Dry hopping in the keg questions ?

[blatz]

@brewinhard

@blatz

I have a couple of kegs dedicated to dryhopping.  I use a Surescreen on the diptube, purge the dryhop keg, hook CO2 up at 2PSI to the liquid out while opening the bail to dump in the dryhops.  I let that run for a little bit.

Then I push beer into the dryhop keg from the fermenter.  dryhop for however many days I want, cold crash under CO2 and then push the beer from the dryhopped keg into a fresh, purged serving keg.

works well for me.

Those sure screens don’t clog up on you Paul? Are you using pellets or whole hops?

surprisingly, no.  knocks on wood I was nervous about it the first time or two, but Ive been doing this method for about 3 years or more and haven’t had a problem.  The fail safe would be to gently lay the keg to its side, slightly elevate the bottom and rack out of the gas dip tube.

edit - forgot to mention I use only Pellets.

[denny]

@blatz

@brewinhard

@blatz

I have a couple of kegs dedicated to dryhopping.  I use a Surescreen on the diptube, purge the dryhop keg, hook CO2 up at 2PSI to the liquid out while opening the bail to dump in the dryhops.  I let that run for a little bit.

Then I push beer into the dryhop keg from the fermenter.  dryhop for however many days I want, cold crash under CO2 and then push the beer from the dryhopped keg into a fresh, purged serving keg.

works well for me.

Those sure screens don’t clog up on you Paul? Are you using pellets or whole hops?

surprisingly, no.  knocks on wood I was nervous about it the first time or two, but Ive been doing this method for about 3 years or more and haven’t had a problem.  The fail safe would be to gently lay the keg to its side, slightly elevate the bottom and rack out of the gas dip tube.

edit - forgot to mention I use only Pellets.

I’ve used both pellets and whole with Sure Screeens without problems.

[zwiller]

What’s it like to clean a keg that DH was done in?  This cannot be easy.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@zwiller

What’s it like to clean a keg that DH was done in?  This cannot be easy.

Dry hop in a zip tied 5 gallon paint strainer bag, pretty damn easy. 

[brewsumore]

@zwiller

What’s it like to clean a keg that DH was done in?  This cannot be easy.

Dry hop in a zip tied 5 gallon paint strainer bag, pretty damn easy. 

Jon, I was wondering how you keg hop your IPAs with 5 oz of hops!  I see you have a method that works!

I use a nylon mesh drawstring bag, different size depending on how many ounces of pellet hops.  I use the corny lids that have a welded tab with a hole on the underside, and tie off the bag so that it will hang free once beer is drained below 1/3 - 1/2 full in the keg.

I normally don’t exceed 3.5 oz of hops.  If I double dry hop, first addition goes into the fermenter.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@brewsumore

@zwiller

What’s it like to clean a keg that DH was done in?  This cannot be easy.

Dry hop in a zip tied 5 gallon paint strainer bag, pretty damn easy. 

Jon, I was wondering how you keg hop your IPAs with 5 oz of hops!  I see you have a method that works!

I use a nylon mesh drawstring bag, different size depending on how many ounces of pellet hops.  I use the corny lids that have a welded tab with a hole on the underside, and tie off the bag so that it will hang free once beer is drained below 1/3 - 1/2 full in the keg.

I normally don’t exceed 3.5 oz of hops.  If I double dry hop, first addition goes into the fermenter.

Well, now that I switched kegs over to the Clear Beer Draft Systems (which draw from the top), I use two 5 gallon paint strainer bags, one inside the other, and weighted down with marbles to sit on the bottom of the keg. I double bag for extra filter capacity. With the beer being drawn from the top now, I like to keep the hops as far away as possible from the draw point as I can. Before, I had batches that would occasionally pick up some harsh hop character because the bag settled down by the dip tube and some fine particulate got sucked into the tube. With this new setup, there’s none of that. Aside from that, I’m spunding now and given its ability to thoroughly purge the O2 from a keg, there’s very little drop off in hop aromas as compared to before.

Edit for grammar (OCD).

[narcout]

Well, now that I switched kegs over to the Clear Beer Draft Systems (which draw from the top), I use two 5 gallon paint strainer bags, one inside the other, and weighted down with marbles to sit on the bottom of the keg.

How do you like the clear draft floats?

I just ordered one yesterday and plan to keg an APA with it this weekend (dry hopped this one in the fermentor though).

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@narcout

Well, now that I switched kegs over to the Clear Beer Draft Systems (which draw from the top), I use two 5 gallon paint strainer bags, one inside the other, and weighted down with marbles to sit on the bottom of the keg.

How do you like the clear draft floats?

I just ordered one yesterday and plan to keg an APA with it this weekend (dry hopped this one in the fermentor though).

They work as advertised, no issues. Money really well spent IMO. Very easy to install, works reliably. Crash a couple days after the spund and the beer is surprisingly clear. Big fan.

[denny]

@zwiller

What’s it like to clean a keg that DH was done in?  This cannot be easy.

Rinse it out, hit it with some Craftmeister, that’s it.

[skatz (Stevie)]

@denny

@zwiller

What’s it like to clean a keg that DH was done in?  This cannot be easy.

Rinse it out, hit it with some Craftmeister, that’s it.

Just don’t let it sit dry for a long time. Stuck on hop crud sucks to get off. I miss the days I could reach the bottom of a keg with a scrub pad.

