I'm still a brew newby, 9 batches, last 3 have been BIAB.
My first brew was an IPA with a ton of hops, and I dumped everything,
and I mean everything, into the ferm bucket for a week. Racked
that first batch to a secondary for a week. There were still a
lot of hops floating around in the bottles (not that I cared...
this was beer that I brewed).
After that I suspended my hops in a muslin bag for a tidier brew,
and I've been getting away from the tons of trub and muck in the
bottom of the bucket.
My last brew was a Pale Ale that called for a 3 day dry hop.
I popped into the LHBS and picked up a stainless hop ball that
indicated that the capacity was 1 oz. I poured the hops in,
dropped it in the bucket and closed it back up for the
requisite amount of time. I bottled this Saturday, and
after I racked the beer to the bottling bucket I cleaned
the ferm bucket. Nice compact little yeast cake and a hop
ball absolutely full of hop. There is no way the wort
worked it's way through that compacted ball of hops.
Now I'm thinking that if a recipe calls for a one oz dry
hop that I should split that between two half-full hops
balls.
Experts, enlighten me please.
Post #2 made 8 years ago
Leave it up to a vendor to sell a tea ball and call it a hop ball.
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- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America
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Post #3 made 8 years ago
I dry hopped with 1oz loose pellet hops for 3 days. After 1.5 days most of the hops were still floating on top of the beer, so I tapped the sides of the carboy to create some agitation on the surface which caused the hops to start settling out. After 3 days all the hops had settled to the bottom and I was able to rack the beer into the bottling bucket with only a small amount of hop debris along for the ride (this in turn also settled out during the course of bottling). I believe that more hop aroma would be achieved by adding the hops loose, as opposed to a using a bag or device like the one you described. But that's just my speculation. 
Cheers
Cheers
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- From Canada
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