dry hopping w/ chiles; getting the damn hops out of a carboy

[The_Huisvrouw]

Hey,

I have two questions today. I'm just about to brew a batch of chile ale using a recipe from an old issue of Zymurgy. The instructions say to dry hop in the primary w/ dried Sante Fe chiles. What do I need to do to sanitize them first, or can I just toss them in?

Second: I've only recently started using a two-stage system. My primary fermenter is a plastic bucket. My secondary is a glass carboy. Since the point of secondary fermentation is to clarify the beer, I don't want to dump loose hops in there when I dry hop; however, I have no idea how to extract a hop bag from the neck of the carboy once it's blown up like a big tea bag.

Suggestions, anyone?

 

[Moonpile]

I can't say about the chiles since I've never used them, but my guess would be just throw them in there. Not much can survive in the alcohol of your beer now that it's (mostly) done fermenting, and I doubt much is living on those chiles. If you want to dip them in some Star-San first, that probably wouldn't hurt.

As for dry hopping, on our recent batch we just threw the pellets into the carboy and racked onto them. No bag or anything. The smell was amazing. It was plenty easy to aim the siphon away from the hops when we racked to the bottling bucket.

There were some tiny little pieces of hop in a few bottles, but those settled out with the yeast, and, when poured properly, there are no hop fragments in the glass. Also it's AMAZINGLY GOOD!

 

[The_Huisvrouw]

Thanks!

Simplest really does equal best, innit?

Do you think flower hops will behave as well as pellet hops as far as sinking obediently to the bottom?

StarSan=iodophor?

...and tell me, if you have a minute, how your number codes next to your various batches work?

 

[attitude]

i just tried an experiment with jalapeños . I steamed them for 10 min , then tossed them into the secondary

 

[Edcculus]

I just brewed an IPA that I dry hopped with Cascade. Just to be on the safe side, I used a hop bag. I was just afraid the hop pellets wouldn't settle out. I also attached a piece of dental floss to the top and ran it out of the top to make extraction easier. Be sure to sanitize the bag and floss.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

i just tried an experiment with jalapeños . I steamed them for 10 min , then tossed them into the secondary

ooooo, let me know how that turns out.... I am very interested...