Dry Hopping

[StrangeBrew]

These might be daft questions as I've never 'dry hopped' before so please forgive my ignorance...

1. Is there any possibility of infecting the beer with nasties when adding un-sanitised hops to the keg?

2. When removing the used dry hopping bag from the keg is it just a simple case of putting the lid back on and gasing up with co2 to protect the beer from o2 and to regain pressure?

[StrangeBrew]

Thanks DaaB...

Something to try me thinks!

[bconnery]

Many guys here use stainless steel tea balls as a dry hop container, both in the keg or in secondary, which are the main two choices.
Mind you, I know one brewer who dry hops in primary exclusively, despite all evidence/discussion about this driving away aroma and his beers are certainly not lacking in it! He brews a lot of US type hoppy pale ales and they always have good aroma...
Anyways, the tea balls easily fit a good amount of hops.
Ross of craftbrewer sells them but I picked mine up at a kitchen store...

[steve_flack]

If you happen to be using a Blichmann conical (I realise that puts me in a distinct minority) they recommend using pellet hops in the fermenter as whole hops bung the whole thing up - I haven't dryhopped in the conical yet but will soon....

[StrangeBrew]

Is the tea ball a better option than a hop bag?

[StrangeBrew]

The ball in the photo is 5cm dia.

It all depends on quantity of hops being used I guess. Even in a larger bag the hops will settle together at the bottom of the bag and while suspended in a keg they don't move around allowing the beer to wash through them it's more of a static seepage process.

Not sure if that makes sense to you but I know what I mean!

[StrangeBrew]

A bag it is...suspended with sanitised fishing line or cotton.

[Dan]

i heard people put marbles in the bag to ensure it sinks. is this a good practice?

[SiHoltye]

So what is the agreed procedure for dry hopping in a corni/serving keg? I have put in 25g of cascade into a 5G of Pale Ale of 4.1%. I put them there to add more aroma, but now am not sure if I want to wait longer than the expected 4 weeks conditioning as they pass the 'grassy' stage as Jim's experience suggests. Perhaps taking them out after 7 days might add aroma but not prolong the brew reaching optimum. How do the few commercial breweries that DH do it?

[CrownCap]

I think the commercials generally chuck 'em in and leave 'em!

I've dry hopped a few of my brews now and have always done that in secondary them removed them. For one I even added them into the primary after five days and left them there for a week. Its always had the desired result so far.

[Jim]

Re commercial dry-hopping, you have to remember that their turnover is much quicker, so the hops won't be in for long before the cask's empty anyway.