Dry hopping in Fermonster mesh insert

mrskittle

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I recently got a big-mouth Fermonster fermenter. I can't say how nice it is to reach inside to clean. I still have glass carboys so fighting with that oversized test tube brush is still a struggle. Along with the fermenter I also got the mesh bag insert that fits nicely in the mouth opening and the top still seals down. I like to dry hop a few of my beers and was happy to try this accessory. However, I did experience a bit of a problem adding 3 oz of hops to a 5.5 gallon batch. As hops do, they all floated and as they absorbed water, they expanded and stretched the tube and (for lack of a better term) clogged. Then they floated more and some weren't in contact with the liquid. It just didn't work out well.

Does anyone else dry-hop with the fermonster insert? Any ideas on getting the hops to disperse through the column?
 
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Fermonster has an insert? Huh.
 
Oh that's neat. I think you could do that with any reasonably large mesh bag, which I never at any point thought of.
 
I thought it was a neat idea too. Now I'm trying to figure out how to utilize it best.
 
I thought it was a neat idea too. Now I'm trying to figure out how to utilize it best.
I'm curious if you found a solution Skittle? I also have one of these inserts, but have only used it once dryhopping with 1 oz of hop pellets without too many issues
 
What I ended up trying, and it worked, was to put some marbles in the insert first to stretch the bag and now the hops all stay submerged.
 
What I ended up trying, and it worked, was to put some marbles in the insert first to stretch the bag and now the hops all stay submerged.
Sounds good, thanks! I remember now that I did have to gently jostle/rock the fermenter to get the hops resubmerged even in the mesh tube
 
I stopped messing around with strainers. with the fermonsters with a spigot you can just cold crash them a litte to drop the hops and tilt it back to slant the hops to the side away from the spigot. If you want to strain the hops so you can harvest the yeast... top cropping before dry hopping in the femronster is really easy.
 
I stopped messing around with strainers. with the fermonsters with a spigot you can just cold crash them a litte to drop the hops and tilt it back to slant the hops to the side away from the spigot. If you want to strain the hops so you can harvest the yeast... top cropping before dry hopping in the femronster is really easy.
Unrelated to the subject of the thread, but the tipping of the fermenter is my standard MO to keep trub away from the spigot.
20210725_164419.jpg
 

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