Dry hopping with no bag...

[Clint]

Hello all.
I usually bag a dry hop...the latest brew,an aipa,had a dry hop of 135g,which I decided I would just chuck in to see if the results were better...plus I was a bit busy at the time..
That was three days ago and I've just sneaked a peek...the smell is great from the fv,but...although they look wet,the hops (pellet) seem to be floating...I want to cold crash this....should I stir them in?

 

[chillipickle]

Every time i have dry hopped the pellets, they break up and float.I never stirred them, once i cold crashed they all sunk to the bottom leaving hardly any thing floating.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I’ve only ever dry hopped once without bagging. i Wanted to see if it gave more flavour and aroma as well as savIng me from having to sanitise a bag for them. They were pellets too. As above, They all sunk to the bottom well when cold crashed but unlike the yeast cake, they were very easily disturbed at kegging time and I didn’t notice a huge improvement flavour or aroma wise so I now always bag them. Big nylon supermarket fruit and veg bags.

 

[Graz]

It took me a while to get a good method for dealing with dry hop additions. To me it always seemed a bit wrong to be shoving them in a bag as the more surface area of the hop bits exposed to the beer the more flavour and aroma the should impart, right?

But having decided this I had a few nightmare transfers using the supplied bag thing to tie over the end of the siphon.

So now I cold crash for at least 24 hours beforehand and typically nearer to 48 hours, by which time the hop debris is on the bottom of the fermenter. If I aiming to transfer in 24 hours I'll try to remember to give the bucket a few knocks after a few hours of chilling as it helps to break the surface tension on the hops.

I then use one of these on the end of the cane when siphoning (eBay, Amazon, Chinese tat web sites):

I'm also careful to lower the end of the siphon gradually as it transfers so it's only a bit under the surface and no where near the hops until the last bit.

So far, so good, no blocked siphons etc.

 

[Clint]

I reset the temp to about 3*c earlier and just nipped out to see what was going on with it. It's dropping slowly...at around 11*c...I gave the fv a good smacking and the hops have nearly all sank...

 

[chillipickle]

I have always just tipped the pellets in, think i will try one of the vegtable bags next time.

 

[pms67]

Hello all.
I usually bag a dry hop...the latest brew,an aipa,had a dry hop of 135g,which I decided I would just chuck in to see if the results were better...plus I was a bit busy at the time..
That was three days ago and I've just sneaked a peek...the smell is great from the fv,but...although they look wet,the hops (pellet) seem to be floating...I want to cold crash this....should I stir them in?

I never use a bag either, no need to stir, I just drop the temp to 4 degrees for 1-2 days then batch prime and bottle

 

[Rodcx500z]

Yep same here just chuck em in

 

[Leon103]

They will sink when you cold crash.

 

[Ale House Rock]

It took me a while to get a good method for dealing with dry hop additions. To me it always seemed a bit wrong to be shoving them in a bag as the more surface area of the hop bits exposed to the beer the more flavour and aroma the should impart, right?

But having decided this I had a few nightmare transfers using the supplied bag thing to tie over the end of the siphon.

So now I cold crash for at least 24 hours beforehand and typically nearer to 48 hours, by which time the hop debris is on the bottom of the fermenter. If I aiming to transfer in 24 hours I'll try to remember to give the bucket a few knocks after a few hours of chilling as it helps to break the surface tension on the hops.

I then use one of these on the end of the cane when siphoning (eBay, Amazon, Chinese tat web sites):

View attachment 33062

I'm also careful to lower the end of the siphon gradually as it transfers so it's only a bit under the surface and no where near the hops until the last bit.

So far, so good, no blocked siphons etc.

This looks like an elegant solution but a diy alternative is to put a wire cage that holds the cork in a champagne or prosecco bottle in place inside your hop sock before putting it onto your siphon. You might need to change it once or twice depending on the amont of hops added. The cage prevents the hops sock getting drawn into the siphon and blocking it.

 

[Dr. Dirk]

I've always found pellet hops to be too astringent for my taste, so I use whole hops. But whole hops soak up so much beer that I put them in a bag, so I can squeeze them out again and get my precious beer back. After I did that for a while, I noticed there's still alot of hop aroma left in the hops after I take them out. So I increased my squeezing regimen, and now squeeze the hell out of them for about 5 minutes before removing them, making sure the beer gets swirled all around and through the hops. Big improvement in hop flavour. (I want to get the most out of the 160g dry hops I put in my IPA!)

I suppose this is a bit of a departure from the OP, as you guys are all discussing pellet hops, but like I said, I find pellets add an astringency that doesn't happen with whole flowers.