Last weekend I kegged and same time added keg dry hops to an IPA I had made 2 weeks earlier. After racking into 2 corny kegs (10 gal batch), there was +1 quart extra, uncarbonated beer, to which no dry hops had been added.
I wanted to get a feel for what dry hopping would do for this beer. So, I carbonated the extra quart of beer with a Carbonator Cap (my first time using one), and then infused some of that with some dried whole summit hops, removed with a mint julep spoon, and squeezed additional hoppy beer through the spoon into my glass after the spoon was removed.
It made a tasty beer into a very tasty beer, of course still in need of conditioning. The process helped me anticipate what my finished kegged beer will taste like. It also was timed so I could have revised my dry hop addition in the kegs, although I didn’t feel that was needed.
Next time I will just cold steep some (preferably whole) hops in any extra uncarbed beer, strain it, and then carbonate via the Carbonator Cap… a much better approach.
The Carbonator Cap is a great tool, that I never thought about much as to how it can be used to dial-in dry hopping rate, and even dry hop combinations for the bulk of your batch.