got at the LHBS). Hops got stuck in the silly thing. I guess I now get it that you just have to sort of slowly feed them in, bit by bit, somehow. I was a little concerned about introducing Evil Germs or whatnot doing that (I washed my hands, but ...). I can see why people just use buckets. But I'm trying to set up things so a carboy with beer sits in my bar (the buckets are in an adjacent room). I know, it's corny, but I like the image it projects, so I like using the carboy. It's about atmosphere.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

Mark

 

[worksnorth]

I'm with Huisache, I use a large funnel (sanitized) and jam the hops through it with a poker (sanitized) very successfully.
By the way, when you rack out of the secondary, I put my racking cane in a large mesh hop bag (sanitized) then stick it down into the carboy, this keeps the hops from clogging up the racking cane. Then when I go to clean the carboy, I place the same mesh hop bag over the mouth of the carboy and shake/pour the hops over the sink into the bag. Keeps trash out of the drain and so on and so fourth.
Have fun
Oh yeah, I swirl my carboy around occasionally to be sure all the hops get wet, but like Carluchi says, they should all get wet on their own, I just get a littttttle impatient.