Dry Hoping Beer

I am almost finished with a Pale ale - 2 weeks in the 1st carboy and 2 weeks in the secondary.  The instructions were to add 1/2 oz citra hops 1 week before bottling which I did.  However some of the hops are floating at the top of the carboy and some is suspended in the beer.  I stirred the top of the beer to break the water tension and that worked somewhat, but still have hops floating thruout the beer.  Any suggestions to clearing so I can bottle soon.

Put the hops in a muslin bag and use a stainless steel skewer to poke and hold the bag down in the bottom of the carboy. The skewer needs to be long enough so you can easily pick it from the neck of the carboy. I'm getting away from dry hopping. I don't want to smell beer. I want to drink it. Apologies for sounding snobbish, but I think conditioning a beer is more important than dry hopping. When I first started brewing, I was so anxious to try my creations. Believe me when I say that the majority of hand crafted beers taste better than what you can buy ... but, letting a beer sit (condition) for a minimum of four weeks, makes all the difference in the world.

Why the false dichotomy?  Since when were the two mutually exclusive?

Even if it were true that dry hopping ONLY added aroma, your sense of smell is intimately part of your sense of taste. 

When I add dry hops I do it when I rack into the secondary. I don't bag 'em; I just toss 'em in. They form a raft at the top, then eventually settle.

That you've got bits floating and suspended means you still have some yeast activity.
Hops will sink unless there are little CO2 bubbles attaching to them, making them buoyant. 
Not enough activity to affect carbonation or alcohol content. I'm sure it's ready to bottle. But there's a little "Hey I'm not dead yet!" activity going on.

As I see it you've got two choices:
1) Bottle anyway.  You'll have hop bits in the bottom of the bottles that might end up in a glass.  I've done it before. It's no big deal. If anything it's a conversation starter. "What are these green bits in my glass?"
2) Wait until the hops settle, and then bottle. That could take a week or a month.

  Perhaps the Hop Bug has not bitten MikeinRH ... yet.  Our individual tastes are after all, ours!  I spent a few miserable hours at a Laundromat today due to a broken washing machine.  Much to my delight, the neighbor to the Laundromat was a Cafe' with outdoor seating that served Dogfish Head 90 Minute on tap!!  I did manage to fold almost half of my wife’s hospital scrubs ...  socks, what socks ...

Oh well. I'm the guy who's trying to figure out why I can't get more hops into my beer. I think it's the RO water I've been using and I have just finished two 5-gallon recipes with hose water run through a carbon filter. BTW - I also sent off a water sample to WARD Labs for testing ($36 all inclusive. Many thanks for the tip!). I've never read where dry hopping adds more bitterness to a beer ... only aroma. And I totally agree that bitterness and aroma are not mutually exclusive. My point is ... if I'm going to throw hops into a recipe, I prefer it to be during a boil. The later, the better. I can't tell you how many kegs I've tapped where the first taste has given me false hope of finally getting the hops I want. Well, we all know that the dip tube draws from the bottom of the keg ... where everything has settled. I will not give up, and many of your suggestions have proved incredibly helpful.

For my hoppy beers, I always add a bout 1tsp of gypsum to the mash.  It brings out the hop character a lot more.  It gives me a more resiny mid palate bitter profile.

Mike in RH-

If you are working with 100% RO, then I would have a base Salt addition of:

2g CaSO4
3g MgSO4
5g CaCl2

I would make these same additions to the mash and the sparge.

With 4 gallons of MASH water, that will give you a mash pH at the top end of the range (5.57) and your basic light colored ale.  Add 1ml of 88% lactic acid and you're at 5.5 pH.

With 4 gallons of sparge water, your final mineral profile will be:

Calcium Magnesium Sodium Chloride Sulfate Chloride / Sulfate
(Ca ppm) (Mg ppm) (Na ppm) (Cl ppm) (SO4 ppm) Ratio
120             18             0           159     151       1.06

For a hoppy beer, I would reverse the additions of CaSO4 and CaCl2:

5g CaSO4
3g MgSO4
2g CaCl2

Calcium Magnesium Sodium Chloride Sulfate Chloride / Sulfate
(Ca ppm) (Mg ppm) (Na ppm) (Cl ppm) (SO4 ppm) Ratio
111             18             0             64     262         0.24

That would give you a 4:1 Sulfate to Chloride ratio which should be nice and hoppy.  My Pliny clone I did with a ratio of 6:1 and it is awesome!!!!  You can go as high as 9:1.  It will make a HUGE difference in your hop forward beers.  If you are going to use your tap water then get the EZ water spreadsheet, and put in your numbers from Ward labs.

PS: 1 teaspoon is about 5 grams of any of these salts.

Dry hopping doesn't add bitterness, but it DOES add flavors.  The oils that dissolve into the beer from dry hops will create flavors as well as aromas.  Once you get your water profile worked out, I recommend that you give dry hopping another try.

I trust your opinion. I also look forward to getting my water analysis back from Ward labs.

Many thanks.