1st time dry hopping question

[SDouglas82]

Decided to drop the hops first and transfer the beer to secondary on top of the hops. Some of the hops are dry and floating on top. Any suggestion on how to get those dry hops down to the beer (5 gallon glass carboy)? Thanks in advance for any help.


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[mrkrausen]

This may not help you now, but I usually use a few stainless washers or some marbles, either of which I've sanitized of course. Be careful with the marbles though. I've read that some can contain lead or other harmful elements. I'm not sure if they still make those kind so you'll have to look into it.

 

[SDouglas82]

This may not help you now, but I usually use a few stainless washers or some marbles, either of which I've sanitized of course. Be careful with the marbles though. I've read that some can contain lead or other harmful elements. I'm not sure if they still make those kind so you'll have to look into it.

I thought about the marbles in the hop bag process but it seemed very difficult to get everything into the small carboy mouth.


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[Hopinista]

I thought about the marbles in the hop bag process but it seemed very difficult to get everything into the small carboy mouth.


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Getting the hop bag in is easy, getting it out after the swell from absorbing beer is a different story

 

[Travestian]

Eventually the hops will soak up enough beer and will sink.

 

[mjwj12]

Cold crashing will help too


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[Natdavis777]

Getting the hop bag in is easy, getting it out after the swell from absorbing beer is a different story

Yep. Thats why I stocked up on corny kegs and use them for secondary fermenters now. So much easier to dry hop in, and you can always purge o2 after transferring from the primary. They were running the same price as 6.5gal carboys at the LHBS so I said screw it and made an investment

 

[SDouglas82]

Thanks for all of the great advice. I actually purchased a 7.8 gallon bucket and was thinking about using that as a possible secondary. Will the extra head space be a problem for a 5 gallon batch or should I try to find a 5 gallon bucket?


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[Hopinista]

Yeah that's too much head space for secondary, find a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[Yooper]

Eventually the hops will soak up enough beer and will sink.

This. Or if not sink, at least get wet enough so that the beer permeates them. Some will float, some will sink (most will float), and pellet hops disintegrate but still some will float. No biggie, as it doesn't matter one little tiny bet. If the hops are floating, and are wet, they are perfectly fine like that. Don't be tempted to shake the fermenter or do something like that- that will risk oxygenation.

Don't use a bucket for a secondary, no matter how big. The headspace is the same in a 7 gallon bucket as a 5 gallon bucket, as it's the width that is the problem not the depth. Either skip a "secondary" altogether, or rack onto the hops in a carboy and airlock it.

 

[Painter]

I just did a batch using the marbles in a bag method. In another posting somebody suggested using dental floss tied to the bag to make it easier to pull the bag out, so I did that. I had no trouble getting the marbles and hops bag into my carboy, but pulling it out was next to impossible. I ended up having to cut it. I find it easier to just put the hops in the carboy and put a filter over the end of my siphon.