This may have been covered previously…
I just bought the 18" dry hopper from Zach over at Stainless Brewing and I have two questions.
1 - What is the pellet capacity?
2 - Safe to add to carbed beer, or is that a terrible idea? I want to be able to have a keg carbed up and add the hops when I am ready to serve. Would jumping to a second keg with a large amount of back pressure and a spunding valve be a smarter plan?
I put 3 oz. in the 10" dry hopper once, and I felt that there were diminishing returns regarding hop surface area in contact with the wort (which is why I also ended up purchasing the 18" version).
I think you could go 4 oz. without issue. Let me know what you think if you try more than that.
1/ IPA level dry hopping. I’ve put over 5 oz in it.
2/ I keg, add the canister for 5-7 days room temp @ carb pressure, then chill. But I like to pull it to add more hops when the aroma drops off (sometimes). Has worked fine doing that.
So adding to carbed beer shouldn’t be a problem? I guess in your scenario, the keg isn’t completely full either, so a bit of foaming wouldn’t be a big deal.
The first time I added extra hops I basically dropped the canister in and got a fair amount of foaming. After that I added hops, gently set the canister in and have been fine.
Jon, when you “recharge” your dryhopper, do you feel you get results immediately, or does it take a while to notice?
Not immediately, but fairly quickly. I notice more hop character in a day, and it probably peaks after 4 or 5 days.