Dry Hopping - Bag vs Loose

[David Woods]

About do do my first dry hop in a kit beer but I can't decide to use a bag weighed down or just chucked in loose - using pellets but assume this won't make a difference. What's the consensus on this - does it make a difference to the amount of flavour imparted. Clearly it will make it easier to remove them.

Also when removing the bag will this not stir up the settled yeast at the bottom or should the bag be suspend above it - any help greatly appreciated.

 

[The Baron]

I would use the bag with weights. You will generally dry hop on day 4 of fermentation and remove after 5 days of dry hopping so that will give you 5 days of the usual 14 days to let it finish and settle the trub/yeast out of suspension or cold crash it for the last 2 days before kegging/bottling. This is only a rough guide so some will do it slightly differently

 

[Banbeer]

Hi David, I've dry hopped a few times recently and started by using a hop bag with a spoon in it to weigh it down, that was ok as it stayed at the bottom in the trub, I bottled and hop taste was ok. Tried one with just tipping the pellets in and cold crashed for 3 days when fermentation had stopped but the beer was very cloudy(still is after a week in the bottles) so next time its the hop bag for me.

 

[pms67]

Loose all day long for me.
Cold crashing drops them out

 

[An Ankoù]

Loose pellets and cold crashed would seem to be the best way, except I've got guests in and no access to the fridge I would normally use so this time it's leaf in a bag pushed under the surface and squeezed against the side of the fermenter twice a day for three days. Not happy about opening the vessel that many times and will have to buy some big glass marbles next time I'm out and about. I always do my dry hops after the second day after racking the beer into secondary fermenter. I reckon less of the flavour will be carried away once the fermentation has subsided.
If you're using a bag, make sure it's a big one so the hops can sell and the beer circulated around them.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I’ve only ever dry hopped using a bag so can’t make a comparison. I put the hops in a sanitised bag for 4 days after fermentation has finished and use a sanitised rubber glove to squeeze out the bag just before bottling. Had some very hoppy beers doing it like that.

 

[Bobtheblob]

I made a Youngs IPA kit and chucked the pellets in loose like the instructions said. The beers cleared up perfectly in the bottles no problem. Very hoppy taste but that's dying down with time.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Loose for me. I don't know why, but it does make a difference to the final taste and aroma.

 

[Ghillie]

Always add my DH loose. As already mentioned, they sink with a cold crash anyway. If you don;t have the facility to cold crash then you may well want to use a bag or something.

 

[marshbrewer]

Pellets. Loose. Usually cold crash / chill down to 4° c before packaging, but not always. Never had a problem with cloudy beer after a couple of weeks carbing then a couple of weeks conditioning, although I usually condition for much longer.

 

[GerritT]

Loose pellets, it will clear in a later stadium.

 

[David Woods]

Thanks all for taking the time to reply. For me I am more interested in the flavour than the clarity so as this is a sort of an experimental brew, I am going to chuck them in loose and see how it turns out. This brew has taken it's time so a bit wary of leaving it another few days to cold crash. I have other premium kits beers that need dry hoping so wanted to do this cheaper kit first - will see how this one turns out.

Thanks

 

[trummy]

To make it easy I stick the hops in a couple of small muslin bags an weigh them down by putting in a couple of marbles in each bag - stops the syphon tube getting blocked

 

[crowcrow]

I first dry hopped in some small muslin bags, but found when I removed them that some of the pellets in the middle of the bags were still dry and unexpanded. After that I got a much bigger bag, which I weigh down with a spoon. For American style hoppy beers I find 3 or 4 days best, and bottle or kegging asap after that. Longer and I find the most 'exciting' flavours are lost. But as ever, I'm pretty new to this, and only have 10 or so brews under my belt. The latest book I am ready suggests dry hopping for 2 weeks or more, but that isn't the kind of flavour I like, I assume...

 

[jceg316]

Loose all day long for me.
Cold crashing drops them out

does this work with pellets, leaf or both? What temp and how long do you crash for?

 

[pms67]

I only use pellets, stopped using leaf a long time ago, might be in my mind but I get much hoppier beers with them.
I crash to 4 degrees for 48hrs then bottle or keg

 

[terrym]

In my view if you use a bag, nylon mesh is better than muslin since it doesn't wet like muslin.
And if you chuck pellets in and siphon rather than use a tap, a small nylon mesh sock thingy over the end of the siphon cane is very effective.
At the end of the day it's down to personal choice on the 'optimum' quantity for any particular hop used for dry hopping, whether you chuck em in or use a bag with marbles spoons or whatever or nothing to weigh the bag down, dry hop from early on and then take em out or dry hop after the fermentation has finished, and further folks will also have their own view on dry hopping periods varying from 2 days to 7 days or even longer.
Bigcol49 (who sadly no longer contributes on here) used to say '10 homebrewers, 11 opinions' or summat like that and on dry hopping he was right.

 

[jceg316]

I only use pellets, stopped using leaf a long time ago, might be in my mind but I get much hoppier beers with them.
I crash to 4 degrees for 48hrs then bottle or keg

Thanks. I will try this. I used to find I get hop bits in my bottles with both pellets and leaf if I didn't use a mesh bag/strainer. When I started to contain them in muslin cloths and strainers the risk infection went way up.

 

[ExpatBrewer]

http://brulosophy.com/2017/07/03/loose-vs-bagged-dry-hops-exbeeriment-results/

"...participants in this xBmt were not able to reliably distinguish a beer dry hopped loosely from one where the dry hop addition was bagged."

 

[lancon]

there seems to be a problem withg above link, this should do it http://brulosophy.com/2017/07/03/