Dry hopping

[dan_man]

I'm going to be dry hoping my first batch soon. I wanted to know is it ok to use a muslin bag with my hop pellets so I can remove them after 5 days.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Yes. Just be sure to soak it in sanitizer first.

 

[porterpounder]

It is. Drop it in a bucket of sanitizer first. Just make sure there is plenty of room for expansion or the pellets expand quite a bit and you won't get the most out of them.

 

[lcbjr77]

I'm curious would cheese cloth work as well? I have a ton on it kicking around the house

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I've found that muslin bags (and probably cheese cloth) are sometimes too loosely woven and the hops just fall out leaving an empty sack behind. I use nylon hop bags with good results.

 

[2005STi]

Just curious, why do you want to remove the dry hop but continue conditioning the beer? If you give the carboy a tiny tiny shake each day during the dry hop, it will all drop out. Now you're not risking contamination from the bag that has a ton of spaces to harbor nasties. If I used a muslin bag, I'd boil it first then hit it with a quick star san bath then into the fermentor to be extra safe.

You could also cold crash with the loose dry hop. Stick the carboy in a bucket of >50° water for say 8 hours and you'll drop a lot of yeast and all of the hops to the bottom then rack into keg or bottling bucket.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

If the dry hops are left in room temp beer then it can start to extract grassy flavors that are generally undesirable. If the beer is cold it won't extract those flavors.

Also, if you are looking to drop things in the carboy I'd recommend less than 50°F instead of greater than 50°F. If you can go longer than 8 hours it is only better. It will just lead to clearer beer.

 

[dan_man]

What is the best temp and time line to dry hop?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

What is the best temp and time line to dry hop?

That is like asking if liquid yeast is better than dry yeast...

 

[porterpounder]

For IPAs and DIPAs I get good results dry hopping at 65 for 3 days with half the hops, pull them and add the other half for another 3 days. I get a much fresher fruit, less green/grassy flavor from this method than single dry hopping or longer stands.

 

[Roadie]

Multiple hop stands do give you a larger aroma as opposed to just 1 dry hop. Usually if I'm only doing a single dry hop I just drop the pellets into primary and let it sit at room temp in my basement for 4 days. If multiple dry hops are needed I do the first in primary and the rest in a keg using a SS cylinder where I can purge the O2 out after each swap. If I want to wash the yeast I only dry hop in keg as it's one less layer of trub to deal with.

 

[Jim311]

I didn't even use a bag when I dry hopped my IPA with pellets. It all sunk to the bottom with the trub. A few hop chunks in my beer just adds authenticity