Hey all - I ferment in conicals and thus have to use bags. Every other day I use some santized tongs to coerce the hop bags to submerge in the beer, but am I running a high risk of oxidizing?
The reason I do it is the bags float and there are hops on the top side of the bag not getting wet if i don’t flip the bag.
I also dry hop in a big nylon grain sack in my 12g Blichman conical. I just tip the fermenter up on 2 legs and rock it a little to get the hops swished in the wort. That obviously won’t work if you are dealing with a huge fermenter. I would not open the fermenter to prod the hop sack.
Just brainstorming: could you weight the bag with SS nuts or marbles to sink it, but then tie a string around it and either hang it from something at the top or a float of some sort? Along the lines of using both a bobber and a sinker for fishing. At least then you could keep the hops submerged in the wort without going to the bottom of your conical.
This^^^
I have bought a Male Flare to screw into the swivel nut on the end of my CO2 lines. I plan to pull the airlock, stick the flare end in the stopper on the conical and flush it with CO2 like I do the corny kegs.
Just throwing this out there…
Has anyone else been simply dry hopping in serving kegs? I add the nylon mesh bag of whole hops to a keg just before it goes into the fridge to chill and then carbonate (I use the slow carbonation method, two weeks at serving pressure and temperature). I was not that pleased with the results I got from dry hopping at room/cellar temperatures. IME, it faded too fast, so that by the time I got to the end of a batch (in bottles, or keg) it was very different than at the start. With dry hopping in the serving keg, at serving temperatures, I get the same results (giving it the two weeks to infuse the finished beer) from the first pour to the last. Zero off flavors produced too.
Yeah been dryhopping in the keg for years - great but can get grassy/vegetal.
I prefer to leave the keg at room temp for a week and then let it chill with the hops in
Either I don’t get that from dry hopping in the keg, or I don’t notice it, or I must like it. At any rate, I’ve never found it to be a problem.
I notice grassyness from dry-hopping with Centennial, but otherwise it seems to be fine.
I also just throw a bag into the keg and let it stay there until the keg kicks.
I did several batches with dry hopping in the keg and didn’t like the long-term effect with its grassiness. For several years, I’ve been doing what Paul is doing with a modest dry hop contact time at fermentation temperature. This is in line with Brynildson’s recommendations.
FWIW, if I’m using a lot of leaf hops for dry-hopping then I will “punch them down” with a sanitized spoon every couple of days to make sure they all get wet enough for my liking. I haven’t noticed any oxidation in these beers. Using a bag may be a little different since air can get trapped in the bag and may bubble through the beer when you push it down. Do you have a way to flush with CO2 before you push the bags down? That may minimize your oxidation risk.
I dry hop in the keg with a bag, and as was previously mentioned, I use a LARGE (3"x1") Stainless machine bolt as a weight. I’m sure it would work just as well in your conicals. The first time I tried this I think I used a heavy marble pestle that happened to be in the kitchen when I needed the weight. The bolt works better.
I used to attach a piece of fishing line to the bag and run it out the top of the keg so I could pull the hops back out. I’ve stopped doing this as more often than not, the keg pops before I would have wanted to remove the hops.
Has anyone who dry hops in a bag noticed a difference between muslin and nylon?
I have heard that some folks dry hop while a little bit of fermentation is still going on. The thought behind it is that the active yeast will absorb the oxygen. I believe that it is primarily done with pellet hops. I tried it on my last IPA and the flavor was great. Anyone else had any experience with dry hopping with active fermentation?
I use bags for my conical and the keg. I use the Vinnie C. schedule, 12-14 days at 60 degrees then remove the hops. I’ve gotten very good results with this method and without any grassy notes. If I could circulate the beer during the dryhop I could probably get away with less contact time with the beer.
i think the answer is to just get some weights.
FWIW, I do put the dryhops in when I get to about 1.014-1.018 or so, as per Matt Brynildson’s advice - seems like a good idea.
I do both - dryhop at the end of primary then in the keg.
I’ve noticed more grassy/vegetal pickup when I’m dryhopping on the cold side. I’ll normally rack into the keg on dryhops, and remove this charge in a few days (7 max) before it goes into the kegorator.
To get the hop bag out of the keg, I tie a fishing bobber to it with fishing line. (One I’ve never used for fishing)
I don’t always - and generally speaking, I have felt the way you do in the past, but I have had some batches of IPA lately that were great at first, then had a grassy, vegetal-ness to them by mid-keg that I didn’t care for. I am really trying to capture that bright hop character that I get out of Blind Pig or Stone, etc. which is why I’ve been trying things out like whirlpooling/hop stands with HUGE late additions and then HUGE dryhop additions on top of that - I’ve definitely been too stingy with hops and with 20# plus in my freezer at any given time, its silly to not give things a go.
Just experimenting with different methods - may go back to the old way of just keg hopping if I find I prefer the results that way.
I had a problem finding something to sink the bag in my fermetnter. My solution was to take a bottle and fill it with sand, add water and cap. I put the bottle in the gain bag and the hops (whole leaf) aroung the bottle.
So far it has worked well.
John
Paul, this may be the same thing I’ve been experiencing with my hoppy beers, a grassy, vegetal flavor. I dumped two beers last week that turned out that way. Trying to figure out the same issue, myself.
Heh Blatz.
I was looking for some panty hose the other day and though about you. :o