Recently brewed up an IPA dry hopped w 5 oz of pellets. Ten days later nothing but a massive pellet sludge on top. It was time to keg the beer so I just siphoned under the mess but I probably lost close to a gallon because I couldn't see what I was doing. Anyone had a similar experience ?
I've had this happen to me a few times. It does make siphoning more of a pita. I've wondered if it has anything to do with the temperature of the beer.
I've found that the majority of pellets will drop if you rock the fermentor back and forth a couple of times midway through dry-hopping.
When you have to rack off below hops (or floating fruit, or whatever), you can rack until the hops just begin to get sucked in. You'll know it because the sound, color/texture of beer in the tubing, and/or visible turbulence will suddenly change.
Put the hops in a sanitized muslin bag with a sanitized spoon or some other heavy object. They will sink then.
Just finished bottling two beers with dry hops. They were sitting at 68 degrees for 4 days. They both had a layer of hops on top. I usually dry hop between 60-65 degrees and get less on top.
This. I would not recommend agitating the beer in order to try to get the hops to drop, unless you like the flavor of oxidized beer.
I had the same experience with m second beer I ever brewed. I agitated the beer until all the hops dropped and thankfully bottled. The beer turned out super oxidized (though I drank it anyway). I'd recommend coming to terms with lost beer, or getting something to contain the hops. I primary in buckets and use a large SS spice ball for dry hopping. I use a paint strainer bag if dry hopping whole hops.
The added hop profile will over-take any oxidation notes that may happen...If oxidation becomes an issue...get yourself a HopBack, or a DFH Randall The Enemal Animal, or a SN Torpedo to dry hop.
I don't know how y'all are "agitating" the beer, but rocking a fermentor gently back and forth a couple of times with the airlock on isn't going to introduce any oxygen, it'll just knock some CO2 out of solution.
I tried this a few times but the bag kept getting sucked into the siphon. Now when I rack beer to my keg I put a BIAB bag inside the keg (happens to be the perfect height of a corny keg,) put the siphon tube into that and siphon away. When I am done, pull the bag out and most hop residue from dry hop stays in the bag.
