dry hopping question

i am still fairly new to homebrewing. currently on my 4th batch. In talking to someone at the st. paul store they said that for dry hopping, whole leaf hops work much better, so i went with that. I was wondering, what is the best way to dry hop? the instructions from the extract kits ive used just say to toss 'em in, basically. however, one of the videos on the site says to put them into the bottom of the carboy and then rack your beer into that carboy. i only have 2 carboys and the other one is full of another beer right now, so thats not an option. (yeah, i know, i need more carboys).

I didnt really think of this until after i already added the hops on top of the beer in the carboy(second fermenter). since they were whole leafs they are just sitting on the top and havent really absorbed. should i stir them in or somehow push them down? thanks for any advice, still gettin’ the hang of this.

They will get saturated soon and in a couple weeks, they will begin to fall to the bottom. The trick is how to get the beer out without clogging up your siphon.

I prefer my paint strainer bags(from any paint store), then you don’t have to worry about clogging a siphon or dip tube, as Greg had stated.

I’m curious as to why the person said whole cone hops were better. I still prefer pellets for about everything.

Theoretically, some people think that whole cone hops may contain more oil because some could potentially be lost during the pelletization process. In practice, I haven’t noticed a difference.

Could it be that whole cones are a bit more put together so there is less little stuff floating around in your beer as opposed to pellets which break down and can get messy?

Anyways, you can add them right on top and they’ll sink at some point.

I agree with putting the hops in first, especially with leaf. As for leaf - v - pellet, just try both and decide for yourself. A lot of times it comes down to what’s available. I normally use leaf because of my set-up, but I got a bunch of New Zealand hops awhile back in pellet form because that’s what they had for sale. Really, 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other. Hops are good, period.

thanks for the help, guys. one more question: how long after dry hopping an ipa with whole leaf hops should i wait to bottle. i dry hopped it sunday october 28. i just added them right on top and almost all have sunk to the bottom. also, any tricks for keeping them from clogging up ones siphon? i have one of the mesh bags that i was going to put on to the end of my siphon. will that do the trick?