Sanitizing hop bag prior to dry hopping

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jmd1971

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I am planning on dry hopping in the keg using a mesh hop bag. Should the bag just be soaked in sanitizer like other equipment? I've always just thrown the dry hops in & am now trying a bag so am unfamiliar.....
 
I am planning on dry hopping in the keg using a mesh hop bag. Should the bag just be soaked in sanitizer like other equipment? I've always just thrown the dry hops in & am now trying a bag so am unfamiliar.....

Yes, that will work. Sometimes I'll be getting ready in the kitchen when I'm kegging, so I've boiled the hops bags as well. Either is fine.
 
Either way works. Back when I used to use them I did both. It seems easier just to soak them though. I always have a quart spray bottle of starsan in distilled water handy, often I'll just dump that into a bowl and drop whatever I want to sanitize in.
 
I do the same as revvy when dryhopping using a bag. Soak the bag for a bit in starsan then proceed.:)
 
+1 for starsan.

Let is soak for a couple of minutes, put the hops in and down it goes :D

Boiling is really great but, call me maniac, in the time where it's out of the kettle and in the carboy / keg, it could get bugs on it. When it's full of starsan, it's unlikely to happen :)
 
After dryhopping in a bag with leaf hops, I quickly realized that I'll never do that again. What a huge mess and waste of time... And pellets sink, so I don't see the need for a bag whatsoever. To get more aroma, using more dryhops would be better vs. bagging a lesser amount and weighing them down. If you're worried about excess trub, then wrap the bottom of your racking cane with the mesh bag to prevent hop/yeast particles from entering the bottling bucket.
 
After dryhopping in a bag with leaf hops, I quickly realized that I'll never do that again. What a huge mess and waste of time...

I've actually found the opposite to be true...getting loose leaf hops through the mouth of a carboy, even with a funnel, is a long, messy process. In a bag I can just jam them through without hops going everywhere.
 
Try getting that huge, bagged bulge of hops in-and-out of the neck of a carboy without it busting and stirring up the trub. This is especially a problem in the primary.

Most people add the leaf hops to the empty secondary BEFORE adding the beer on top of them.
 
Right, that's what I'm saying is easier - getting the bagged bulge of hops through the neck. Takes some pushing, but it sure beats trying to funnel & getting leaf hops everywhere, IME. Haven't had one burst yet. And it's on the top, so no concern about disturbing the trub.

I use a 5g nylon paint strainer bag, soaked in StarSan.
 
A 5 gallon paint strainer bag filled with 3-4 oz. leaf dryhops is quite large... especially when you weigh it down with spoons, marbles, or washers it can be a pain in the ass to add/remove. It also kicks up yeast from the bottom.

My suggestion is to rack the beer on top of the loose leaf or pellet hops in the empty secondary, OR... drop loose pellets into the primary. That way, you won't run into any of these problems.

It solves your funneling loose leaf hops concern.
 
A 5 gallon paint strainer bag filled with 3-4 oz. leaf dryhops is quite large... especially when you weigh it down with spoons, marbles, or washers it can be a pain in the ass to add/remove. It also kicks up yeast from the bottom.

My suggestion is to rack the beer on top of the loose leaf or pellet hops in the empty secondary, OR... drop loose pellets into the primary. That way, you won't run into any of these problems.

It solves your funneling loose leaf hops concern.

Yeah, I don't weigh mine down, so that helps on the size. It just floats submerged on the top...doesn't disturb yeast either.

Definitely agree on pellets...much easier for dry hop, though not always available...I use what I can get.

Secondary would be easier for hopping, but I don't like the time & effort required to rack to secondary, plus I usually don't have spare carboys floating around.

Just my experience and preference.
 
I am dry hopping in a corny keg so not really concerned with getting it out of the carboy. When hopping in a carboy, I usually use pellets, but now I only dry hop in kegs. The mouth is definitely wide enough to get the bag out easily.
 
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