Dry Hopping wih pellets

[Cathal O D]

Hey guys & gals

Is it ok to dry hop with pellets? Im afraid it will make a mess of the beer. I brewed using a musln bag but thought quite alotof the crap came through.
Any thoughts or ideas?

[Dr Jacoby]

You can but you need to take precautions. I rarely dry hop anymore, but when I do I use a giant tea ball which I place in a muslin bag. Usually does the trick.

But to be honest, I think big hop additions at the end of the boil make more of a difference to the flavour and aroma of the beer than dry hopping additions. Plus they pose less of an infection risk and don't require you to expose the beer to more oxygen than is absolutely necessary. I also agree with Shane that dry hopping can add unwanted grassy flavours.

[Cathal O D]

Cheere lads. I was going to dry hop half the batch just to see the difference.

[Rossa]

I like to DH with pellets. They just drop to the bottom of the FV. It depends what variety you DH with too. The oil content etc makes a difference to the flavours I feel. High alpha hops can be a bit harsh but come good after time.
I usually  give DHing a max of a week with sometimes 2 additions. 1 x 7 and 1 x last 3 days for example.

[Alex Lawes]

Hi Cathal,

I've done both but Rossa is right on the flavour. Basically the difference between cones and pellets is that pellets are made to release oils immediately because they're ground, but cones are designed by nature to keep their oils in.

I find pellets can make a right mess if you only want to dry hop for a couple of days. In that case go with cones and a bag.

What the pros do is use pellets but after a few days they crash the temp of the beer and they drop right to the bottom, so if you've got a fridge or something you can drop the temperature you'll get the results you're looking for.

Something to remember though is that by most accounts beer doesn't like to take in aroma at low temperature so drop the temp after you're happy with aroma and flavour, but not while it's still going on.

[Cathal O D]

Cool thanks guys