Dry hoping

[EditorAl]

I've been homebrewing for about 9 months and have yet to try dry hopping.

I'm about to shift a batch of Ponto Pale Ale into the carboy for secondary fermenation. I have 1 oz. of Cascade pellets for dry hopping.

Do I just pour them into the carboy or should I use a muslin hop bag? If so, should the bag be sterilized?

[Stodbrew]

Since they're hop pellets, I would put them in a sanitized hop bag. Also, you should sanitize a couple/few marbles and put those in the hop bag to weigh it down, so it sinks into the beer.

And welcome to the boards!

[wortchillergoal]

whenever I have dry hopped with pellets, they dissolve completely. I don't put them in a bag. I do like the idea if using a bag of adding the marbles. Yet, I am a hockey goalie and people say that is proof that I have lost my marbles.

[fuji6100]

just keep in mind that if you add pellets directly then you will have to deal with trying to filter them out when you bottle/keg. If you have a very steady hand and a lot of patience, you can syphon without stirring up any of the hops (or getting any that are floating on top) in the syphon. Usually though, it creates a big mess. I'm not that gracefull though, so your mileage may vary.

[mortong]

If I use pellets I just dump them into the secondary without a bag. You end up with a nice layer of hops for the first few days, but they eventually fall.

I don't do any filtering, and only the last six or so have any hop residue left in them. I have no problem with this - I just make sure to mark them and drink them myself.

BTW - EditorAl, where did your name come from? I'm a journalism student graduating in June.

[OldHooky]

I also just drop them in the secondary. I look at floaties in my beer as a bonus. 1 ounce seems like alot of hops for dry hopping. I've never used more than 1/2 oz for 5 gallons.

[EditorAl]

Thanks for the advise. This is the second time I've heard someone recommend using marbels to weight down the hop bag.

BTW - the name EditorAl comes from being an editorial writer and editor with a newspaper in the Washington, D.C. area.

[fretlessman71]

Welcome Al! You ought to have someone at the paper there do a story on us so we can be famous for something.... "The Homebrewers Who Had Nothing Better To Do With Their Lives", page 423.... :D

[axis714]

I always use 1 oz. and always in the secondary.
after they fall and settle its very easy to rack off the top....the only disadvantage is if youre planning to harvest the yeast for another batch...which i have also done with great success no off flavors at all detected from remaining hop break.

[denver brewhoo]

Am I the only one here who thinks it's funny that EditorAl's post (and he's an editor at a Washington, D. C.-area paper which I can only hope is the Post) is captioned "Dry Hoping"?

I'm fairly certain (as the brother of the managing editor of the Fresno Bee) that EditorAl has directed bitter sarcasm at reporters who have made similar errors, and copy editors who failed to catch them....

Just kidding, Al, and in response to your actual question, put me in the group who thinks you can siphon off the top of those fallen pellet hops without much difficulty, and if they bother you, wrap a hop bag around your siphon. The whole bit about sterilizing a hop bag and marbles and jamming the whole apparatus down the neck of a carboy leaves me a little cold; having said that, though, I like to use leaf hops, and I usually rack off them for a week or two of tertiary/cold conditioning in my chest freezer.

[paul84043]

I just throw them in, they always seem to do the job just fine from the top. Then when I transfer into the bottling bucket, they just get left behind, never had a problem with the simple approach.

The type of hops will really determine how much you throw in, if it's high in acids, then you'd probably want to go a touch lighter, but if the acid content is low (6% or so?) I'd put in a full ounce.

If you keg, you can adjust as you go to perfection. Bottling is a bit more "by the seat of your pants" or experience....