Dry Hopping 101

 Hops! Wet...dry...I don't care.  I've never actually done any dry hopping to date so this was a first.  Crudest way to accomplish this is to just dump the hops into the secondary fermentation loose but I'm better than that so I did some research and found a relatively easy and more refined approach.  And as a bonus this method involved marbles, or in my case some 'glass gems'.

 just don't drink them

Glass gems basically just act as sinkers to weigh the muslin bag down so that the hops remain fully submerged during the process so you get their full essence.  Lots of homebrewers claim that if they are floating on top you loose some of the goodness.  Took me about 10mins all told.  Just sanitize everything: gems, muslin bag, thread to tie it up.  Put the gems in the muslin bag or marble sack, whichever you prefer, followed by the hops.  Tie the bag off, tie on your thread or fishing line, jam into your carboy and VOILA! Dry Hopped.

 marble sack ready for deployment

fully submerged hops dry hopping away.

I'll let this chill out for at least another week.  Might bottle it next weekend depending on my schedule.  I think I'm going to need to pick up some more tall boys.  I think my inventory of bottles has finally depleted below one batches worth.