How to dry hop in carboy

[BetterSense]

I wanted to be like all the cool kids and so I bought one of those fancy glass carboys. I'm finding it much harder to use compared to buckets. In particular, I need to find a way to dry-hop. I typically use a stainless steel ball and put my pellet hops in that, but there's no way to fit it in the carboy's opening. I was thinking I could take a hops sock and boil it or soak it in sanitizer, put a stainless steel bolt in it and stuff it in. Does this sound workable? What do other people who use carboys do?

 

[kh54s10]

I got 1 gallon paint strainer bags at Home Depot.

I plan to put some marbles in with the pellet hops and suspend in the middle on a thin string. I'll just jam the string between the stopper and carboy neck. I'll be doing 2 oz. Centennial for 7 days in my Amber Ale. The beer will be ready to dry hop in a week and a half.

 

[day_trippr]

I just dump the pellets in and let them swim free for a week. Then I cold crash to 34°F for 3-4 days to drop all the pellet mush, yeast and pretty much all of the chill haze to the bottom, before using an auto siphon with a sanitized piece of nylon hop bag material covering the tip to fill a keg...

Cheers!

 

[dankev]

For those who dry hop with whole hops without a bag, do you mix them in at all? I dropped 2 oz of hops in my carboy last night. This morning I had 2 oz of hops sitting dry on top of the beer. I know it's called dry hopping, but something tells me they still need to be wet...

 

[BetterSense]

I don't have the ability to cold crash. I'm also disappointed with how cloudy my beers have been. The last thing I want to do is put pellet hops in my beer without using any sort of strainer or containment.

 

[Dr Malt]

I'm with day trippr, I just add the pellets to the carboy and let it sit. The pellets fall apart and will settle to the bottom. I don't cool to 34 F but just carefully rack to my keg or beer bucket. If you have cloudy beer, that is another issue. You will want to add some clarifying agent like Whirlfloc to you kettle boil next time.

Dr Malt

 

[Yooper]

I'm with day trippr, I just add the pellets to the carboy and let it sit. The pellets fall apart and will settle to the bottom. I don't cool to 34 F but just carefully rack to my keg or beer bucket. If you have cloudy beer, that is another issue. You will want to add some clarifying agent like Whirlfloc to you kettle boil next time.

Dr Malt

Yep, me too! Or, rather me three, I guess!

The pellets may not all sink, but you can stick your racking cane in the middle of the carboy to start your siphon and then as the level lowers, lower the racking cane so that it's under the floaties and above the trub. It works well, and I have no issues with pellets or leaf hops.