Dry hopping with citra leaves. Should I use a nylon bag or not?

So I have a Citra IPA that has been fermenting for about 9 days. Within the next few days I plan on transferring to secondary so I can dry hop with 2 ounces of citra leaves. This will be my first time dry hopping so I'm still not sure which would be the ideal method to go about doing this.

I can either sanitize a nylon bag with some marbles and use that or I can just add the leaves directly to the secondary. In other words, would using the nylon bag be worth the extra effort or should I not bother and add the leaves without a bag?

I find it much easier to dry hop, with no bag, in the primary fermenter. Then rack from under the floating hops.

Is your secondary a bucket or a carboy? Bucket, why not use the bag? Carboy, toss em in whole and rack from underneath the hops.

TANSTAAFB said:

Is your secondary a bucket or a carboy? Bucket, why not use the bag? Carboy, toss em in whole and rack from underneath the hops.

Click to expand...

It's a better bottle. I guess my other question would be, is there a disadvantage to not having them in a bag and weighed down so they are full submerged rather than having them loosely floating on the top?

jperry said:

I find it much easier to dry hop, with no bag, in the primary fermenter. Then rack from under the floating hops.

Click to expand...

I'm less concerned about what is easiest, and more about which will produce more hop flavor/aroma.

I throw mine right in the Better Bottle then tie a sanitized, nylon bag onto my auto-siphon when racking to bottling bucket.

iamperplexed said:

I throw mine right in the Better Bottle then tie a sanitized, nylon bag onto my auto-siphon when racking to bottling bucket.

Click to expand...

That's definitely a good idea. I'll be sure to do that if I decide to keep the hops loose.

How are you going to get a nylon bag full of beer swollen hop cones out of the narrow neck of the carboy? That is why I toss them in loose. I get plenty of hop flavor and aroma from this.

TANSTAAFB said:

How are you going to get a nylon bag full of beer swollen hop cones out of the narrow neck of the carboy? That is why I toss them in loose. I get plenty of hop flavor and aroma from this.

Click to expand...

I understand that would be tricky, but I'd be willing to go through the trouble if the final product turns out better as a result of the extra work. Which method produces more hop flavor/aroma?

You can always tie a piece of fishing line to the bag for pulling it out. I dry hop loose but don't see why it wouldn't work though.

I have done it both ways. Just toss them in the carboy loose, not in a bag. When you rack for bottling (or keg), sanitize a nylon bag, tie it to the racking cane and your done. This has worked very well for me. Tried the hops in a bag method twice, and it was a pain in the arse to get the bag IN the carboy and OUT once they absorbe the wort.

TANSTAAFB said:

How are you going to get a nylon bag full of beer swollen hop cones out of the narrow neck of the carboy? That is why I toss them in loose. I get plenty of hop flavor and aroma from this.

Click to expand...

Not hard at all...I bag all mine, with marbles in it. Best part is, you can use it as a cleaning device, add some water and swirling it around will take the krausen off the sides very easily. I used to do the string trick but now I DH with pellets...after putting some water in the carboy and "self cleaning" there is almost nothing in the bag but the marbles and it comes right out.

Whole leaf I always just throw then in. Pellets I use a bag

Calichusetts said:

Not hard at all...I bag all mine, with marbles in it. Best part is, you can use it as a cleaning device, add some water and swirling it around will take the krausen off the sides very easily. I used to do the string trick but now I DH with pellets...after putting some water in the carboy and "self cleaning" there is almost nothing in the bag but the marbles and it comes right out.

Click to expand...

+1
I was always "told" the hops should be submerged for dry hopping. I use a bag with glass marbles to sink the hops into the beer. I rack around the bag and remove the hops as I empty the secondary.

Ok, so I've had my dry hops in secondary for about 4 days now. I decided to save myself the trouble and put them in loose. I'm still planning on using a nylon bag to strain out any hop leaves when I transfer to my bottling bucket. However after thinking about it a while, I have a couple concerns about doing this.

1. If I put the nylon bag at the end of the hose, will it strain off too much yeast and prevent effective bottle priming?

2. Will this oxygenate it?

No and no, well no and not necessarily. Yeast is microscopic so any mesh you are likely to use isn't going to be small enough (smaller than 5-10 microns) to filter the live yeasties that are still in suspension. As far as oxygenation is concerned, just try to keep surface agitation to a minimum and you should be fine. This goes mesh or no mesh though so since the mesh will be below the surface of the beer it should be a non factor in that equation.

I've been lurking these forums since my introduction since all of my questions have been answered somewhere on the forums. Thanks to all for the awesome amount of of information available on HBT! Time to break the ice and contribute a little.

I have a bad back and rack everything rather than pouring into the primary and of course I rack to bottling buckets or kegs. After ~ 20 batches I have found that putting the hops in the boil or dry hoping, using a nylon bag in reverse works best. By that I mean I brew w/ loose hops, cool w/ wort chiller, remove the chiller and put a sanitized 5 gallon paint strainer bag over the kettle and the hops then put the siphon in . When dry hoping in either a bucket or glass carboy I do the same thing. When using with a carboy I use rubber bands to secure the nylon bag to the outside of the carboy's neck. I use a large auto siphon and it is a snug fit in the glass carboy's neck. Since the carboy necks vary a bit check the fit before hand so you don't get a surprise if it. A smaller auto siphon should fit w/o issue. Using the nylon in this reverse manor siphon around a bit when the hops gather around the siphon for a faster siphon. Another tip is to put the bag's seam on the side opposite the hops for faster cleaning. I also use this method when steeping or mini mashing. Steep/mash the grains loose then put the nylon bag over the vessel you will be draining the grains into. This way I can heat the steep/mash w/o worry of melting the bag. Same thing here, put the bag's seam on the outside of the bag to aid in cleaning the grains off the bag. Seam on the inside of the bag when siphoning off the dry hops.

I've never used a bag for dry hopping, the hop chunks in whole leaf hops are too big to fit through the little cap in the bottom of most auto siphons/ racking canes. And I have never had all of the hops not be soaked through within the first couple days of secondary. I definitely feel like allowing the cones to spread out and freely touch the beer makes for better lupulin transfer. AND if a little chunk does make it into your bottling bucket it is pretty easy to see which bottle it ends up in. Also, sans agitation, they pretty much just continue to float on top of the beer through to the last moments if racking too.