Is it possible to dry hop once already kegged?

I brewed a session pale ale recipe that was well regarded but a lot of people said it needs to be dry hopped. I didn't see this until I had carb'd it but the brew has almost no hop aroma or flavor. Can I drop a steeping bag in the keg for a couple of days to rectify this or would that be a disaster?

If you have a steel tea ball you can fill it with hops and suspend it in the keg using unflavored dental floss.

forstmeister said:

If you have a steel tea ball you can fill it with hops and suspend it in the keg using unflavored dental floss.

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Why is the teaball the preferred method?

Edit...is it so it does not float?

sa1126 said:

Why is the teaball the preferred method?

Edit...is it so it does not float?

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I don't know that it is the preferred method but it is simple and cheap. It shouldn't float so maybe that's partly why it is popular.

Yup I do it all the time, I actually have a amber on tap now that has some cascade dry hopping in it.

Definitely. I usually soak a muslin bag in vodka for a while to sanitize it a bit, ring it out, load it with hops, and drop it in. It's worked great for me every time.

That's one of the beauties of kegging. You can make modifications to your beer after it's "done." Recently I had never used licorice root in a stout before and I was a little bit afraid of over doing it. I only used half of what the recipe I was basing my recipe on called for. I decided that I liked it and that it could use more so I made up a licorice root tea on the stove and added it to the keg. It worked nicely.

On big IPAs i will do 2 sets of dry hoping and then a 3rd set that goes straight into the keg when its chilled.
This allows the process to be slowed down and prevent grassy off flavors while still giving the beer a good charge of aroma before chilling.
The bag usually stays in the keg for the duration of serving.

Very cool. I got two tea balls today and am going to add some cascade and centennial hops later. Thanks for all the insight!

This beer is already carbonated? If you drop hop pellets into it it will be like dropping mentos into a soda. you could try jumpering the beer into a fresh keg with the hops in there. I heard a story from local brewery where they dry hopped into a carbonated 100 bbl tank by accident and sprayed the ceiling with beer empting ~20bbls out the tank in a minute or two.

if I were you, I'd test it out on a pint glass, before dropping it into a keg.

Bsquared said:

This beer is already carbonated? If you drop hop pellets into it it will be like dropping mentos into a soda. you could try jumpering the beer into a fresh keg with the hops in there. I heard a story from local brewery where they dry hopped into a carbonated 100 bbl tank by accident and sprayed the ceiling with beer empting ~20bbls out the tank in a minute or two.

if I were you, I'd test it out on a pint glass, before dropping it into a keg.

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Thanks for the cautionary advice. I just added about 20 small pellets into a pint glass and didn't see any similar effect. I'm only going to try a half ounce or so...

What I do (I'm sure I read it here somewhere) is put the hops in a 1 gallon paint strainer and tie it with a piece of dental floss, (enough to have it suspend about half way down the keg) and throw it in. You can tie the other end around a post so it won't slip down. (it won't leak around the floss)
You can also put a marble in the bag to make it sink easier.
I make 10 gallons at a time, so what's great about doing it like this is I can dry hop a week before I'm ready to put the keg on tap and have a freshly hopped beer.
My thoughts are, suspending it half way will give the keg plenty of aroma, but if it's in too long,(which doesn't happen) it won't get GRASSY 'cause it's not touching the beer past half way.
I do sanitize marble and bag in starsan..

It sounds like the thread starter already bought his stuff but just sorta FYI. The floating issue is only really a problem with whole hops. I use paint strainer bags (thanks to HBT for the suggestion) and I love em. With pellets they will sink. Whole hops will float when they're in a paint strainer. The main reason I like them is because I can put a lot in them. I can imagine that the tea ball can't fit too many whole hops.

Two days ago I threw pellet hops in a paint straining bag, tied a knot in the bag and threw it in a full carbonated keg with no problem. No foaming, no overflow, nothing. Then just put the top of the keg back on and hooked it back up to gas to seal the lid. Now I'm just waiting 1 week at room temperature before I put it in the kegerator and tap it.

pvpeacock said:

Two days ago I threw pellet hops in a paint straining bag, tied a knot in the bag and threw it in a full carbonated keg with no problem. No foaming, no overflow, nothing. Then just put the top of the keg back on and hooked it back up to gas to seal the lid. Now I'm just waiting 1 week at room temperature before I put it in the kegerator and tap it.

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Why at room temperature?

to get more of the hops aroma. My understanding is that the hops will give out more aroma and flavor faster at room temperature. One of the first times I dry hopped in a keg, I immediately refrigerated the keg and didn't get much out of the dry hops. I then took the keg out of the kegerator and let it sit at room temp. for 1 week and re-refrigerated it. This time, the hops were much more noticeable. That's why I dry hop at room temperature for a week before I put it in the kegerator.

Experimentation was a failure. I tried some of the brew and it had a decent aroma but tasted awful. It tasted awful to begin with so I guess this is an acceptable loss...

pvpeacock said:

to get more of the hops aroma. My understanding is that the hops will give out more aroma and flavor faster at room temperature.

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Correct. The higher the temp, the less contact time it takes. That's why hops at flameout at near boiling or just under only need a few minutes. At room temp, it takes days. Of course, the taste/aroma isn't identical either but that's another subject.

That's why I dry hop at room temperature for a week before I put it in the kegerator.

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I do the same, or even at temps slightly above room temp even (76-78F), though I'm sure anywhere in the 65-85F range is probably going to give similar results in the same time period.

Kal