So I have an IPA that is finished dry hopping for a week. Instead of kegging I’m bottling all of the 5 gallon batch. My question is since I dry hopped it and plan to start bottle using my auto syphon will the left over hops get into my bottles, or should I sanitize another carboy, filter that IPA and drop it into another carboy then bottle from there the filtered beer? I’ve been thinking about what to do all day an haven’t came up with a good reason not to just use my auto siphon and wish for the best. However if I use the filter method and another carboy transfer I don’t want to give that beer potential off flavor a from too many transfers…and a lot of potential splashing around…
+1 - I line my bottling bucket with a sanitized paint strainer bag. It also helps to let the beer sit in the bottling bucket for a couple of hours to let some of the fine particles drop below the level of the spigot.
Also, if you can cold crash that primary it should drop pretty darn clear. That with careful racking and a filter in your bottling bucket should have you covered.
I often dry hop in my primary by just tossing in pellets. A cold crash always clears things up nicely.
I do both on my hoppiest beers - I dry hop in a weighted nylon paint strainer bag, then use a piece of nylon hose over the racking cane at kegging, to keep the beer as clean as possible. Helps.
+1 on the nylon hose. It’s a much finer mesh and seems to to a much better job to me than does paint strainer bags. Plus they’re way cheaper. The only time I normally use strainer bags is to hold fruit in the secondary of a fruit beer. I find that hops just fall right through the mesh.
The nylon hose is finer for sure. I just like to use the strainer bag to dry hop in because it will contain the big majority of hop sludge so that , on a big IPA or IIPA, there isn’t near the amount to clog up the nylon hose and slow down the racking. BTW I think I’m overdue to brew an AIPA. Gotta rectify!
What I would do is add your priming sugar to whatever the beer is in now, stir it in and let everything settle while you prep for bottling. I never used a bottling bucket, just never saw the need. The bottling wand will catch a lot of the hops and may clog, but is easily rinsed. Even better is to wrap a mesh bag around the bottom of your auto siphon and off you go. Nothing wrong with a little hop debris in the bottle and it will drop in fridge and can be left behind like the yeast when poured.
I’ve found that a nylon/mesh bag over the input end can clog up to the point of breaking the siphon. Swirling that end while racking can help, but I still find myself sucking air eventually when I’ve tried this. FWIW, I dry hop with about 2oz/gallon, so this may not be an issue at more typical dry hopping rates.
Actually I didn’t post accurately. I use a paint strainer bag (weighted) to dry hop in, and at racking, I put the piece of nylon hose not over the cane, but on the exit end. It is much less likely to lose the siphon this way. Honestly though the vast majority stays in the paint bag. And I dry hop pretty heavily too.