What is your technique on dry hopping

I dry hop quite a bit and was wondering what others do.  I hear alot of people not using a secondary, and I would like to skip the step of transfering to a secondary if possible.  What do you do.  Wait a couple weeks for fermentation, and then drop in the hops right in the primary?  And if so, do you use a nylon bag to keep the hops semiment out or do you just dump the hops directly in.
Thanks,
Dan

I dry in the primary, secondary and in the keg.

In the primary, usually about day 4 when fermentation is winding down with pellets hops.  When the yeast floculate they take most of the hops down into the dregs.

I use whole hops only in the secondary for an added punch when called for.

Hops added to the keg can be added for a final sucker-punch of hop flavor and aroma.

Good luck!

Typically after 6 or 7 days fermenting, I toss in some pellets and leave them there for another 6 or 7.  I cover the end of my siphon tube with sanitized womens (are there mens? are they all unisex?) knee high nylons or two hop sacks to filter into the keg. 

  I have always dry hopped in the secondary, not for any other reason than that's what I've always done. With pellets I just drop em in about a week before kegging/bottling. Having said this I will Lager my beer (ale or lager) a day prior to bottling in all cases to clear the beer.
  I also have been using whole hops. I will put them in a muslin bag and twist the bag tight and "screw" it into the bottle. Untwist before dropping the bag. Leave the bag in when I rack into bottle or keg. To get them out of carboy I turn upside down, grab a piece of the bag and cut with scissors. Turn back over and fill with a bit of water, shake the carboy and the hops come out of the bag, then empty. Of course during all this I find time to have a homebrew.

Has anyone ever had their beer get a bacterial infection from dry hopping?  I would think the acid levels in hops would give them some antibacterial characteristics but I don't recall ever seeing anything published on it.

shane said:

   I also have been using whole hops. I will put them in a muslin bag and twist the bag tight and "screw" it into the bottle. Untwist before dropping the bag. Leave the bag in when I rack into bottle or keg. To get them out of carboy I turn upside down, grab a piece of the bag and cut with scissors. Turn back over and fill with a bit of water, shake the carboy and the hops come out of the bag, then empty. Of course during all this I find time to have a homebrew.

Click to expand...

This is why I dry hop in the keg. The opening is a bit bigger.

DaveinPa
I don't think dry hopping would cause concern for infection because hops has astringent qualities that kill bacteria. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is why they started putting hops in beer in the first place. To help preserve the beer.

Yep I just looked it up. It is published in "Beer Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing" By Charles Bamforth

That's what I figured but its good to have a reference source to verify it.  Thanks for that.