This is my second attempt at Dead Ringer - my first attempt left me with too much hop sediment in the bottles (I had similar results with a Black IPA). In the past, I sprayed a little Star-San solution around the stopper, removed the stopper and dumped in the pellet hops. After about a week, I bottled.
What’s a good procedure for dry-hopping (using pellet hops)? Is it necessary to sanitize the bag of hops / scissors?
Thanks,
Bill
what type of container do you have it in (carboy/bucket)? I personally like just dumping them in commando. The beer is alcoholic enough and the pellets aren’t overly prone to harboring bacteria, so I wouldn’t worry about infection. I’ve had good results with bags too, but there seems to be some evidence that you lose some hop character that way. If using a bag, I would sanitize it by soaking in star san, but I’m not sure its necessary. Can’t hurt.
If you’re having trouble with sediment, I would cold crash it somehow after 5-7 days of dry hopping. That will get the hops to the bottom so you can leave behind when racking.
When I dry hop, I soak a bag in starsan and then suspend in beer. Throwing them in is probably fine, but I like to keep them off the yeast, like to avoid the hop matter when racking, and usually I will use the same bag of hops and suspend in the keg too.
