Beer Forum

I thought I heard someone on the BN podcasts (Tasty?) discuss dry hopping with a sack, but placing something with some weight, like a stainless steel nut or bolt, in it with the hops.

I use buckets, so I just toss dry hops in loose.,

If using a sack, you would need to boil the sack to sterilize it, no? Isn't this a risk of infection by placing a hop sack into the fermenter, not the boil?

jimlin wrote:I thought I heard someone on the BN podcasts (Tasty?) discuss dry hopping with a sack, but placing something with some weight, like a stainless steel nut or bolt, in it with the hops.

I use buckets, so I just toss dry hops in loose.,

If using a sack, you would need to boil the sack to sterilize it, no? Isn't this a risk of infection by placing a hop sack into the fermenter, not the boil?

Yes the hop sack and the weight would need to be sterilized (boiled) first before before adding to the fermenting bucket. You would let it almost completely ferment out, then do your dry hop. When you're ready, boil up your hop sack and your marbles or SS washers, nuts, etc for weights. I think there might be more of an infection risk from the hops that are added that are not boiled.

Can anyone else chime in on this as to why the hops aren't an infection risk?

meant this to be a response in the "First dry hopping" thread... oops

jimlin wrote:I thought I heard someone on the BN podcasts (Tasty?) discuss dry hopping with a sack, but placing something with some weight, like a stainless steel nut or bolt, in it with the hops.

I use buckets, so I just toss dry hops in loose.,

If using a sack, you would need to boil the sack to sterilize it, no? Isn't this a risk of infection by placing a hop sack into the fermenter, not the boil?

When I have done that I just submerse the sack and the weights in a star san solution then add the hops and put in ferementor.

Fremont Brewer wrote:

jimlin wrote:I thought I heard someone on the BN podcasts (Tasty?) discuss dry hopping with a sack, but placing something with some weight, like a stainless steel nut or bolt, in it with the hops.

I use buckets, so I just toss dry hops in loose.,

If using a sack, you would need to boil the sack to sterilize it, no? Isn't this a risk of infection by placing a hop sack into the fermenter, not the boil?

Yes the hop sack and the weight would need to be sterilized (boiled) first before before adding to the fermenting bucket. You would let it almost completely ferment out, then do your dry hop. When you're ready, boil up your hop sack and your marbles or SS washers, nuts, etc for weights. I think there might be more of an infection risk from the hops that are added that are not boiled.

Can anyone else chime in on this as to why the hops aren't an infection risk?

There is no need to boil hops you are going to be dry hopping with.

I have an APA bubbling away in the bucket right now, and the recipe calls for some dry hopping. I intended to simply wait a few days for the major activity to finish and toss the pellets in loose. Is there a big advantage to sinking them in a hop sack versus letting them float? Won't they break down while in there and dissolve?

I don't mind a little hop remnants getting into the bottle, although I think carefully siphoning to the bottling bucket when it's ready will keep most of that stuff out.

jimlin wrote:I have an APA bubbling away in the bucket right now, and the recipe calls for some dry hopping. I intended to simply wait a few days for the major activity to finish and toss the pellets in loose. Is there a big advantage to sinking them in a hop sack versus letting them float? Won't they break down while in there and dissolve?

I don't mind a little hop remnants getting into the bottle, although I think carefully siphoning to the bottling bucket when it's ready will keep most of that stuff out.

If you are using pellets for your dry hop I would seriously suggest using a hop bag. I had a big problem with them clocking up the ports on a keg when trying to serve. That was an odd situation because we were serving at a festival which got all the kegs stirred up, the keg was running fine in my tap box. With you bottling that may not be a large concern.

The other big thing is the appearance. If you have company and they see green $hit floating in their beer it may be a turn off. I tried to be careful about transferring as well when I did that but did not make much difference. The hop debre is very light and does not take much to stir up.

CRBrewHound wrote:If you are using pellets for your dry hop I would seriously suggest using a hop bag. I had a big problem with them clocking up the ports on a keg when trying to serve. That was an odd situation because we were serving at a festival which got all the kegs stirred up, the keg was running fine in my tap box. With you bottling that may not be a large concern.

The other big thing is the appearance. If you have company and they see green $hit floating in their beer it may be a turn off. I tried to be careful about transferring as well when I did that but did not make much difference. The hop debre is very light and does not take much to stir up.

Do you think weighting the hop bag makes much of a difference? I've got extra muslin hop sacks, so I can boil one for the dry hopping. Not sure I have something to use as a weight that I would feel good about dropping in my beer, though