Best way to dry hop with pellets?

[ljsg]

Hi folks,

I'm about a week & a half into a fermentation, I intend to transfer my brew into a secondary this weekend and will be dry hopping with a load of hop pellets. What is the best way to do this and avoid having a load of pellet sludge left behind & potentially in my beer once bottled?

I have thought about a muslin bag but won't this still be too porous and let the sludge through (once pellets have dissolved their pretty much liquid)

 

[RM-MN]

Leave your beer in the primary as a secondary won't do anything for your beer. Dump the hops in loose. Get a paint strainer bag and fasten it around your racking cane or autosiphon and use a rubber band to hold it there. That will keep out nearly all the hop sludge as you transfer the beer to the bottling bucket, then let the bottling bucket set for a few minutes so any hops that got through will settle out.

 

[JonM]

Yep, just toss 'em loose into the primary.

I never even strain or filter the hops out. While the hops are in the fermenter, I occasionally tap the side of the plastic fermenter, which makes any of the floating hops sink. If you do get a leaf or two in your bottles, they'll sink to the bottom of the bottle along with the yeast.

 

[dstockwell]

You can use a hop bag with a SS bolt, marbles or something else (clean and sanitized), and sink em.

 

[IslandLizard]

You are right, the holes in the mesh should be fine enough not to let hop dust go through.

Although most hop pulp will have sunken after a few days of dry hopping, when racking you could pick some up when you get near the bottom. Get a fine mesh hop bag from your brew store or use a piece of muslin or voile tied around your racking cane/siphon. Boil those bags before use to kill any bugs. Paint strainer bags may work for you, or be too coarse.

 

[Roland_deschain]

I haven't had luck with the strainer bag on the racking cane. It always clogs up and has been more problems than I want. I cold crash and usually won't get much transfer.

 

[Jaxmickey]

I always use a cut/tied piece of sanitized panty hose (uber cheap) with a sanitized weight. I tie a sanitized string to the top, run the string through my blowoff hole in the lit and cork the hole to suspend. (sanitize hands too).

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

I use a one gallon paint strainer bag tied shut with a string as close to the top as possible. One bag for each ounce or maybe two ounces. I don't bother with trying to weigh them down. I just use a sanitized spoon or other to push then under the surface.

I do this in the primary fermenter. Sometimes I even squeeze some of the beer out of the hops then leave the beer sitting a while before packaging to let the hop debris settle.

The largest trub layer I have ever had was about 1/2 inch deep. The cap on the end of my autosiphon was still above the trub.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

If you have the refrigerator space, cold crashing the beer after a few days of dry hopping will cause all of the hops to sink to the bottom. Once cold for a few days, gently remove the fermentor from the fridge and then let it settle for a few minutes before kegging/bottling. For an added bonus, before you remove it from the fridge, hit the beer with a fining agent like Biofine Clear or gelatin. Not only will you have a super clear beer, but the hops and yeast will make a pretty solid cake on the bottom of the fermentor.

 

[Radboud]

I just chuck em in the primary, let them sit for a few days and then cold crash and keg. I filter using The Clarifier (HBT thread) which works well. Just cold crashing should get most if not all debris out of suspension, if you rack carefully you should be ok.

 

[ljsg]

I haven't had luck with the strainer bag on the racking cane. It always clogs up and has been more problems than I want. I cold crash and usually won't get much transfer.

I've tried similar setup before and like you my siphon clogged up constantly, the batch turned out pretty poor which I think was down to oxidisation on account of the clogs. Don't think I'll use this method again.

I'll probably just go with the hops in a bag method, just wanted to be sure that the sludge wont escape the bag.
I haven't heard of using weights before, interesting tip. presumably to make sure the hops have more contact with the beer right?

 

[Jaxmickey]

I've tried similar setup before and like you my siphon clogged up constantly, the batch turned out pretty poor which I think was down to oxidisation on account of the clogs. Don't think I'll use this method again.

I'll probably just go with the hops in a bag method, just wanted to be sure that the sludge wont escape the bag.
I haven't heard of using weights before, interesting tip. presumably to make sure the hops have more contact with the beer right?

that's what I've learned the reason to be, so I just went with it

 

[Calder]

I used to just toss the hops in and then rack to bottling bucket. Never had a problem. The hop debris dropped to the bottom and didn't get racked. Just a few flakes made it to the bottling bucket, which made it into the last couple of bottles. Not really a problem.

I guess I was finding a solution to a problem that didn't really exist. Now I've started to put a 5 gallon paint straining bag over the end of the racking cane to try and eliminate these last few flakes that make it through. Not had any problems, just one more thing to sanitize and leaves me with one more thing to clean ...... but no flakes in the last couple of bottles.

Not had any of the issues with racking/bottling as some have commented on in this thread.