Dry hopping in keg

[CorneliusAlphonse]

strange for the two newest topics to be about dry hopping but anyway, here's my question:

I'm new to dry hopping, but I've got an IPA just about done in fermentation. I can either put it into a secondary for a week or two to dry hop, or I could put it in a keg in the fridge with the hops to dry hop. which works better? also, for the keg I will probably need something to keep the hops in? any ideas for something I could get locally? I had read somehow about stainless mesh balls - like a larger version of a tea ball. anywhere that sells that? I use cornies, so pretty large opening

[jason.loxton]

Depends on a few factors, e.g., whether you are using pellets or whole hops, how long it will take you to drink the keg, etc.

Many people dry hop in the keg. The advantage is no loss of hop aroma (you will lose during transfer, potentially during dry hopping (if fermentation is not 100% done), and during keg purging), less risk of contamination/exposure to O2 (no secondary), etc. The disadvantages include difficulty retrieving the hops (if you are not drinking your keg quickly), potential for hop particulate getting into beer/clogging dip tube, etc. Dry hopping in the keg is not practical if you are planning a giant hop bomb with 5 ounces of hops or something.

As for what to put the hops in... people use many different things (and with whole hops some people throw them right in, although this seems unwise to me). Stainless tea balls, aquarium filter bags, pantyhose, etc. The Noble Grape sells bags that would work well for leaf (I don't know if they are fine enough for pellet).

There seems to be some debate about dry hopping length. Time for extraction increases dramatically with decreasing temperature. I think many professional brewers dry hop at or near fermentation temp. for 3-7 days, and then cold crash until bottling/serving. Some people report vegatal flavour after lengths longer than a week or two. (Aside: Jamil has said that dry-hopping for a shorter duration of time with larger quantities of higher alpha acid hops (which normally have more oils as well) is a good way of minimizing this.) If you were going to drink your beer within a few weeks, I'd transfer it to the keg on top of a weighted (boiled stainless steel bearing, etc.) hop sack, and leave for 4 days for so at room temp, then stick in your kegerator to carb, leaving your hops in (they shouldn't do much at serving temp).

[LiverDance]

I use a plastic tea infuser I got at superstore, it's the size of beer can so it usually fits enough pellets. If your going leaf then a muslin bag from NG will work but I would double it up cause there are still bits that get out and into your dip tubes.

[Barr]

Just dry hopped in keg for the very first time tonight and used a SS tea infuser from Superstore. I decided not to refrigerate for a couple days thinking the hop flavour and aroma might dissolve into beer better at room temp. We'll see.

[LiverDance]

Just dry hopped in keg for the very first time tonight and used a SS tea infuser from Superstore. I decided not to refrigerate for a couple days thinking the hop flavour and aroma might dissolve into beer better at room temp. We'll see.

Hopefully you didn't fill it up too much, those bad boys swell a lot!

[RobD]

I've got a couple of these, and they work really well to dry hop in a keg. They're quite a bit bigger than a standard tea ball.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page ... 4734,47832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jtmwhyte]

I dry hop in stainless tea balls all the time. I never take them out before the keg is empty and I have never had any problems with vegetal tastes. I picked up a bunch of 5" stainless tea balls in a tea set at superstore on clearance. The glass pot and the ball was 2 bucks, but this was at the end of the summer.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

[sleepyjamie]

Jimmy has hop socks that u can use in the keg.

[Barr]

Hopefully you didn't fill it up too much, those bad boys swell a lot!

It's was probably less than 1/3 full of pellets. I had tried using it my boil once but the pellets swelled up and I didn't get good hop utilization. If this works well ill just get a second infuser and use the two for bigger hop additions in the keg. I just use my mash basket now to screen out hop junk in the kettle.

[gyorke]

I just picked up a couple of these at the superstore, $5 a piece. They are narrow enough to fit down the neck of a carboys.

uploadfromtaptalk1374937505705.jpg

[GAM]

I just picked up a couple of these at the superstore, $5 a piece. They are narrow enough to fit down the neck of a carboys.

uploadfromtaptalk1374937505705.jpg

You cant get much in it and if you fill it it will be mostly dry in the middle.

YMMV.

Sandy

[GuingesRock]

I just picked up a couple of these at the superstore, $5 a piece. They are narrow enough to fit down the neck of a carboys.

uploadfromtaptalk1374937505705.jpg

I really wish someone would develop something like that but much bigger, like a long stainless steel mesh tube…one that just fits through the corny lid opening. Could it be a group Brewnoser buy to have something manufactured? Would an engineer be willing to design something and draw it up? What’s the max weight of leaf hops that people might want to use for dry hopping in a keg, to get an idea of the size needed? Would Dave be interested in stocking something like that at Everwood, to fill a niche market/market void?

[GAM]

I was thinking of a bazooka screen and a cap.

Sandy

[GuingesRock]

I was thinking of a bazooka screen and a cap.

Sandy

Yes! A giant bazooka screen with a cap.

Some people leave the hops in the keg for the duration, especially since really hoppy beers are often drunk fresh as the hop flavours lessen with time. But if it was necessary to retrieve the receptacle, a SS wire or chain attached to a piece of dental floss might do the trick.

[jeffsmith]

http://arborfab.com/ocart/index.php?rou ... duct_id=67" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This guy makes a lot of hop filtering products. A bit pricey though.

[GuingesRock]

http://arborfab.com/ocart/index.php?rou ... duct_id=67

This guy makes a lot of hop filtering products. A bit pricey though.

Interesting! Much cheaper than a Blichmann hop rocket, and a lot less fussing around. Has anyone used one of those? Is it big enough?...Size really does matter in the hopping world. A bigger one might double as a hop spider also.