[war2112]

Hello all,

I may try my hand at my first dry hopping. I would like to do this in the primary. I do have a 5 gallon glass carboy that I have had for years. Got it with my first kit when I tried this 20 years ago and that was just the way things were taught back then. I would of course have to clean it well but I would rather not rack to it. All of the newer advice I see suggest not using a secondary unless adding fruit, bulk aging or of course dry hopping.

I realize fermentation must cease in the primary before adding the hops. What about the muslin bag? Do you sanitize that? Seems like it would take a long time to dry and then could still get stuff on it i the meantime. Plus I worry about getting that sanitizer into the beer. Also, can I just put the hop pellets in the bag and just submerge it? Seems like it will just float to the top. Should I weight it with something that won;t react with the beer?

All advice appreciated!

[HoosierBrew]

I dry hop in nylon paint strainer bags and dunk them in starsan before dry hopping. I shake off the excess, let it drip dry for a couple minutes, add the hops and let 'er rip. No worries. 

[war2112]

I dry hop in nylon paint strainer bags and dunk them in starsan before dry hopping. I shake off the excess, let it drip dry for a couple minutes, add the hops and let 'er rip. No worries.

Hey, thanks! I have StarSan so that's the route I will go. Where do you get those strainer bags you mentioned? Lowe's, Home depot or a dedicated paint store? Also, will the muslin bag work as well?

[HoosierBrew]

I dry hop in nylon paint strainer bags and dunk them in starsan before dry hopping. I shake off the excess, let it drip dry for a couple minutes, add the hops and let 'er rip. No worries.

Hey, thanks! I have StarSan so that's the route I will go. Where do you get those strainer bags you mentioned? Lowe's, Home depot or a dedicated paint store? Also, will the muslin bag work as well?

Any hardware store has them, including Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.. I like them much better than muslin because they retain the vast majority of hop matter, where muslin lets quite a bit through.


Edit -  I get the 5 gallon strainer bags and use a zip tie around the top, to give the hops lots of room to expand. dissolve and circulate their goodness.

[war2112]

I dry hop in nylon paint strainer bags and dunk them in starsan before dry hopping. I shake off the excess, let it drip dry for a couple minutes, add the hops and let 'er rip. No worries.

Hey, thanks! I have StarSan so that's the route I will go. Where do you get those strainer bags you mentioned? Lowe's, Home depot or a dedicated paint store? Also, will the muslin bag work as well?

Any hardware store has them, including Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.. I like them much better than muslin because they retain the vast majority of hop matter, where muslin lets quite a bit through.


Edit -  I get the 5 gallon strainer bags and use a zip tie around the top, to give the hops lots of room to expand. dissolve and circulate their goodness.

Thanks a bunch! Sounds good on the larger size, I can see where that would help!

[wayneslucky]

Not sure that you need any more answers to your question, but I get my nylon bags from MoreBeer, and I give them a good soak in my sanitizing solution, diluted Starsan, before throwing them into the carboy/fermenter. These nylon bags can also be used during your boil so that you don't have tons of hops/hop pellet junk floating around in your wort when you pour into your fermenter. They wash easily in the washing machine too to get all of the hop funk removed afterwards.