Hoppyland
Senior Member
Yep, I am a bit paranoid.
So, what I do is put the dry hops in a saucepan, boil a kettle, then pour boiling water over them and bang a lid on right away. (I only ever use leaf hops for dry-hopping). This does 2 things. Firstly, it puts my mind at rest, as I reckon the hops were probably OK anyway, but that the boiling water reduces the infection risk to extremely minimal. Secondly, it wets the hops so they don't float. Well, they will float if your beer is still fermenting, but what I mean is that you don't get a "cap" of dry hops floating on top of your beer & achieving little.
So, technically more "wet" than "dry" hops, but (to quote Blackadder about being drugged by God or Baldrick) the effect is much the same.
So, what I do is put the dry hops in a saucepan, boil a kettle, then pour boiling water over them and bang a lid on right away. (I only ever use leaf hops for dry-hopping). This does 2 things. Firstly, it puts my mind at rest, as I reckon the hops were probably OK anyway, but that the boiling water reduces the infection risk to extremely minimal. Secondly, it wets the hops so they don't float. Well, they will float if your beer is still fermenting, but what I mean is that you don't get a "cap" of dry hops floating on top of your beer & achieving little.
So, technically more "wet" than "dry" hops, but (to quote Blackadder about being drugged by God or Baldrick) the effect is much the same.
