Dryhopping in the bottle

[Grog]

A buddy of mine who I trade homebrews with asked me to dryhop the bottles of the IPA I just made that are intended for him. Apparently he just tried a local brew from LaConner Brewing and they put one whole hop cone in each bottle. I told him I was using pellets and he said fine. So my question is: How much does a hop cone weigh approximately? I am sure there is a huge variance, but I have no clue.

-G-

[BrewDog]

Grog-

I didn't weigh them, but I'd guess 2 or 3 pellets will about cover it.

The only thing is that you should warn your buddy that he will get many fine little spinach looking flakes about the size of ground black pepper sticking to his teeth. Whole cones will be much easier to pull out before drinking. When are you bottling them?
Larry's Brewing in Renton (or is it Auburn?) is just up 167 from you. You might want to save him the experience.

[Grog]

BD - The warning has already been issued. I'm not doing it to any of the others. Larry's is in Kent on 212th St & just west of 78th ave. and were I get all of my ingredients and most of my equipment. Nice family run outfit and Larry has been brewing forever. Unfortunately, their leaf hops are not whole flowers.

-G-

[MrMethane]

Next time you brew take a little sample of the sediment left behind in your brew pot and let your friend eat it. After that I'm seriously doubting he'll want you to dry hop your beer with hops pellets. There is a big difference in drinking a beer that has a whole hops flower in it, than drinking one with tiny particles of hops pellets as they will completely disolve. With the whole leaf your not actually getting any of the plant in your mouth, with pellets your getting a lot of it and its not very pleasant.

When I first started brewing I was making a batch one day and I realized after I added yeast that I hadn't sampled the beer. Not wanting to drink live active yeast, I siphoned off a little bit of wort that was left on top of the hops sediment in my brew kettle, it was a bit cloudy but I figured it would be good enough to get a quick sample from. It was absolutly disgusting, like eating dirt. So much so that I thought I had seriously messed up my beer and I had really low expectations. The beer turned out great, I realized it was the hops pellets that tasted so gross.

[batkins]

I've had the LaConner Dry Hopped (Bottleworks) IPA.
It is INCREDIBLE. It's also, most likely, very hard to find now. The brewer, Arlen Harris, left and went to Rogue in Eugene.

Whole hops are the way to go. Then just pour your beer through a strainer or hold the splines of a fork over the mouth of the bottle when you pour.

The effect of the whole hops is unreal. I would imagine it is close to using a Randall. However my only experience with a Randall has been not so good. My local place uses too low abv beers and can't get enough hops in the container.

Back to the point, do try this, but use whole hops.