Malt extract bags for storing hops, mistake?

[HeebieGeebie]

Hi all, brewing my first beer. Just started primary fermentation and all seems to be going well. I intend to rack to a secondary fermenter and dry hop, i'll be using the hops left over from my boil. However, i may been stupid, i used dried malt extract which came in zip lock bags, i thought they would be handy for storing my hops, so i just chucked all my hops in them and put them in the freezer. I didn't clean them out, so there's still dried malt extract in there. Do you think i have just increased my chances of infection when i come to dry hop? Should i boil my hops to make sure before i dry hop? Any thoughts appreciated

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Personally, I would be more worried about racking the beer to secondary than anything else. Anymore, secondary is used only for a few specific uses (long term aging, souring, oaking, etc) and even then, souring is routinely done in primary for 1+ year. Transferring to secondary only adds risk of oxidizing your beer and is another chance for infection. My vote? Skip secondary.

As for the hops, they are naturally antimicrobial (to a certain extent). When you poured the DME into the kettle, did you pour it from the bag or a container you weighed it in? I'm only asking to find out if some steam got into the bag.

I think you'll be alright using the hops as they are, but if you're really concerned about it I would spray them down with Starsan before dry hopping. *do not boil them!* Boiling hops isomerizes the oils which creates the 'bitter' and greatly takes away from the fragrance/flavor you're trying to achieve with dryhops in the first place.

As with all beers, but esPECIALLY hop forward beers, oxygen is the enemy (partly why secondary isn't recommended) so do your best to avoid splashing and keeping the lid on your fermentor as much as possible.

Hope this helps, cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

I intend to rack to a secondary fermenter and dry hop

Skip the secondary. It doesn't do anything to help and can do things to hurt like oxidation and the chance of infection. Dry hop right in the primary and get the hops in quickly when you open the fermenter to keep as much of the CO2 in there as possible.

so i just chucked all my hops in them and put them in the freezer.

Freezing is used to prevent infection. We put meat in our freezer and it will still be fine after 2 years.

Should i boil my hops to make sure before i dry hop?

No. Boiling hops will drive off the very aromatic oils you desire for the aroma and will change some of the oils to increase bitterness.

 

[HeebieGeebie]

Thanks both for the advice, i will dry hop in the primary as you suggest. Hopefully i will get better clarity with a cold crash followed by transfer into my bottling bucket.

My main concern was that by not cleaning out the DME bags and getting a fine dusting of DME on the hops, that could be carrying bacteria, maybe im just being too paranoid?

 

[HeebieGeebie]

As for the hops, they are naturally antimicrobial (to a certain extent). When you poured the DME into the kettle, did you pour it from the bag or a container you weighed it in? I'm only asking to find out if some steam got into the bag.

Sorry, forgot to answer this, no i didn't get any steam in the bag as i mixed the DME with a little water in a separate container before adding to the kettle.