If you put a Sure Screen on the liquid dip tube, can you add whole leaf hops to the keg for dryhopping without bagging them?
I’ve heard that it works, but the mesh doesn’t look fine enough to me to do the job.
Thoughts?
It’s worked for me, although I usually use a bag.
Whole hops work just fine with the surescreen. That is my standard technique for dry hopping. No problem whatsoever. Don’t try hop pellets: those will plug it up.
Loose hop cones have a real tendency to float though, so lay your keg on it’s side to get more of them in constant contact with the beer. Then flip it end for end frequently to redistribute them a bit more evenly.
This has not been my experience. I ferment in a 10 gallon corny keg and just racked off an imperial IPA that was dryhopped with 8oz. of pellets loose in the primary, no problem. I do keg to keg transfers with a jumper from my primary 10 gallon corny to the standard 5 gallon keg. This is my standard modus operandi with dry hopped ales and I have never had a clogging issue with a surescreen
While Im not sure about dry hopping in a keg with a sure screen, I have one in my boil kettle. It works very well with leaf hops except really seedy ones! Sometimes seeds can actually clog the fine mesh up pretty good, so be conscious of seeds going in.