Dry hopping bag or not

[HopFart]

I'm new to brewing and had read so many different opinions on dry hopping. Looking for a clear answer. Bag or no bag and how many hops?

 

[GenIke]

If I'm dry hoping in primary I dont bag. If I'm hoping in the keg I do bag. How much depends on the recipe.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

There's no clear answer. You can do either; personally I just chuck my hops in cause I don't want to deal with sanitizing the bag. But I can see how a bag is cleaner in that it's easier to corral the hops. That being said I've never had an issue with free flowing hop leaves getting into my beer.

Amount depends on recipe, but usually between 1 and 2 ounces for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[Teromous]

I have done it both ways and I prefer a bag. In my experience the hops don't create a compact layer like yeast does during cold crashing, but instead make this thick murky layer at the bottom. I get more final beer when I use a bag, which is important to me. An alternative is to dry hop without a bag and use a hop bag over your siphon to act as a filter. I've done this and to me it was a hassle and just ended up making a mess...so again the best solution for me is a bag.

 

[lpdjshaw]

Also depends on beer style. I dry hop IPA's at about 1 oz/gal in a bag.

 

[Malticulous]

I've been zip tying a small sanitized paint strainer to my racking cane. A bag would never fit in the carboys anyway. No hops get into the bottling bucket or keg.

 

[HomeDrewBrew]

I did my first dry hop in my 2nd batch and used my wifes panty hose.Sanitized it and a few of the kids marbles in the base of it and knotted.
Then added hops with another knot and in she went suspending in the middle of brew..

 

[Natdavis777]

If I'm dry hoping in primary I dont bag. If I'm hoping in the keg I do bag. How much depends on the recipe.

This is pretty much what I do as well. 99% of the time I dry hop in the primary though with loose pellets. Say, for an IPA, I will use 3oz per 5 gal. A good cold crash with drop the hop particulate to the bottom.

 

[Ivypunx]

Its up to you. I usually just drop them straight in.

 

[Calder]

Looking for a clear answer. Bag or no bag and how many hops?

You really expected a clear answer!

Try different ways and decide for yourself. This is one of those things that produces the same results which ever way you do it, and it is more for convenience.

Me:

- For pellets, I just toss them in and use a sanitized 5 gallon straining bag on the siphon to keep pellets out of the bottling bucket.

- For leaf, I bag and use marbles to weigh the hops down.

 

[bobbrews]

Do not dryhop in a bag if the beer is in a narrow-necked carboy. When wet, the bulge of dryhops will swell up and make removal very difficult.

Just toss them in, seal up, and when it comes time to rack, secure a mesh bag around your racking cane to filter out any debris.

 

[Juno_Malone]

Do not dryhop in a bag if the beer is in a narrow-necked carboy. When wet, the bulge of dryhops will swell up and make removal very difficult.

Just toss them in, seal up, and when it comes time to rack, secure a mesh bag around your racking cane to filter out any debris.

Quick tip for removal of swelled hop bags from narrow-necked carboys:

Once everything has been racked off to keg/bottling bucket, tilt your carboy upside down so that the bag is resting against the neck of the carboy, and then just get up in there with some scissors and gash away at the bag. Tear it apart as best you can. Occasionally shake the carboy to re-position the bag so that you can gash away at another side of it. Eventually it'll be so torn up that you can pull it out pretty easy. This can get kind of messy, but only takes a minute or two. Afterwards I do a quick rinse of the carboy in the sink to get all of the hop bits out, then a soak in PBW solution for an hour or so.

 

[bobbrews]

Quick tip for removal of swelled hop bags from narrow-necked carboys:

Once everything has been racked off to keg/bottling bucket, tilt your carboy upside down so that the bag is resting against the neck of the carboy, and then just get up in there with some scissors and gash away at the bag. Tear it apart as best you can. Occasionally shake the carboy to re-position the bag so that you can gash away at another side of it. Eventually it'll be so torn up that you can pull it out pretty easy. This can get kind of messy, but only takes a minute or two. Afterwards I do a quick rinse of the carboy in the sink to get all of the hop bits out, then a soak in PBW solution for an hour or so.

If you use reusable bags, which most people do, then gashing them with scissors is basically throwing money out of the window.

Just toss the pellets in loose.

 

[CUrchin]

I use a couple stainless steel tea steeping balls per oz of hops. I am more comfortable with the sanitation that way.

 

[snowveil]

By bagging the hops you're potentially limiting the available surface area of the hops the beer has to extract oils from.


If you have the means to cold crash (IE, you're using a fermentation fridge), just dry hop loose for however long you'd like (I usually go 4-5 days), then cold crash as low as you can go and everything will settle out. I've had zero problems with racking using this method.

If you can't cold crash, racking can be a pain if you let the hops free ride in the carboy. Bagging will eliminate this issue but you're risking losing out on aromatics. If your hop bag is swollen or compacted when you're taking it out, you've lost out on the contact potential on the inside of the bag. Maybe try splitting your total dry hop regimen into two separate, smaller, dry hops instead.

Either way, I've done both. I prefer to let them free ride then cold crash.

 

[slym2none]

I'm with snowveil on this. I go commando with my hops (at all points) and have cold-crashed my brews to a nice clarity.

 

[HopWolf]

Ok I've found this after going "commando" with my dry hop pellets. In the past I've always used a small hop sack or three and weighted down with a SS nut. I've always felt that I was missing the aromatics using the bags and yes they were a bite to remove, I also never reused them.

With this batch I added 3oz after a few days in the secondary and there beer started bubbling and belched out some hops (messy but smells good) and after a few minutes I added the airlock and I plan on adding an oz or two to make up for the belch.

I will cold crash for a couple of days before bottling and I don't care too much about clarity but I'm more concerned about this belch out of hops. I'm at my F.G. so I don't believe this was a stuck fermentation and I also didn't leave that much head space in the secondary as normal.

Anyone experience this or know what caused this?