Sanitize hop bag

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pretzelb

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I am near doing my first dry hop for a batch and I was thinking of using a nylon hop bag that I normally use for the boil. Obviously it needs to be sanitized but I'm not sure what would be best. I could soak or spray it with Starsan but won't that leave an off flavor? I'm not fearful of foam with Starsan but the bag would hold a decent amount of the stuff wouldn't it? Then if you let it try it's not sanitary anymore right?

Maybe I don't need to bother but I thought it might be useful in keeping the pellet debris contained for when I siphon to the bottling bucket.
 
I am near doing my first dry hop for a batch and I was thinking of using a nylon hop bag that I normally use for the boil. Obviously it needs to be sanitized but I'm not sure what would be best. I could soak or spray it with Starsan but won't that leave an off flavor? I'm not fearful of foam with Starsan but the bag would hold a decent amount of the stuff wouldn't it? Then if you let it try it's not sanitary anymore right?

Maybe I don't need to bother but I thought it might be useful in keeping the pellet debris contained for when I siphon to the bottling bucket.

Definitely use a hop bag for dry hopping. Makes life much easier for me. Throw the hop bag in a pan of boiling water for a minute or so to kill anything on it, fill with hops and throw in carboy - you're good to go!

:mug:
 
I heard the pellets eventually just fall to the bottom and you can rack the beer out for kegging or bottling no problem. I've never dry hopped with pellets but will be doing so this coming week and I'm just going to toss them in there with no bag.

For whole leaf, I always just toss them in with no bag.
 
In my experience, Star San doesn't change the flavor of beer.
If you don't want to use Star San, you could boil the bag first.
I'm a bit lazy and usually just pour the pellets in and wait for them to settle before bottling.
 
Definitely use a hop bag for dry hopping. Makes life much easier for me. Throw the hop bag in a pan of boiling water for a minute or so to kill anything on it, fill with hops and throw in carboy - you're good to go!

:mug:

This works fine, but for the record: Starsan will not leave an off flavor if diluted properly. I use disposable hop-socks, but I just let them soak in the San while I'm getting ready to transfer, and then fill em, and drop em in. No problems ever. You can also pop the bag/sock in the microwave for a few minutes on high.
 
I usually boil the bag. But the last APA I did I just tossed the pellets in the secondary. I wanted to DH for 10 days, but it took longer than that for them to fall out making racking a little trickier than I wanted. Next time I'm using the bag.
 
I use a stainless hop ball but I dry hop in the keg.

Mike

How do you get it out? Or do you just leave it in the keg till you drink it all? I've been looking at those, and wondering how I'm going to tether it to the top of the keg so I can remove it after the DH period to avoid grassy off-flavors.
 
How do you get it out? Or do you just leave it in the keg till you drink it all? I've been looking at those, and wondering how I'm going to tether it to the top of the keg so I can remove it after the DH period to avoid grassy off-flavors.

I just leave it in the keg. I attach it to the dip tube, but sitting here thinking about it I'm not sure why as it isn't going anywhere.

The only "off flavors" I've ever gotten is in the first few pints and I find that there is usually yeast and some sediment in there anyway. The last IPA I made had a really citrusy first few but it went away quickly. I'm thinking that it was pulling beer off the oz of cascade near the end of the tube.

Mike
 
I just leave it in the keg. I attach it to the dip tube, but sitting here thinking about it I'm not sure why as it isn't going anywhere.

The only "off flavors" I've ever gotten is in the first few pints and I find that there is usually yeast and some sediment in there anyway. The last IPA I made had a really citrusy first few but it went away quickly. I'm thinking that it was pulling beer off the oz of cascade near the end of the tube.

Mike


You can put a phillips head screw driver that is a snug fit into the dip tube
place the dip tube over you knee and slowly bent it further That way you leave the trub and yeast in the corny. Some people prefer to cut off an inch off the end of the dip tube. I sometimes use the cornies I've done this to as secondary fermenters.
 
What I do to hop in the keg:

Preboiled nylon hop bag suspended from a worm clamp attached to the inside of the pressure relief valve. If you attach anything to the diptube, you will have to reach into the beer to remove it. To remove my hops, I just lift the lid and remove the worm clamp and hop bag.
 
+ 1 on simply boiling the bag for a few moments prior to use. I've never had a problem with contamination. I usually condition in a carboy so a bag is a pain in the a@@. I usually put the hops in loose and put a strainer or bag over my racking tube when I transfer to bottle.
 
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