Dry hopping - Leaves?

[greenandgold]

My 3rd brew is an IPA and I wanted to dry hop so I asked at the LHBS for some suggestions and ended up with some leaves? The packaging says Kent Goldings Pellet Hops, but they definitely are not pellets. Not at all like the pellets I added to the boil anyway.

It's a pretty big IPA and I've had it in the secondary for 1 week now. I'm thinking that I should add the leaves and bottle in a couple of weeks, but should I do anything to the leaves to sanitize them before adding them? Steam? Boil? Or just toss them in?

Overly worried about infections I guess since I am still brand new to this.

But definitely loving it. Can't wait to brew a stout on Sunday. :rockin:

I've got an empty primary and secondary.

 

[MrSaLTy]

No need to do anything to whole hops before you add them for dry hopping. Just toss em in your fermentor and let em soak in. Let em sit in there for 1-2 weeks then rack off em. Basically, infection from hops just doesn't happen.

 

[david_42]

Those are actually flowers (AKA cones), not leaves. You might want to google a few images.

Enough hops will kill just about anything. That was the idea behind IPAs, heavy hopping prevented infections during long sea voyages.