Home of the BrewNosers

I had recently split a batch of Berliner Weisse (2:1 Wheat DME to Extra Light DME) with the intention of adding second generation Mangrove Jack Voss before inoculating carboy A with WLP655 Belgian Sour mix 1 to produce a more traditional Berliner Weisse. With carboy B, the intent was to allow the Voss to do it's thing before pitching some skyr to introduce Lactobacillus. I under-pitched the Voss to encourage more juiciness, and it is fermenting slowly (for a kveik strain, 1.043 - 1.028 in 5 days).

As it turns out, my hops were ready for harvesting, and I found myself with just over a pound of fresh Cascade hops. I quickly abandoned the idea of pitching skyr, and decided to add the hops to carboy B with the hopes of building some sort of hazy/juicy IPA.

At the moment, I've got about 2-3 inches of fresh hops sitting on top of the beer, with no beer contact. Should I be concerned that, as time goes on, the hops will remain out of contact with the beer? Is is possible that the fact that the wet hops moisture content contributes to the hops not settling into the wort? Should I tamp down the hops to ensure contact?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would suspect your only option would be doing punchdowns on the fresh hops, just have to be aware that you'll be increasing oxidation risk. I know people do use whole cone for dry hopping to success, but I'd be concerned about utilization with the surface area contact being much lower.

Its a bit late for you this time but if you try again I would suggest putting the hops into a hop bag with some sanitized marbles to weigh it down. I use that trick with all my dry hops to ensure they submerge into the beer and get good contact.