I dry hopped for the first time about a month ago with excellent results in the flavor and aroma area but I ended up clogging my bottle filler with hops.
I’ve heard of putting the hops in a grain bag or putting some stockings on the end of the siphon tube when transferring to the bottling bucket but I’m worried about contamination. How do I ensure cleanliness of the grain bag or the stocking? I thought of getting a giant stainless steel tea ball but then realized it wouldn’t fit in the carboy :).
FWIW. I use a plastic screen on the end of my racking cane. I’ve also heard to use a piece of a SS or copper scrubie tied to the end. When my plastic screen finally breaks I’m going to try that.
The chances for contamination are pretty slim after the beer has fermented. Not that it’s totally impossible, but much less than before it’s fermented. I use the white, knee-high nylon hose and throw 'em in a small sauce pan and heat them up for a few minutes while I’m getting the hops ready.
Why bother wasting vodka, especially since I don’t know how effective it would be. I put my hop bags in a cup or 2 of water in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and they’re good to go.
Denny, the hot microwave would work as well since we only need to sanitize and not steralize.
just for the record Ethanol (Vodka / Everclear) is a great sanitization media.
A quote from Wikipedia
“Antiseptic use
Ethanol is used in medical wipes and in most common antibacterial hand sanitizer gels at a concentration of about 62% (percentage by volume, not weight) as an antiseptic. Ethanol kills organisms by denaturing their proteins and dissolving their lipids and is effective against most bacteria and fungi, and many viruses (including SARS [1]), but is ineffective against bacterial spores.[76]”
I just keep a spritzer bottle of ETOH around the house out of habit.
In college a friend of mine stepped on a nail. Didn’t really have any other antiseptics handy so I poured jack daniels on it. Seemed to work just fine ;D
