The mechanics of dry hopping

[p_p]

And by that I mean dropping hops in the beer, nothing more.

I brew in plastic bucket and bottle directly from primary.
The bucket has a snap on lid. In order to open it a leaver is pulled on the side and the thing usually creaks loudly and vibrates. For this reason, I just don't open the lid fearing stuff may dislodge and fall in the beer.

So that leaves me with a small technical problem on how to dry hop (I've never done it before but I am looking forward to brew my first IPA in the near future).

An idea would be to sit the lid on top and not to close it tightly.
Another idea would be to put the dry hops in a bag along with a magnetic stir bar and keep them suspended against the lid using a second magnet. Once dry hop day arrives, just release the magnet.

Bad ideas? Should I just open the damn thing?
I reckon if I don't splash the wort around while moving the bucket, there shouldn't be anything on the lid to fall off during the rather violent action of opening the lid ...

 

[Jacinthebox]

do you use an air lock on the bucket? Maybe drop them down the Bung hole?

 

[BigMack]

Personally, I don't think that opening it would get anything nasty into your beer from the vibrations. As long as you can open it without sloshing the beer around and getting oxygen into it you should be fine.

I use ale pails and I definitely have to work to get the lid off to drop my dry hops in, and I've never had an issue with anything funky getting into my beer.

 

[cmoewes]

There's nothing in the bucket that didn't come from the fermenting process (assuming you have good normal sanitation process). Any crud from the top of the lid is just krausen ann yeast and will just settle out if it fall into the beer. Just pop it open and drop in your hops.

 

[m00ps]

any residue in the bucket is a product of fermentation. Assuming you had good sanitization fromthe beginning, nothing that is not sanitary will be in there and cannot possibly harm the beer

 

[j1n]

pour them down the bung hole. less chance for o2 to get in with the smaller opening.

 

[Pappers_]

Do you open the bucket to bottle? Open the lid, add the hops. As has been said before, nothing harmful will fall into your beer.

 

[hvjackson]

There's nothing in the bucket that didn't come from the fermenting process (assuming you have good normal sanitation process). Any crud from the top of the lid is just krausen ann yeast and will just settle out if it fall into the beer. Just pop it open and drop in your hops.

Agreed. The only thing OP needs to worry about is keeping out *external* crud (and oxygen, to whatever extent possible).

Also, at this point the beer should be basically done fermenting and will be alcoholic, which helps to keep the beer stable.

 

[FortMillBrew]

any residue in the bucket is a product of fermentation. Assuming you had good sanitization fromthe beginning, nothing that is not sanitary will be in there and cannot possibly harm the beer

^ What they and others have said.

Pop the lid, drop the hops then RDWHAHB. Replace the lid prior of course

 

[p_p]

Thanks for that.
A follow up question is how do you disinfect muslin hops bags?

 

[RugenBrau]

Many years ago revvy told me to stop worrying and stop overthinking the problem! It was great advice! Open the bucket and drop them in

 

[hogwash]

Thanks for that.
A follow up question is how do you disinfect muslin hops bags?

Dunk it in some starsan. FWIW, pantyhose works really well for containing hops too. Better than a muslin bag, in my opinion, and i think cheaper.

 

[BigMack]

Thanks for that.
A follow up question is how do you disinfect muslin hops bags?

I just get them in some boiling water to get the job done.

 

[m00ps]

Thanks for that.
A follow up question is how do you disinfect muslin hops bags?

New ones I soak in starsan for a few minutes. Re-using them I like to boil them for a bit then dunk in starsan

 

[kombat]

I boil mine, along with some dental floss I use to suspend them in the kegs.

 

[Spartan300man]

I put several glass marbles in the hop bag so that it sinks. I dunk the whole thing in either boiling water or starsan. The first time I added a combination of 1 oz whole hops and additional oz of pellets, and the thing floated, even after the whole leaf hops absorbed the liquid, and I still had 6 or 7 marbles in it. If you are using pellets, just a couple marbles will probably work.

 

[hogwash]

I put several glass marbles in the hop bag so that it sinks. I dunk the whole thing in either boiling water or starsan. The first time I added a combination of 1 oz whole hops and additional oz of pellets, and the thing floated, even after the whole leaf hops absorbed the liquid, and I still had 6 or 7 marbles in it. If you are using pellets, just a couple marbles will probably work.

The pellets will float too. I have a keg dry hopping now with about 6 ounces of pellet hops and ended up using 30 marbles. Probably overkill but I've had em float with as many as a dozen marbles.

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

Thanks for that.
A follow up question is how do you disinfect muslin hops bags?

For .50 you buy a new one

 

[brew_dawg23]

I use a 1 gallon nylon paint strainer weighted down with glass marbles for dry hopping. I usually boil them both to sanitize.

Like the others have said, I wouldn't worry too much about contamination. Just open the bucket and drop it in.

 

[kevink]

Thanks for that.
A follow up question is how do you disinfect muslin hops bags?

If you mean sanitize, just boil them.

Also, if you are paranoid about stuff getting into the fermenter when you open it, you can always shoot starsan around the underside of the lid before you open it.