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Dry Hopping for Dummies: Don't lose your marbles.

I dry-hopped my English IPA last week, so I'm writing this short blog about my dry-hopping technique.

Dry Hopping is underway.
The amount of hops you use is a matter of taste, but I usually use 1-2 ounces in a 5 gallon batch. I'm a big fan of using leaf rather than pellet hops for dry-hopping, but they can be messy. I like avoiding the mess and have found that the best technique for me is to use a hop bag and marbles. The hop bag keeps stray hop particles from getting into the beer, while the marbles stop the hops from floating on top of it. By not floating, more hops are in contact with the beer for better hop utilization.

Boiling the marbles keeps them clean.
Before using them, the marbles need to be sterilized. This is especially true if they have been in the hands of kids, like mine have. Boil the marbles for 15 minutes, put them in the bag with the hops, pull the bag shut and drop it in the fermentor. I usually leave the hops in the secondary fermentor for the last two weeks of aging and then go straight to bottling. The finished beer will have an extra layer of hop aroma that you won't get from only adding hops during the boil.
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