Dry hopping with grain bags

[trufleshufle13]

hi, first time poster and beginner brewer here. only have two batches under my belt and they are both still fermenting ATM.

i was wondering if it was at all possible to dry hop using a grain bag. i would like to start dry hopping with my next batches, but im not to fond of all the added sediment that comes with it.

i figure you could get a grain bag fill it with the hop pellets, tie it tight and cut off all excess bag. drop it at the bottom of the carboy and do everything else the same you would normally. except at the end u only have a bag sitting at the bottom instead of all the sediment.

obviously some would get out, but it would have to cut down some what.

i was just wondering if there is any reason not to. such as adding a foreign object to your beer. and/or not letting the flavor float around as freely.

 

[Reelale]

I would recommend the finer mesh hop bags. They are nylon. The muslin grain bags will not contain much of the pellet hops. Just boil the bag before you place it in your fermenter. Lot's of brewers do it this way. If you're dry-hopping in the primary, wait until fermentation is nearly complete, or complete before adding the hops. CO2 will scrub out the aroma otherwise.

 

[trufleshufle13]

oh nice, i didn't know they had bags specifically designed for it. thanks man.

 

[Blueberryspies]

You can also just throw the hops directly in and then wrap a hop bag around your siphon while bottling to catch all the debris.

 

[Shaggyt]

I find that hop pellets fall out of suspension when you crash cool. But that assumes you have a spare fridge and that you keg.

If bottle conditioning, you could still crash cool, then add some yeast (saved from primary) to the bottling bucket. Prior to racking to the bottling bucket, bring the beer back up to room temp after crash cool.

This worked pretty well for me, though Blueberryspies' idea works well also.

 

[JewBrew]

You may find it easier to dry hop using whole leaf hops in the form of plugs or the actual cones. The reason is that pellet hops are ground up and extruded hops which disintegrate leaving lots of trub (crap on the bottom and sides). Using whole leaf hops can prevent much of that trup.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I found that muslin bags work fine for dry hopping with pellets. The hops swell CONSIDERABLY, and don't escape the muslin mesh. Typically, I just toss dry hops loose into the primary after 2-3 weeks post pitching, and they all sink down and I rack off above them.

If you do want to use a bag, it might be very tricky to do it in a carboy. I only use bags in corny kegs because otherwise they swell up so much it's damn near impossible to get them back OUT of the carboy. YMMV.

 

[Blueberryspies]

I found that muslin bags work fine for dry hopping with pellets. The hops swell CONSIDERABLY, and don't escape the muslin mesh. Typically, I just toss dry hops loose into the primary after 2-3 weeks post pitching, and they all sink down and I rack off above them.

If you do want to use a bag, it might be very tricky to do it in a carboy. I only use bags in corny kegs because otherwise they swell up so much it's damn near impossible to get them back OUT of the carboy. YMMV.

It's not that tricky. With whole hops you may to divide the hops into two bags, because otherwise it won't fit. Usually I can get about 1oz in with no problems.

Then to get the bags out I just use a sanitized bottling wand to fish out the bag.

 

[Daparish]

I've used a very fine nylon bag with as much as 3 oz of pellet hops added after primary fermentation comes to an end. Just be sure to sanitize the bag first. I also had to put a glass shot glass in the bag as well to get it to submerge all the way, so if you add any glass items (glass because it won't react to the beer) sanitize them as well.

 

[badhabit]

I dry hop in a fine mesh bag all the time using whole hops weighted with marbles. I tie up with a long string and then tie to the outside of the neck. When ready to condition I pull the bag up to the top of the neck of the carboy and then take the beer off. The bag drains as I siphon. Then I have to cut the Knot on the bag and proceede to wash the hops out of the bag still in the carboy. Then I can basicly just rinse the bag marbles and hops out. It isnt as easy as it sounds some days but it works. Getting the bag out of the carboy full of wet hops....not going to happen. Minimal hops in the trub....far less than using pelets. Unflavored dental floss works great for the string. I have learned to add the dry hops when you transfer to secondary to work the C02 out, not to add a day after transfer.