Dry hopping....hop back or chuck 'em in?

[Graeme]

I've dry hopped before but my next batch of beer I'll be dry hopping up to twice as much as my previous batches. I've always used pellets and threw them in to my secondary fermenter and racked from primary on to them when fermentation has completed. While I've never had any problems with sediment from the pellets at bottling stage, I'm a little wary this time round given I am using more, on this debate, I've seen the vast majority of home brewer's here (Ireland) say they prefer to use hop bags and that they have had problems with the sediment left behind by the pellets. What do you guys think?

 

[petep1980]

Hop bag. You can plug your bottler with that crap.

 

[msheraw]

I have never used a hop bag but i found two things that help. The hop bag just seems like it would not provide the surface area that dry hopping needs and if the bag swells so much you might not get it out of the fermenter. And as you are pulling it out you could squeeze some of the particles through anyway and then you have to delay bottling until those particlulates settle.

1. Rack to a keg first and then bottle from there after carbonating. That way the sediment has a chance to settle out even more.

2. My second solution was to use NEW strainer from a paint air sprayer. Got it at a hardware store for a few bucks. It is plastic and easy to clean. It was small enough to fit in the fermenter and has a barb that fits right in line with the racking tube. This strains out all of the "floaties" without having to go through the trouble of a filter.

 

[Trubadour]

I say just toss them in without a hop bag - I used one for my first couple dry hopped beers, and they're hard to get out if you're using carboys. Also, put the dry hops in after racking the beer so the hops can fall through the beer (per Vinnie, Pliny the Elder). The hops will settle out just like the other gunk, just be careful when you transfer to your bottling bucket not to disturb it too much.

 

[Graeme]

Thanks for the tips guys, I think it's definitely a good debate, but I think as mentioned above, using a bag might not provide good surface area. If all goes to plan like it has in the past with both hops and cocao nibs they should all float to the bottom forming a sludge, just that I'm using quite a bit more hops this time around

 

[usurpers26]

Just throw the hops in there - then cold crash the secondary for 3-4 days before you bottle...all the hops will drop.

Thanks for the tips guys, I think it's definitely a good debate, but I think as mentioned above, using a bag might not provide good surface area. If all goes to plan like it has in the past with both hops and cocao nibs they should all float to the bottom forming a sludge, just that I'm using quite a bit more hops this time around

 

[Poindexter]

I would expect pellets to dissolve in a few days.

The loosely knit hop bags I can get here in the states would be worthless by the time the pellets dissolved. On a one to seven day schedule a (loosely knit) hop bag _might_ hold youback a little bit, but over a week I not worry about it.

To do this without buying anything new I would get the beer into secondary and get the pellets in there too, and then wait for it to settle. I would make a point to position the secondary so I could siphon from it without having to move it again.

You haven't mentioned the length of your dryhop - three days, a week, a year, whatever. This would be a good time for a glass carboy so you sould see to only siphon off the clear stuff on the appointed day.

On a three or five day dry-hop I would be inclined to rack clear beer off the sludge and then let it sit a few more days in a third carboy for a week or two to clear up some more before bottling.