maybe put in a SS nut or bolt?

[bikefoolery]

I'll respectfully disagree about needing a sack. I go commando on my dry hopping, adding the pellets directly to the end of primary fermentation in the primary fermenter, then go to keg or bottling bucket.

If bottling, the first couple and last couple may have a couple floaties of hop bits, must most bottles will be very clear. It should all bits, hops or yeast, should drop to the bottom of the bottle if you lager the conditioned beer for a week.

And if you are bottle conditioning, do you always pour every last sediment filled drop into the glass?

Just Sayin'

BTW, it comes down to a personal process question. Maybe I'm just lazy. Maybe listen to Tasty's recent comments on Dry Hopping, I think He's moved away from sacks for dry hopping and gone the commando route as well (Jamil Show CYBI how to clone shows I think).

Cheers,
The Fool

[Fugglupagus]

I normally mark the caps of the last bottles out of my bottling bucket. (I use an asterisk, which in my handwriting looks like an anus) I drink those bottles first. I don't serve them to guests. If you're worried about floaties, you could try something similar with the bottles you think are the most likely to contain flotsam. I don't do this because I'm worried about bits of stuff, but because the last beers out of the bucket are the beers that have sloshed around the most during the bottling process . They are the abused. I'd rather they not be the bottles I open 12 months later.

FWIW, I don't do a lot of dry hopping, but when I do, I also rock pellets commando. This tendency grew out of a bad experience involving hop plugs, marbles, a muslin bag, and the tiny opening of a glass carboy.

[CRBrewHound]

I'll respectfully disagree about needing a sack. I go commando on my dry hopping, adding the pellets directly to the end of primary fermentation in the primary fermenter, then go to keg or bottling bucket.

If bottling, the first couple and last couple may have a couple floaties of hop bits, must most bottles will be very clear. It should all bits, hops or yeast, should drop to the bottom of the bottle if you lager the conditioned beer for a week.

And if you are bottle conditioning, do you always pour every last sediment filled drop into the glass?

Just Sayin'

BTW, it comes down to a personal process question. Maybe I'm just lazy. Maybe listen to Tasty's recent comments on Dry Hopping, I think He's moved away from sacks for dry hopping and gone the commando route as well (Jamil Show CYBI how to clone shows I think).

Cheers,
The Fool

Nope I don't pull it all, I actually leave about 1/4 of gallon to 1/2 gallon in my buckets when kegging. Personally I found it is just not worth it. As mentioned previously I took a keg of IPA that I dry hopped with pellets by just dumping them in to an event that got the keg stirred up. It is just not worth the hassel of having a stuck keg. Now if it was just on my home tap lines and I didn't pour off for a week and let it settle, one you get a consistant pour, it usually stays that way, but that one time at an event with people in line wanting it and trying to screw around with that stuff was enough for me. Just not worth the headache.

[CRBrewHound]

If you are using pellets for your dry hop I would seriously suggest using a hop bag. I had a big problem with them clocking up the ports on a keg when trying to serve. That was an odd situation because we were serving at a festival which got all the kegs stirred up, the keg was running fine in my tap box. With you bottling that may not be a large concern.

The other big thing is the appearance. If you have company and they see green $hit floating in their beer it may be a turn off. I tried to be careful about transferring as well when I did that but did not make much difference. The hop debre is very light and does not take much to stir up.

Do you think weighting the hop bag makes much of a difference? I've got extra muslin hop sacks, so I can boil one for the dry hopping. Not sure I have something to use as a weight that I would feel good about dropping in my beer, though

Yes, I have tried both and it does seem to make a difference weighting down the bag in the bucket. What I did was go down to the dollar store and they usually carry the glass stones for use in potted plants, Buy those and dump 15 or 20 into the bag, that should be sufficient to weight it down.

[mookie1010]

I'll respectfully disagree about needing a sack. I go commando on my dry hopping, adding the pellets directly to the end of primary fermentation in the primary fermenter, then go to keg or bottling bucket.

If bottling, the first couple and last couple may have a couple floaties of hop bits, must most bottles will be very clear. It should all bits, hops or yeast, should drop to the bottom of the bottle if you lager the conditioned beer for a week.

And if you are bottle conditioning, do you always pour every last sediment filled drop into the glass?

Just Sayin'

BTW, it comes down to a personal process question. Maybe I'm just lazy. Maybe listen to Tasty's recent comments on Dry Hopping, I think He's moved away from sacks for dry hopping and gone the commando route as well (Jamil Show CYBI how to clone shows I think).

Cheers,
The Fool

Nope I don't pull it all, I actually leave about 1/4 of gallon to 1/2 gallon in my buckets when kegging. Personally I found it is just not worth it. As mentioned previously I took a keg of IPA that I dry hopped with pellets by just dumping them in to an event that got the keg stirred up. It is just not worth the hassel of having a stuck keg. Now if it was just on my home tap lines and I didn't pour off for a week and let it settle, one you get a consistant pour, it usually stays that way, but that one time at an event with people in line wanting it and trying to screw around with that stuff was enough for me. Just not worth the headache.

Agree - I've had to disassemble too many kegs of free balled beers to clean out the crap. The Maharaja clone was a particularly difficult keg. Hop sacks are the way to go for me.