So I’m still relatively new to this whole brewing thing. My son and I brewed a NEIPA today. We’ve had issues them turning dark before, so our big plan was to do this one oxygen-free. We’re fermenting in a 7-gallon stainless conical. I read about a way to use food-grade kitchen magnets (one inside the hop bag tucked up under the fermenter lid, one on the outside to hold it in place), so that when it’s time to dry-hop, we would just pull off the outside magnet, causing the bag of dry hops to fall in.
Alas, after brewing and before pitching, when I was messing with the magnets, I accidentally dropped the bag containing 9 oz of hop pellets (supposed to be for dry-hopping) right into the wort! We had to decide whether to leave them in or pull them out… and decided to pull them out. For now, while the wort is beginning to ferment, the soggy hops are in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, sitting in the fridge.
The question is, can we still use those in a week or so when we’re ready to dry hop, or will they somehow go bad sitting in the fridge for the next week. Should I buy new hops?
Thanks! I guess there’s another question in there (which probably HAS been asked before), which is, does it really matter if the dry hopping is done oxygen-free? For next time, is there really much harm done by just quickly opening the fermenter lid for 10 seconds and dropping them in?
Dry hopping should be done extremely carefully because it can introduce oxygen. For NEIPA the best way to dry hop is just before the fermentation is completely finished so that the yeast can clean up the DO that will inevitably be introduced since it is dragged into the beer with the hops. You might also get some biotransformation depending on the hops and yeast you use.
In your case I would NOT put those hops back in the beer. While hops are antimicrobial by nature wort is not and it will pick up some infection by the time you are ready to put them back into the beer (the wort soaked into the hops I mean). Plus, the hops will have been oxidized. You probably should have just left the hops in the wort and gone ahead with your fermentation and added more dry hops later.