[bayareabrewer]

keg hopping is frustrating to me and I think I may have developed a solution. I normally fill my kegs with sanitizer and push out with CO2, hopefully getting an oxygen free keg. The only problem is, popping the keg open to toss in a bag of dry hops probably introduces a ton of 02. What if I took a keg that was clean and sanitized, added a sack of dry hops to in, then during primary fermentation connected the airlock to my outpost on my keg so that the ensuing fermentation would purge the keg of 02 as it was replaced with c02 from fermentation. I’d have a spunding valve set to 1 or 2 psi on the inpost to allow 02 to escape.

Would this in theory leave me with an 02 free keg with dry hops in it that I could then do a closed transfer?

[a10t2]

I foresee two potential issues:

1. Your hops would be sitting at fermentation temperature for a couple weeks. Not ideal but maybe not a deal-breaker.

2. A slow trickle of CO2 leaves plenty of time for diffusion to homogenize the gases in the receiving keg. Fermentation produces ~20 vol CO2, so if the keg started out full of air (~20% O2), the end result, at least theoretically, would be a keg with ~1% O2 content.

[bayareabrewer]

@a10t2

I foresee two potential issues:

1. Your hops would be sitting at fermentation temperature for a couple weeks. Not ideal but maybe not a deal-breaker.

2. A slow trickle of CO2 leaves plenty of time for diffusion to homogenize the gases in the receiving keg. Fermentation produces ~20 vol CO2, so if the keg started out full of air (~20% O2), the end result, at least theoretically, would be a keg with ~1% O2 content.

damn

[denny]

@bayareabrewer

keg hopping is frustrating to me and I think I may have developed a solution. I normally fill my kegs with sanitizer and push out with CO2, hopefully getting an oxygen free keg. The only problem is, popping the keg open to toss in a bag of dry hops probably introduces a ton of 02. What if I took a keg that was clean and sanitized, added a sack of dry hops to in, then during primary fermentation connected the airlock to my outpost on my keg so that the ensuing fermentation would purge the keg of 02 as it was replaced with c02 from fermentation. I’d have a spunding valve set to 1 or 2 psi on the inpost to allow 02 to escape.

Would this in theory leave me with an 02 free keg with dry hops in it that I could then do a closed transfer?

I talked about the same thing on the podcast. A listener off
ered the solution to keep 1-2 psi on the keg when you open it. Makes sense.

[blatz]

@denny

A listener off
ered the solution to keep 1-2 psi on the keg when you open it. Makes sense.

that’s what I do when I open the bail on my purged DH keg (gas hooked up to liquid side though) seems to work well.

is it perfect?  no - there is still oxygen in there.  Its an improvement over previous methods though.

[bayareabrewer]

@denny

@bayareabrewer

keg hopping is frustrating to me and I think I may have developed a solution. I normally fill my kegs with sanitizer and push out with CO2, hopefully getting an oxygen free keg. The only problem is, popping the keg open to toss in a bag of dry hops probably introduces a ton of 02. What if I took a keg that was clean and sanitized, added a sack of dry hops to in, then during primary fermentation connected the airlock to my outpost on my keg so that the ensuing fermentation would purge the keg of 02 as it was replaced with c02 from fermentation. I’d have a spunding valve set to 1 or 2 psi on the inpost to allow 02 to escape.

Would this in theory leave me with an 02 free keg with dry hops in it that I could then do a closed transfer?

I talked about the same thing on the podcast. A listener off
ered the solution to keep 1-2 psi on the keg when you open it. Makes sense.

I’m sure that’s better than not having the gas on, but wouldn’t the hops and bag themselves contain a lot of o2?

I’m really hoping that with all the new forms of hop products out there, someone finally produces an acceptable hop extract that can be injected into the beer via the gas in. Maybe a screen around the outpost in the keg and use degassed water and hop hash?

[skatz (Stevie)]

They exist, Bryan Rabe uses them in his kegging procedures.

[denny]

@bayareabrewer

@denny

@bayareabrewer

keg hopping is frustrating to me and I think I may have developed a solution. I normally fill my kegs with sanitizer and push out with CO2, hopefully getting an oxygen free keg. The only problem is, popping the keg open to toss in a bag of dry hops probably introduces a ton of 02. What if I took a keg that was clean and sanitized, added a sack of dry hops to in, then during primary fermentation connected the airlock to my outpost on my keg so that the ensuing fermentation would purge the keg of 02 as it was replaced with c02 from fermentation. I’d have a spunding valve set to 1 or 2 psi on the inpost to allow 02 to escape.

Would this in theory leave me with an 02 free keg with dry hops in it that I could then do a closed transfer?

I talked about the same thing on the podcast. A listener off
ered the solution to keep 1-2 psi on the keg when you open it. Makes sense.

I’m sure that’s better than not having the gas on, but wouldn’t the hops and bag themselves contain a lot of o2?

I’m really hoping that with all the new forms of hop products out there, someone finally produces an acceptable hop extract that can be injected into the beer via the gas in. Maybe a screen around the outpost in the keg and use degassed water and hop hash?

Forget hop hash…it’s pre oxidized.  I’ve been using cryo hops for dry hopping.  Virtually no O2 there.  And I have inside info about new extracts being worked on…what you ask about is on the horizon.

[a10t2]

Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone repackages in homebrewer quantities, but single-varietal extracts have been on the market for years. Sometimes they’re the only way to spot buy something as popular as Citra, for example.

[bayareabrewer]

They exist, Bryan Rabe uses them in his kegging procedures.

I’m sure he does.