Dry Hopping to weight or not to weight

[wedge421]

Ive dry hopped a bunch of beers and never weight my hop bags when I throw them in. Should I be? And what do you guys use to weight them if you do?

 

[JoeBronco]

I weight them down, not for any reason really. Just out of habit.
I use a chunk of sanitized hardened plastic. Drops the hops to the bottom.

 

[Yooper]

I never weighted, and can't see any reason to.

 

[samc]

For pellets I wouldn't bother. For leaf hops it gets them wet faster and I've had some situations when a lot of dry hops (5oz) would not get completely soaked into the beer. I saved the internal SS keg parts that I use for weights.

 

[kable]

I never weighted, and can't see any reason to.

So do you just sprinkle your dry hop leafs through the fermentor on top of your beer? I did this 2 days ago and my hops are still just sitting on top. This doesn't seem like it will inject aroma throughout but I am new to this.

 

[JoeBronco]

So do you just sprinkle your dry hop leafs through the fermentor on top of your beer? I did this 2 days ago and my hops are still just sitting on top. This doesn't seem like it will inject aroma throughout but I am new to this.

Put it in a hop bag, Normally the hop bag sinks. Putting a weight just makes it happen quicker. I get to much residue when i dont use a hop bag.

 

[Yooper]

So do you just sprinkle your dry hop leafs through the fermentor on top of your beer? I did this 2 days ago and my hops are still just sitting on top. This doesn't seem like it will inject aroma throughout but I am new to this.

Yes, but I generally don't have a problem with them. They will get "wet" and still be in contact with the beer. If you still have some on top and not in the beer, you can gently swirl the fermenter to moisten the hops. I don't use hops bags.

 

[wedge421]

K cool. I put them in a paint strainer and just drop them in normally. Thanks guys!

 

[kmk1012]

Is the process the same if you are using glass? Seems like a hop bag would be hard to get out after swelling up. Just wondering.

 

[Shinglejohn]

I use a bag in my glas carboys and it is kind of a PIA to pull out.

 

[ksbrain]

^^^
what he said

I thought I'd try a hop bag with my pellets, but I was using a carboy. I totally ripped the bags trying to get them out of there, and I couldn't harvest the yeast. It totally sucked.

So now I never use hop bags - I always use pellets and always in a carboy. I guess if I were dry hopping in a bucket, I might try weighted hop bags and/or leaf hops. But for now I love pellets naked in the carboy. Ten days and time to keg!

 

[JoeBronco]

I guess thats a bonus of my conical...