I made a bit of a boob with this.... When I've dry hopped in the past I've used pellets and just thrown in, this time as I was using leaf hop and to avoid mess I put in a bag, which of course is happily sitting there floating on top. I had read about weighting before but it seemed to have escaped my mind. ::)
My question is will this eventually sink or partially sink at least? It's been in there for coming up on 48hours now, swirling hasn't really helped except for maybe have a few waves crash over the top. Any views on whether I should open the top and add some weight to the bag (losing whatever good might have been done already?).... Or just leave it floating and let it just do it's best with however much hop is in contact with the wort?
Cheers!
In the past i've, soaked it in a pint of room temp water (boil then cool so it's clean) for a few minutes until it's heavy, then add the bag and water back to the FV.
You could also add soemthing sterile and heavy to the bag, like sterilized marbles.
However, I'd probably just leave it as it is and put it down as a learning experience ;)
Thanks Lord, Yeah tempted to put it down to a lesson too. Won't forget next time or might use your technique... I'll get some benefit from it as it is I'm sure.
I actually bottled a couple before adding the dry hop so I'll be able to compare. Might bottle in stages to see the difference between zero dry hop, 3-4 days and a week or something.
any time i dry hopped in a bag it floated
i got one of these, im going to give it a go next batch
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000NLO0CA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000NLO0CA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
50/50 on using it for the boil but it should keep the hops down in the FV
Unfortunately, your leaf hops won't sink. The best thing you can do is weigh your hop bag down with a sanitised plastic paddle (the one most homebrewers have, available in "starter kits". Submerge the hop bag with the paddle and jam the lid on - just try not to disturb the trub. You could rack to secondary first, but I've done this "technique" in primary with no ill effects.
These days I use sanitised marbles. Dry-hopping with pellets scares the shit outta me. What if they don't sink? I know they'll sink in time, but I want to be able to limit the contact time with the dry hops to a certain number of days. I suppose if they don't sink you can just rack the beer from under the hop mass...?
Weigh down with a few marbles.
Tie off your Muslin (whatever) with thread.
Snag the thread in the lid of your FV to keep off the trub.
Quote from: LordEoin on June 24, 2013, 02:46:45 PM
In the past i've, soaked it in a pint of room temp water (boil then cool so it's clean) for a few minutes until it's heavy
According to the Hops book this is more or less what a lot of commercial breweries do (without the bag) - they make a cold water slurry with the hops and dump it in.
Yeah, it works a treat. But I don't like removing the bag and putting it back in.
For pellet matter that does not sink, give the side of the FV a puck when you pass it and it will all settle with the trub after a few days ;)