if heavily dry hopping, should i bag?

[jimlin]

Looking at the Little Sumpin Sumpin CYBI recipe and eager to try it. There's about 5 ounces of dry hops in that thing though. Most I've ever used is 2 oz.

With that much hop matter, should I consider dry hopping with a bag or will it really make any noticeable difference? Should I just suck it up and deal with the amount of volume loss due to the amount of hops?

[Kbar]

Good question. I am going to use Pellets due to Amarillo Leaf being out of stock at my LHBS. I am going to bag becasue I use a conical and am worried about the hop trub at the dump valve, but I am also concerned with not being able to take full advantage of the hops by putting them in a sock.

[brewinhard]

If you use a hopsack for your hops and add those to a carboy, then you will be VERY frustrated when it comes time to remove the sack as it is a huge PITA! Your best bet is to just dump the hops in and come to grips that you might lose a bit of beer from hop absorption. You can always scale up your recipe a tad to account for this next time.

If you have the ability to cold-crash, give it 2-3 days at cold temps towards the end of your dry hopping and you will be gladly surprised to see how compact those hops can really collect on the bottom of your fermenter. I have used up to 10 oz of dry hops before in a batch of double IPA and was able to get a full keg of beer after crash cooling for 3 days at 35 deg F. Just be sure to rack over carefully and not let your racking cane or autsiphon suck up any hops so you don't clog anything. Good luck and you should be okay with only 5 oz, though you might lose a little.