Dry Hopping question

[brew703]

I brewed a scaled version of Oddsides PA this past Sunday. I used a slurry of US-05 from a previous brew. As of yesterday, fermentation was still going strong. Had to replace the airlock with a blow off tube.

I have to add 2 oz of hops. Recipe shows 14 days. I've never dry hopped before and not planning on transferring to secondary. My plan is to leave in primary for 14 days then bottle. Would I add the hops today or would it be best to wait until fermentation is done?
Do I need to take steps to sanitize the hops?

 

[bobeer]

wait until fermentation is done. And no don't sanitize the hops. Just toss em in there

 

[TheBigLebrewsk1]

Also you could use a muslin sock, but bobeer is correct

 

[Kalmah]

You would typically wait until it is done because the CO2 being released during fermentation will carry away a lot of the aroma you're trying to add with dry hopping. You never need to sanitize the hops, just throw them in.

 

[bobeer]

Also you could use a muslin sock, but bobeer is correct

this is a good idea too. If I'm using pellets I don't bother with the bag but if I'm using whole cone hops I always use a bag and put a weight in it to drop it down so they don't just float on top. I've gotten better results this way using the whole cones. If you do use a weight of some sort, or a hop sock, you can sanitize those things but not the hops.

EDIT: forgot to add... if you're using a bag for whole cone hops stretch the bag out nice and good so the hops have enough room to grow and let their resiny goodness out into the beer.

 

[brew703]

Thanks for the replies. I'll be just tossing them in this time.

 

[pdog44450]

As the others said wait till fermentation is complete. When using leaf hops I use a muslin bag with a sanitized shot glass in it so it sinks. If using pellet hops I just throw them in. Apparently hops are not a good surface for bacterial growth so as long as they were frozen or in an unopened package there's no need to sanitize them - I've personally never had a dry hop contamination issue

 

[pshankstar]

I finally got a pair of steel balls!!! LOL I've been waiting to write that!!! [emoji12]

On a serious note I purchased a pair of 1" stainless steel balls/bearings to help keep the muslin bag weighted down when I dry hop. I have two fermenters so I wanted a set so I could dry hop both at the same time if needed. I boil the bearing before I place it in the muslin bag (which is also boiled with the bearing).

My one fermenter is the FastFerment conical fermenter so I try to minimize the debris that may clog the valve above the collection ball. The other fermenter is a plastic bucket. I dry hop in a muslin bag just to keep the debris to a minimum but I've also just thrown the hops into the bucket.

Here's a link to the SS balls/bearings I purchased.

Two 1" Inch Stainless Steel Bearing Balls G25 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007B2A84S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20