Dry hopping

[EvanAltman36]

I'm currently dry hopping with a weighted and suspended muslin bag. My question is how to deal with that come racking time. I typically cold crash for a couple days prior to kegging. Because I can't remove the bag until after I rack the beer, I'm wondering what to do with it. Do I simply let it fall to the bottom and lay on the yeast bed prior to crashing? Or maintain suspension by tying it off on the carboy handle and just rack around it?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

well normally you could tie a string to it and pull it out, I would not cold crash with it in although I don't think it will hurt anything depends on how long the hops stay in, after 4 days you start to taste the grassy part not the flavor with pellets anyway and that really depends on the hops some will last longer

my advice is to pull the beer off the main carboy into another and cold crash in the clean carboy, thats what I do

 

[EvanAltman36]

I've got a string on it to keep the bag suspended in the beer, but the 3oz of hops and the added marbles won't pull out easily at all. If I transfer, won't I be risking oxidation since the remaining yeast won't really be doing anything to produce CO2 and force out the oxygen in the head space? I hopped on Wednesday, so I can crash tonight and keg Sunday.

Also, my clean carboy is plastic, and the resultant sucking in from cold crashing could cause o2 to enter, no? I'm thinking that I can drop the hops to the bottom prior to cold crashing and then just rack to keg as usual.

Would keeping it suspended, even while racking, cause any issues? For instance, once the level of the beer gets below the bloated bag of hops, will the resultant dripping release more hop residue into the beer?

I apologize for nitpicky questions. Again, I usually just toss the hops into the carboy, then the cold crash drops them to the bottom prior to racking. That's why I was thinking of just dropping the whole bag to the bottom just before crashing.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

the only issue with would be if the hops were suspended above the beer line for more than 2 days can cause mildew, another thing, the hops bag is full of beer and needs to be drained, if you leave the hops in just let it sink to the bottom and don't drain because that will defeat the purpose of the cold crashing it will cloud the beer back up

Ive never had oxidation from adding to another secondary, just don't splash or shake, my secondary in the cold crash freezer is sealed air tight also don't pour use the auto siphon to transfer. just do your first experiment and see how it goes, there is really no wrong way to do anything

 

[EvanAltman36]

How long would it take for oxidation to occur anyway? Would a two-day cold crash even be long enough? I was thinking about giving the second carboy a quick blast of co2 to push out the oxygen before capping off.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

2 days at least for cold crashing I do 3 or 4 now at 36 and if using gelatin even longer if you using a zero degree freezer just before it starts to freeze will work, like i said I don't get oxidation at all so don't know. you get oxidation from stirring or shaking and just push down on the lid to force air out right before it will be fine, been doing it this way for years, remember if you keg like I do you can force all oxygen out easily so rack to a keg immediately after the cold crash then fill and purge several times