Question about priming after dry hopping

[jaytee21889]

Hi. I'm getting ready to bottle my first brew. I brewed Midwest's Hophead DIPA kit with a few modifications. I ended up dry hopping with four oz of whole leaf in muslin bags. I've read that people can lose a significant amount of beer to the hops when racking to bottle, so I'm wondering if I need to adjust the amount of priming sugar to account for the potential loss. It's a five gallon batch and the kit comes with 5 oz corn sugar.

 

[eluterio]

In short yes you can still use the 5 oz and be fine. I think you will end up with a higher carbonated beer having a little extra oz of sugar. I think you want to get about 2.4 vol for this DIPA or even 2.5 I would use between 4 oz to 4.23 oz.

 

[fearwig]

Squeeze the bags. If you can't find a sanitary way, squeeze them in a pot, and bring it just barely to 170F. Cool somewhat, add to fermenter, allow to settle (or cold crash and gelatin, if you're me).

I don't waste a quart of IPA, much less all the concentrated hop essence in that bag. You don't have to get every drop, but most of that volume is easily reclaimed.

 

[jaytee21889]

Thanks guys. I'll probably try and squeeze the bags if I lose a significant amount. Would washing and sanitizing my hands be sufficient? Would I run the risk of oxidation fishing out and squeezing the bags? My initial concern is more that I might over carb and explode bottles if I lost a lot, but if that's not an issue I can rest a little easier.

 

[fattymaroon]

What I've done for squeezing hop or grain bags is sanitize two sets of tongs, one to hold the bag, the other the squeeze. It helps to have two people, but with hops should easily be doable with one. Starting from the top of the bag and squeeze your way down.

And enjoy your first homebrew!