Easy dry-hopping method for those using standard buckets

I'm sure a lot of you are going to think "well, DUH," when you read this, but for me it was quite a leap. Hope it helps someone. Back when I was first starting I would throw the dry hops in loose; after getting thoroughly frustrated with unclogging my siphon, I started using hop socks. Just drop a shot glass in first, load up the hops, and tie off the end. Worked okay. For my most recent DIPA I came up with a better idea. I had forgotten to get more hop socks at the LHBS, but I had some 5 gallon paint strainer bags (elastic at the top) lying around. So, I stretched the bag around the top of the bucket, dropped in my weight glass, and then the hops. Used a sanitized spoon to get them all wet. Snapped the lid back on, fit fine. Seems to me this will utilize the hops better, as they're not compacted in a small bag but loose and floating around. And I should be able to re-use the bag. Thoughts?

 

Hm, should work. The hop socks do have a less fine mesh as far as I can see though. Are the bags washer proof?

 

Lots of people do that exact method and have good results. I go with a disposable muslin bag personally, but the only reason is because I have a lot of them (can't remember why, heh).

 

Paint strainer bags aren't fine enough to catch all the hop debris, at least not for pellets. If you cold crash and/or filter then you're OK.

 

My method, that seems to work really well for me has always been to just dump the hops in the fermenter. Then I cold crash, then just wrap a little piece of sanitized paint strainer bag around the bottom of my autosiphon and hold it in place with a sanitized rubber band. A good cold crash drops most of the hops out as it is. I have done it this way on about 20 batches and the only time I've ever had a clog was when I forgot to cold crash before transferring.

Your method seems solid if you don't have a way to cold crash, but I'm always nervous about infection and try to limit the amount of surface area of anything that I put into the beer.