Help! I’m new to brewing and was attempting to add 0.5 oz Pallisade hops to my RyePA in the secondary. Unfortunately some (about 0.25 oz?) of the hop pellets decided to fall to the floor instead of in the carboy. My question is, is it safe to use what fell on the floor or should I play it safe and throw it away and just roll with the hops that actually made it where it was supposed to go? Thanks!
Depends on what your floor looks like. If it was my floor they would be in the secondary right now. Cheers!!!
[quote=“hamiltont”]If it was my floor they would be in the secondary right now. Cheers!!![/quote] +1 The hop yard drying floors are hardly sanitary.
+2. If you’re worried about it you can throw your contaminated hops into a cup of boiling water, let the water cool and add it to the fermenter. You’ll lose a little aroma, but should be negligible.
[quote=“CliffordBrewing”]+2. If you’re worried about it you can throw your contaminated hops into a cup of boiling water, let the water cool and add it to the fermenter. You’ll lose a little aroma, but should be negligible.[/quote]My experience with “hop tea” made with water (rather than wort) is that it produces a very grassy, unpleasant hop flavor that takes months to age out. If you want to sanitize hops, I would just dip them in StarSan.
When in doubt
toss em out
