Dry hopping

[dlw524]

I'm making my first small batch of highly hopped IPA and aim to add the dry hops in about four days. What do people generally use to suspend the in the wort, or do you add them loose?

 

[rodabod]

Buds or pellets?

Either way, I just throw them in, but I rock the fermenting vessel once a day or so. Some people submerge them in a weighted muslin bag. Beware that dry hops expand a lot.

 

[stevej]

Buds or pellets?

Either way, I just throw them in, but I rock the fermenting vessel once a day or so. Some people submerge them in a weighted muslin bag. Beware that dry hops expand a lot.

Beware that dry hops expand a lot ! Ale Robbers :lol:

 

[dan125]

+1 for chucking them in
Pellets tend to drop to the bottom, especially if you chill the whole lot before bottling/kegging
When dry hopping with whole hops I put a fine mesh bag over the end of the syphon tube to stop bits clogging the syphon (kids loom-bands, or other small rubber bands are great for keeping this in place)

 

[GHW]

A 20cm ish hop bag. Makes much easier bottling as it doesn't clog your siphon. Just pull the bag out when you go to bottle. I don't bother sinking it, works fine. The trick is more when to dry hop (start it after fermentation has finished, and about four days before bottling), and to avoid exposing the dry hopped beer to air as much as possible (good advice anyway regardless of dry hopping) as oxygen is pretty lethal to hop aroma. Apparently.

 

[dlw524]

Do you need to sterilise the bag?

 

[terrym]

Do you need to sterilise the bag?

In short yes.
I use a muslin bag about 200mm square, with tie strings sewn into the top so that the hops stay inside the bag. I weight down the bag using two or three stainless steel soup spoons which are quite heavy.
I sterilise the bag by boiling it for a few minutes then allowing it to cool before I add the hops. Spoons get done with Starsan before going in the bag.
I don't take out the bag before bottling since it is usually at the bottom of the FV or sometimes just submerged below the surface.
When I have finished with the bag after bottling I try to remove as much hop debris from the bag as I can and then boil the bag to kill any yeast cells then air dry before putting away. This ensures the bag is not stale when I come to use it next time.

 

[geetee]

I went to a local Microbrewery for a day to help out and he had strings hanging out of all his 1200 litre fermenters. Later when cleaning one out I found that he had a muslin bag full of dry hops tied to the string with a weight on the end. This keeps the weighted bag just under the surface and allows you to wiggle it about a bit -if you want to that is!
It's also easy to remove at the end by just pulling on the string to lift clear of the beer and allowing it to drip.