First time dry hopping, have a question

Next time no need to use a bag, just toss them in. If you want to get fancy, use two charges. Put in half of your dry hops as a first charge. Then after each day, give the carboy a little nudge to allow the first little layer of hops to sprinkle down through the beer, and expose the next layer. After 4-5 days it will done. Then repeat the process again with the other half of your dry hops. My last batch had 1 oz. of Simcoe and Citra in both charges for a total of 4 oz. in 5 gallons....mmmm.

 

Do loose hops plug the auto siphon at all?

 

I cold crash for a day or two before transferring, which helps to settle everything out. And then just really careful with the end of the siphon. Never have issues with clogging, but I hear that some folks put a strainer bag over the end of their siphon just in case.

 

Do hops really care what the temperature it is? I can't see how cold crashing helps hops fall out.

 

The crash isn't specifically just for the hops, but after a little agitation it does help to settle the remaining few bits. Since the hops have already dropped out 99%, the crash is more for the yeast to fall out of suspension.

 

I just tossed pellets in, no bag, for the first time during a dry hop. Some hop floaties made it through the autosiphon and into the keg, but no matter. The vast majority of the hop material goes to the bottom. For carboy dry-hopping, I will be going bagless from now on.

 

Do you all use leaf hops for dry hopping in a carboy? Did that my last batch and I am considering using pellet hops to dry hop in the carboy from now on. I'm sure I could have used a better technique to get the hops in but It took some time and lost some hops.

 

I dh with pellets. In primary and keg use a paint strainer bag. In one gallon carboys just pitch 'em in. No doubt this is good exposure and they ultimately sink . . . with a little finese they can be avoided when siphoning.

 

+1 loose pellets in the carboy primary. When keg hopping I use pellets in pantyhose weighted with marbles, suspended from the lid purge valve with s/s hose clamp and fishing line.

 

This is what I do (pellets directly in car boy, cold crash, gelatin in the keg) and my beers come out clear clear CLEAR. Never had any issue ever.

 

I've only brewed four times, but dry hopped three of them (all with pellets) and all came out great. I used leaf hops in my recent batch during the boil, they clogged the heck out of my autosiphon when transferring to secondary; then the little bit of leaf hops that managed to get into my secondary fermenter clogged both my autosiphon and bottling spigot when I was bottling. So while I probably coulda/shoulda filtered/strained the leaf hops in the beginning, I think I'd recommend sticking to pellets in the secondary.