Epic Dry Hop for 5am saint- advice wanted

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Braufather

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Ive tended to try avoiding dry hoping because of extra fuss, where possible concentrating on hop stands instead.

however my brew dog kit arrived and ive got to dry hop about 170g of hops.

I tend to use just use one FV, and when i have dry hopped just chucked them in loose to avoid hassle of sanitising hops socks etc

Any advice on a dry hop this large? 170g Hops dry hopped!!! Guess i cant just drop them in this time. ive ordered 3 of the stainless steel balls but think they may struggle with that volume.
 
Would be tempted just to chuck them in and use a hop sock over the end of a siphon to transfer to a secondary/bottling bucket. 170g is going to be one big sludge after a few days in the FV.

I have one of the hop balls but recon anything over 30 grams is a bit much for them once the pellets expand etc( though the do come in different sizes)
 
I've used fairly large muslin bags for bulky dry hopping, but I'm reasonably sure the hops in the middle of the bag stay drier than those near the outside and probably don't contribute as much as they should. In saying that, it keeps the mess well contained and my beer aroma has been great.
 
I may put some some in the stainless steel balls and chuck the rest in lose. also Just got into corny kegs so one option is to maybe save some for the keg?
 
I just did a 150g dry hop today, I used 3 muslin hop socks which I hope lets them be somewhat loose. I boil the muslin in a saucepan for 5 mins to sanitise them.


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I just did a 150g dry hop today, I used 3 muslin hop socks which I hope lets them be somewhat loose. I boil the muslin in a saucepan for 5 mins to sanitise them.


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do you let them dry before using them?
 
I've not dried before using. No point, a higher risk of contamination again letting them dry.



Agreed, get them used asap. They cool pretty quickly so I'm not worried about cooking the brew or anything


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I dry hop in a mesh bag with a heavy stone / pebble to weigh it down. I boil the mesh bag and stone for 5-10 mins and sanitise a bowl for weighing the hops. The comes the fun bit of getting the hops into the bag without burning myself too much. Then I slip the bag into the FV by just cracking the lid and get it all sealed up asap. I like using the bag as the hop matter in the FV just makes life unnecessarily difficult when I'm bottling.
 
If you can cold crash (and who can't in this weather?) then just chuck 'em in. They'll drop out of suspension before you you package the finished product.
 
I dryhopped 300g in my last brew a couple of weeks ago now, they were in there for 10 days in total 3 of which was a cold crash. With that amount of hops a lot floats on the surface, I gently submerged them twice I think during the 7 days, then before the cold crash I sanitised a sieve and skimmed about a pound of wet hop off the top which I gave a gentle squeeze with the back of a plastic spoon. The rest dropped relatively ok with the cold crash and I syphoned off to my bottling bucket through a mesh bag which caught a few spoons worth of bits. It's still in the bottling bucket, has been for a week I'm in no rush and all the time it's there I'm happy it's clearing more fines out to sediment. The trub in the fermenter was still a good 3cm thick but I planned all the losses in the water calculations so I can bottle the planned 20 litres (plus a bit) This is brewdog Mr. President by the way. 170g would set rock solid in 3 balls IMO, even the large ones which I have myself. Get em chucked in!
 
I am going to test out first on a pale ale I have fermenting at the moment. I have about 100g of various left over hops in the freezer that I am going to use the balls to get an idea.
With the brew dog I may use the balls for half and chuck the rest In.
 
I dryhopped 300g in my last brew a couple of weeks ago now, they were in there for 10 days in total 3 of which was a cold crash. With that amount of hops a lot floats on the surface, I gently submerged them twice I think during the 7 days, then before the cold crash I sanitised a sieve and skimmed about a pound of wet hop off the top which I gave a gentle squeeze with the back of a plastic spoon. The rest dropped relatively ok with the cold crash and I syphoned off to my bottling bucket through a mesh bag which caught a few spoons worth of bits. It's still in the bottling bucket, has been for a week I'm in no rush and all the time it's there I'm happy it's clearing more fines out to sediment. The trub in the fermenter was still a good 3cm thick but I planned all the losses in the water calculations so I can bottle the planned 20 litres (plus a bit) This is brewdog Mr. President by the way. 170g would set rock solid in 3 balls IMO, even the large ones which I have myself. Get em chucked in!
300g...............
One day Pms,one day
 
Using Muslins is the way forward Especially if your unable to cold crash. And in the boil too, im done with filtering thru a sieve, gave up on finding one that was big enough to rest on the fv on,
 
My last dry hop (after avoiding it for a while due to the amount of sediment causing racking problems) I done in a muslin bag. I've got some marbles now but I just used a dessert spoon in the bag last time. I also tied some kitchen cord to the bag and gave it a dunk maybe 2 or 3 times a day over the 4 day dry hop. It seemed to work really well, I've only sampled a couple and they're really good.
If it was a substantial dry hop I think I'd probably split it between 2 or 3 or 4 bags or whatever just so there's plenty of room in the bag for them to float and mix and spread their juicy goodness.
 

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