Well, guess I won't be doing that again...!

sbaclimber

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After recently reading a few posts in another thread here, in which the posters claimed to add dry hops un-bagged, I thought to myself, "That could save a bit of cleaning in the hop-bag department....let's give it a try!"
So, I dumped in the pellets (Side note: accidentally added 300g of pellets, instead of the 200g I had in my recipe. Also, shortly wondered if everyone might be adding cones and not pellets!? But, meh, bugger it, what's the worst that can happen!?) and left them in the bucket a week.
Today, I bottled, and wasn't thrilled...:confused:
First and foremost, the hop-sludge at the bottom of my fermenter cost me at least a liter of good beer! Normally I would've been able to squeeze it back out of the bag.
Secondly, not all bits of hops had sunk to the bottom, and despite filtering while transferring to the bottling bucket, there was still enough of them to wreak havoc with my fill tube!
...not to mention them in the bottle, but that i can live with (they will settle out).

NO MORE DRY HOPPING WITHOUT A BAG FOR THIS GUY!!!
 
You’ll get that without any sort of a bag. It happened with my last IPA. Siphon got clogged. some of the hop matter sank and some floated. In the end, it did settle out in my keg and the beer turned out GREAT
 
I'll keep dry hopping without the bag. There is half a gallon of yeast and trub down there anyway and the hops doesn't make it much more in my experience.
 
I'll keep dry hopping without the bag. There is half a gallon of yeast and trub down there anyway and the hops doesn't make it much more in my experience.
Probably a matter of scale, recipe and equipment.
I brew ~25l in a bucket. Normally I have <1" of yeast in the bottom, so virtually no loss. 300g of hops is quite a lot of matter for 25l and definitely noticable in the >1" layer of brew-soaked dregs earlier today. :(
 
I never dry hop without a bag.
 
I never worried about it, just cold crash and it all settles out. I never tried squeezing a bag after dry hopping though.
That’s what I do as well, but I never use a bag. If you hops are free to roam in the fermenter, you can get by with less hops. The bag reduces the contact the hops have with the beer.
 
Ive done both ways, in traditional pales where the hopping rate is < 2 oz (56 g) I just toss them right into the bucket and I swirl the bucket twice/day to increase contact.... now in the neipa Im getting ready to package ; it calls for 4oz at day 2 and 4oz day 5 (225g) of fermentation- I used my SS keg hoppers to pull them out and lessen the contact time and possible vegetable tastes - they drain super well and no floaties headed to the keg
 
Yeah at 200g dry hop that's up there but as per others expierence a good couple day 0c cold crash should drop out most particulate. Bottom of my bucket is usually up to 3 inches of trub
 
I tried "just dump 'em in" once. Once being the key word in that sentence.
 
A good cold crash and a conical bottom really helps. I just transferred 5 gallons from my Brew Bucket (has a conical bottom) and transferred nothing but clear beer and I added 2 oz of pellet Cascade and Citra hops without a hop bag.

A good cold crash and an adjustable dip tube makes all the difference in the world.

It really depends on your fermenter.
 
I think I am preferring to dry hop in the keg these days.

As others mentioned, a good cold crash will get most of the hops to settle out in the fermenter. Before cold crashing I will give the top a light swirl and the hops break up and start to settle on their own. When doing hoppy beers I increase my batch size to account for beer lost to hop trub.
 
Currently cold crashing a west coast style IPA that received 4 oz of dry hops, tossed in loose. Had a peek at it tonight, everything is settling out nicely, plan to keg it Tuesday night.
 
I kegged this batch tonight, the hop residue dropped out nicely. I did pull some into the keg near the end, but it will settle in the keg over the next couple days and should end up in the first tug. Well worth it to me to get that extra hop wonderfullness in there. I may consider a hop tube for keg additions like Bob does in the future. I should note that I use pellets.
 
Interesting product!
I just watched a review video on it. My first thought was that you would need to use a pump to make these work, but in the video I watched the guy just used gravity. This guy used two of these in line, the second one had a finer mesh.
 
Looks like you could also use that inline filter as a Randal type infuser to add hops or fruit or whatever when your pouring.
 

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