flyfisherwes said:

jlw said:

flyfisherwes said:

that black ale should be a cross between a porter and an IPA so...

Are you drinking the black ale yet? What do you think?

Its still in primary. I thought I might bottle it this past weekend but I wasn't sure so I didn't dry hop it. I can't do it til next week sometime. Whats a good way to sink a dry hop bag in a primary? My last one just had the hops floating on the top cause my friend dry hopped it for me and didn't think about it.

frydogbrews said:

i use whole hops and just let them float loose. then during the week of dry hopping, i gently swirl them around once or twice.

i used to use a hop bag with pellets though and i would just toss a utensil in there, like a clean and sanitized spoon or fork. never had any problems.

frydogbrews said:

jlw said:

frydogbrews said:

i use whole hops and just let them float loose. then during the week of dry hopping, i gently swirl them around once or twice.

i used to use a hop bag with pellets though and i would just toss a utensil in there, like a clean and sanitized spoon or fork. never had any problems.

This is exactly what I do. I don;t have whole hops very often and I prefer pellets to leaf hops for dry hoping. Maybe I have it backwards but you seem to loose less beer with pellets?

the whole leaf hops certainly hold lots of beer!
i fix that by lifting the hops out with a kitchen spider (strainer on a stick) and then squishing them down with a sanitized spatula. at first i assumed this would lead to cloudy beer, even though i am not sure why i thought that, but it doesn't

Benvarine said:

Are you guys intentionally wanting the hops on the bottom? Whole leaf floats, so where is the advantage of dumping hardware into your beer?