A Safe Way to Dry Hop Beer

Bring water in the medium saucepan to a boil and let the marbles, the mesh bag and the length of fishing line sit in the boiling water for about five minutes. This will sanitize the materials so they don't introduce contaminating bacteria to your fermenting beer.

Remove the materials from the water and dump your desired amount of hops into the bag along with the marbles. The amount of hops you use depends on how strong you'd like the hops to be within your beer. This will come as you experiment with different types, amounts, combinations and soaking times of hops. For your first few batches, a rule of thumb is 1 to 4 oz. of hopes for every 5-gallon batch of home brewed beer. Don't let the bag rest on any unsanitized surfaces, as this could let contaminating bacteria get on the bag and ruin your beer once it's inside.

Tie up the bag with the sanitized length of fishing line and allow a longer tail of fishing line to hang off. This will be the length of fishing line you allow to hang outside of your carboy (the container for your beer while it ferments) and will let you pull out the dry hop bag once you're finished.

Drop the dry hops bag into the carboy three to five days after you begin the fermentation process (that is, three to five days after you boil the wort and transfer it to the carboy to begin fermenting) and make sure it is entirely submerged in the beer. Allow the fishing line to hang outside the carboy and replace the lid. Leave the dry hops bag in the carboy until you're ready to siphon off and bottle your beer, then take the dry hops bag out of the carboy.