Wasting Hops and $?

[WYOBrews]

Hey everyone! I'm exclusively an extract brewer. Been doing it for three years. On recent double IPA's and other beers that require a significant amount of dry hopping, I've really felt that I've wasted my hops and money while dry hopping with pellets in a muslin bag after I finish kegging. You can squeze the bag and feel all of the undisintegrated pellets. It smells amazing and I can't help but feel that 70% of that hoppy goodness is going to waste. I know just throwing them in will definitely increase the desired outcome. However, I don't want to waste a ton of beer that way. Ive yried multiple bags and splitting the hops proportionally also without a notceable difference in the end result.

Without buying the hop rocket, or something similar, would whole leaf hops be the best option? They are a pain in butt loose in the bucket too though. What is everyone else doing? Biting the bullet and tossing the pellets straight in? Or, maybe I need to quit whining!

Cheers All!

 

[wickman6]

I throw my pellets right in primary, after two weeks of fermentation. There they sit for a week, then on to the keg. There seems to be a bit of hop matter going into the keg, but its very minor and settles out just fine.

 

[Dave1096]

I dry hop in my keg using a bag, and leave them in until the keg kicks. I'll start out with about 10 days at room temp then chill the keg to serving temp, and my IPA's smell great the whole way through. When I used to use a secondary I would throw loose pellets straight into the secondary, dry hop for 10-14 days, cold crash to keg, and keg hop with fresh pellets in a bag.

 

[gamb0056]

You lose a lot beer when you use whole leaf in the fermenter. They suck up a lot of liquid. That said, I've had better aroma when I dry hop with whole leaf, but I know this isn't true for everyone. When I use pellets in secondary, I only use 1 oz per bag. As others have mentioned, keg hopping is good too. You can do a bag and pellets or get a SS screen for your pick up tube and use whole leaf tossed right in to the keg.

 

[kaips1]

If you feel you are losing beer to absorption, just squeeze the hops. As far as the op and wasting hops, don't use the sack an let the pellets dissolve into the beer.