Dry hopping -Jon's stupid question of the day

[jongrill]

I will be racking my 60 Minute clone to secondary today and adding hops for dry hopping. My question is:


Hop sock or just pour those pellets in?


Thanks!

 

[bleme]

Totally up to you. We did a poll in my brew club a few months ago and about 1/3rd poured straight in and used a filter on their racking cane. 2/3rds used a hop sock weighted with stainless steel or glass.

 

[jongrill]

Totally up to you. We did a poll in my brew club a few months ago and about 1/3rd poured straight in and used a filter on their racking cane. 2/3rds used a hop sock weighted with stainless steel or glass.

Decisions decisions....

 

[jongrill]

Bleme would a marble work as a weight?

 

[abledsoe]

I just recently did my first dry hopping and I put the pellets right in the carboy and racked the beer over it. Most of the hops settled out at the bottom and I cold crashed for a couple of days before kegging it. I put some cheese cloth around the auto-siphon when I transferred to the keg and got almost no residue in the keg.

Good luck.

 

[funkphiler]

It is really up to you. I have commercial experience and I will say this. it really freaking sucks when you get those pellets suck in your filter. We would use a hop bag and still get crap in the filter, but we were using more than you would. What I would do is get one of your girl friend's or mother's pantyhose and throw your pellets in there. Since you will be throwing it into the boil no sanitization is required, just make sure and wash those things before use

 

[bleme]

Marbles make good weights.
Use a big handful and boil them first.

 

[sawbossFogg]

It is really up to you. I have commercial experience and I will say this. it really freaking sucks when you get those pellets suck in your filter. We would use a hop bag and still get crap in the filter, but we were using more than you would. What I would do is get one of your girl friend's or mother's pantyhose and throw your pellets in there. Since you will be throwing it into the boil no sanitization is required, just make sure and wash those things before use

Who's throwing it into the boil? Homeboys asking about secondary!

 

[billl]

Not a stupid question at all. Tossing them right in assures maximum usage. It runs the risk of hop floaties as you rack. Bagging them makes future transfers a bit easier, but you need to make sure they are weighted down . It is also sometime as PITA to get a bag out of a carboy.

 

[sawbossFogg]

Not a stupid question at all. Tossing them right in assures maximum usage. It runs the risk of hop floaties as you rack. Bagging them makes future transfers a bit easier, but you need to make sure they are weighted down . It is also sometime as PITA to get a bag out of a carboy.

Is it believed hop oils will permeate up from the bottom? Why is it important to sink when a floater is entirely in solution?

 

[Calichusetts]

I love marbles in a hop bag...works great for me. Completely submerged and yet the marbles create a little more space to make sure the hops and beer are mixing well. I don't have any issues getting it out. I usually fill up the carboy a tiny bit, shake and pour out most of the gunk before I clean it anyway...if your using pellets, it will completely dissolve doing this and by the second or third pour, the hop bag comes out the neck or at least to where I can pull it out. Fill the oxy and leave it for a while...

I also find that with the hop back you contain the particles more. When I would just add them straight, it would create a mucky layer that even with cold crashing would stir up easily. I either had to leave some wort behind or get some haze going into bottling, which kind of defeats the cold crash. Not that the beer wouldn't clear up but I really don't like doing one technique only to have it interfere with another

 

[jonrk]

I have always just thrown the pellets in without a sack. I keg and any hops remnants that get transferred over to the keg are gone after the first pour for me.

 

[bleme]

Another option is to go with whole leaf hops. They soak up more of your beer for some reason but they are a lot easier to leave behind.

 

[billl]

"Is it believed hop oils will permeate up from the bottom? Why is it important to sink when a floater is entirely in solution?"

If you use whole hops to dry hop, the whole bag will float up and you can easily have some of the hops completely above the beer like a big raft.

 

[Jayhem]

I dry hop with loose pellet hops every time. Use a paint strainer over your cane when transferring and never once had a problem.

 

[sweetcell]

another vote for throwing the pellets straight in, no bag. a lot of the pellet material will sink on its own, cold-crash for 48 hours and any remaining pellet gunk will sink like a stone. i put a hop sack over my racking cane (auto-siphon) and that catches what few specs get kicked up at the end of racking.

 

[jongrill]

I ended up racking to secondary and tossing the pellets right in there. I think I'm going to look into whole leaf hops for next time!

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

Not a stupid question at all. Tossing them right in assures maximum usage. It runs the risk of hop floaties as you rack. Bagging them makes future transfers a bit easier, but you need to make sure they are weighted down . It is also sometime as PITA to get a bag out of a carboy.

a good reason to use a bucket

 

[Effingbeer]

I ended up racking to secondary and tossing the pellets right in there. I think I'm going to look into whole leaf hops for next time!

It is difficult to get whole hops out of a carboy when it is time to clean up. That's why I use pellets.