Dry hopping with whole hops no grain bag

I have had this happen as well. Some will say that they all will eventually sink, but that has not been my experience. Carefully stir the hops, there will be some oxygen pickup, but hopefully a small/unnoticeable amount. Be careful when you bottle so you don't pick up more oxygen. Good luck.

 

Gently swirl the beer in the carboy with a circular rocking motion, no O2. Repeat if necessary.

 

3 or 4 marbles in a bag with your hops and a bobber attached. All sanitized of course.. No mess, and all the hops utilized to their full potential. You'll also realize you will use less hops than the method you've been doing.

 

You must be using big marbles. Or not a lot of hops. I usually need a sizable handful of SS washers.

 

I just call this phenomenom "slow time release" and consider it an advantage. Have never pulled a dry whole cone dry hop bag (from a keg).

 

An advantage to dry hopping in primary or secondary, IN mesh bags, you can add different varieties hops at different stages. I add 1 oz Citra hops to my IPA 2 days prior bottling, otherwise this particular hop can get 'grassy'. There's just more options and control with dry hopping in bags. I've done both. This is just how I do it, as certain recipes calls for dry hopping in stages.

 

Check out the Dry Hopping Advice? thread on Page 2. A lot of info on there. If you're doing it in primary then just drop them in early while fermentation is still active and you can agitate without fear of O2. That should be scrubbed out. I never liked leaf in a sack in a carboy. Always a PITA to pull out and clean after it's empty. Next time I would just do pellets and save yourself even more hassle.