Dry Hop Questions

[glenn514]

Friendly Brewers...

Got a couple of questions on dry hopping, since I've never done it before. I brewed up a batch of "Tongue Splitter" from Northern Brewer, and The recipe tells me to "dry hop." Here are my questions...

1. I plan to use a muslin bag to hold the hops. I will sanitize the bag with StarSan. Anything else necessary?

2. I'm going to use to old glass marbles to hold the hops and muslin bag to the bottom of my secondary fermenter. I'll sanitize the marbles in StarSan, as well.

3. Other than sanitizing both the bag and the marbles, is there anything else I'm missing???

Thanks, in advance, for your wise advice!

glenn514

 

[Hex]

I don't use bags, just toss them in loose (whole cone or pellet). Whole cone will separate top and bottom (see pic) pellets will settle to bottom. Problem with bags is they are hard to remove when full. There is a cylindrical stainless mesh dry hopping apparatus available, but again, why bother.

I made a simple stainless hop strainer for my racking cane, commercial varieties are also available.

 

[Xpertskir]

Just dump the hops in, no bag needed

That answers all your questions

 

[unionrdr]

Friendly Brewers...

Got a couple of questions on dry hopping, since I've never done it before. I brewed up a batch of "Tongue Splitter" from Northern Brewer, and The recipe tells me to "dry hop." Here are my questions...

1. I plan to use a muslin bag to hold the hops. I will sanitize the bag with StarSan. Anything else necessary?

2. I'm going to use to old glass marbles to hold the hops and muslin bag to the bottom of my secondary fermenter. I'll sanitize the marbles in StarSan, as well.

3. Other than sanitizing both the bag and the marbles, is there anything else I'm missing???

Thanks, in advance, for your wise advice!

glenn514

No,nothing missing. I dry hop in muslin hop sacks as well to keep the gunk contained. No more than 1oz per bag & I dry hop one week. I just sampled the first bottles of my Cougar Country IPA last evening. Had 8oz of hops in it,2.4oz of which were dry hopped 1 week. A bit hazy,but perfect color,flavor & aroma.
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0004_zps4678a907.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[pumpkinman2012]

I've used up to 1.5 oz per 5 gallon batch for a Hoptimum clone and a Centennial IPA clone, left them to dry hop 2 weeks, these brews are flat out amazing!
I use to use muslin bags and marbles, they are a pain in the ass to remove from the carboy normally resulting in having to cut the bags to remove them.
Just add the pellets directly to the carboy.

 

[glenn514]

Many thanks for the rapid answers to my questions! I believe I will simply pour in the 1 ounce of hops called for in the recipe. Then, when I rack it over to the bottling bucket, most of the hops "gunk" will get left behind. Simple!

Thanks, again.

glenn514

 

[anico4704]

Be sure to use some sort of filtration on the end of your racking cane/auto siphon or you will most likely run into huge problems.

 

[heckler73]

the plastic cap on the end of my racking cane is all I need for no problems with pellet dry hops just tossed into the secondary. less equipment = less to sanitize.

 

[Silverbullet]

Many thanks for the rapid answers to my questions! I believe I will simply pour in the 1 ounce of hops called for in the recipe. Then, when I rack it over to the bottling bucket, most of the hops "gunk" will get left behind. Simple!

Thanks, again.

glenn514

Nothing wrong with that but be warned, if you need to move it to siphon, everything that "settled" will quickly turn back into a cloudy mess. That said, no matter what, with time it will clear out once bottled or the bottom of the keg. Also recommend a good cold crash before you go to bottle/keg to aid in clearing.

 

[RainyDay]

I run my dry hopped brews (or any other beer brew with any non liquid item added to the secondary) through a couple one gallon paint strainer bags. The bags catch the gunk, and my brews are gunk free!

 

[Silverbullet]

I run my dry hopped brews (or any other beer brew with any non liquid item added to the secondary) through a couple one gallon paint strainer bags. The bags catch the gunk, and my brews are gunk free!

Be careful oxygenating your fresh brew with this method. I'm sure you've had no issues, but it would be a concern for me.

 

[RainyDay]

Be careful oxygenating your fresh brew with this method. I'm sure you've had no issues, but it would be a concern for me.

Naw, never have had an issue, and ive been doing it for years. It's not flowing fast enough or hitting the bottling bucket hard enough (I do keep the hose deep in the bucket to not create excess agitation) to create the opportunity. It's a nice smooth flow of beer goodness