First dry hop attempt

[Camberwell Canary]

How do people dry hop? I have a simple two Young's buckets with taps system. After primary, straight to batch prime in the second bucket via some food grade tube. Then straight into the bottles via little bottler. Works well for me so far and I don't want to overcomplicate things.

I'd like to dry hop in primary. Only have loose hops in stock. Muslin bags sounds like a faff. However, it sounds like I'd need an auto siphon with some sort of filter to stop the hops clogging up the tap.

What do people think? Are there any other advantages to using an auto siphon?

If you could link to your favourite auto siphon with filter, I'd be v grateful. Young's auto siphon looks good, but what filter to go with it?

 

[orlando]

Auto syphon with a fine muslin hop bag tied on. Boil the bag before using, perfect combination for loose leaf. Alternatives are a stainless steel tea ball weighed down with sterilised glass marbles or better a big SS ball both from ebay. Home Brew shop for the auto syphon and fine muslin bag.

 

[Camberwell Canary]

Great thanks. Sterilised marbles sound fiddly. Not my style...

 

[orlando]

Great thanks. Sterilised marbles sound fiddly. Not my style...

Just boil. Careful of shattering though. SS ball best.

 

[PD]

if theres a need to dry hop...I try and do it into clear beer, so towards the end of secondary vessel. A boiled muslin hop sock holds my mixture of leaf hops, weighed down with a a boiled suitable weight. Left for as long as required and then removed and the brew continued as normal....not really hard or tedious to do.

 

[Camberwell Canary]

If I dry hop in primary, presumably any weight/muslin-bag approach risks disturbing the sediment? So far I've had decent results without secondary fermentation (not to say I won't try it at some point).

I like the auto siphon + muslin idea (not to say there is a right or wrong way). Seems like the option least likely to end up with gunk in the finished product.

 

[orlando]

If I dry hop in primary, presumably any weight/muslin-bag approach risks disturbing the sediment? So far I've had decent results without secondary fermentation (not to say I won't try it at some point).

I like the auto siphon + muslin idea (not to say there is a right or wrong way). Seems like the option least likely to end up with gunk in the finished product.

The last few brews have centered the dry hopping on this technique as I have experienced hop leaf partially blocking the syphon that has had the effect of creating turbulence and aerating the beer, at just the point you need to avoid it. I have no evidence for it but suspect the hops floating freely can do the job of dry hopping in the fermentor a little more efficiently than others that rely on containment