Dry Hop In A Keg

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ArrowheadAles

ArrowheadAles

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Does the temperature of the beer have an effect on dry hopping? I'm planning on a two week dry hop in a keg while the beer is carbing up in the kegerator.

If it's too cold to extract the aroma from the hops, how would I go about pressurizing the keg for dry hopping and leave it at room temperature?

Any thoughts?
 
Dry hopping works best at room temperature. I tried it at both temperatures and found room temperature produced much better results. When I dry hop in a keg I pressurize the keg to the normal serving pressure and keep it at room temperature until its done dry hopping. Then I drop the temperature to level for proper carbonation and wait until it is done. It takes longer but it is worth it.
 
i don't know if i'd go as far to say it works better at warmer temps but it def works faster

i almost exclusively dry hop in the keg now at serving temps and haven't noticed any loss of aroma

i place my hops in a hop sack and place it at the bottom of the keg and rack the beer on top (usually around 34° from cold crashing) then seal the keg and set it at serving pressure

it usually takes a week+ to notice the extra aroma but it def lasts longer without the detrimental effects of leaving dry hops in for too long at room temp

i leave it on the hops until the keg is floated - sometimes weeks, sometimes months
 
I dryhop in the keg all the time. It takes a bit longer for peak flavor/aroma to develop at fridge temps, compared to room temperature dryhopping, but it seems like it ends up about the same.
 
You could prime with priming sugar like you would bottling (be sure to use less priming sugar-about half) and dry hop at room temperature at the same time.
 
How many ounces of sugar for 5 gallons of ipa in a keg? And when you purge the head space what pressure do you leave in the keg while it carbs up? I would think not much due to the fact it will build pressure while carbing.
 
Opinions vary on how much sugar to use, but I almost always go with ½ the weight that is recommended if you were bottling a batch. One of the theories are that there is less total headspace in a single full keg than in a combined 48-50 bottles, so it takes less total CO2 to achieve the same pressure. So calculate how much sugar you would need if bottling, then divide by two and you’ll have enough to carb up a full keg. Heres a good calculator for carb volumes at specific temps for varying styles of beer:
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

And here’s a good thread to read about keg priming. Theres some off topic stuff in there about whether the bubbles are better in naturally vs force carbed, but it’s a good read:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/how-much-priming-sugar-keg-105601/
 
Is there much of an advantage in dry hopping in the keg vs a clearing vessel? It just seems more work to clean out of a keg vs a carboy but maybe I am wrong.
 
biohaz7331 said:
Is there much of an advantage in dry hopping in the keg vs a clearing vessel? It just seems more work to clean out of a keg vs a carboy but maybe I am wrong.
Click to expand...

I use hops bags (the tightly woven ones) for pellet hops, as well as leaf hops, and a I have a "teaball" strainer that also works for leaf hops. It's not bad at all, if you keep them contained. If you don't, they will clog the diptube for sure!

I don't tend to use a carboy, so I either dryhop in the primary, or in the keg, or both.
 
Ah good to know. I had read that if your bag covers the diptube it can cause a lot of foaming out of the tap which is one reason I questioned this approach to dry hopping.
 
Frick. I just dryhopped loose leaf in a keg today (Im a kegging noob) but I had put a small hop bag over the diptube before racking thinking it would work. I did the quick carb method and just tried to pour a glass. Clogged. Got a little bit of foam and it just wont come out.

Guess Im thinking I have to re-rack it? Should I just pull it out of the fridge and let it dryhopp a week room temp then rack it to a bottle bucket back to the keg? Or should I just leave it in the fridge a week and then rerack it? Im thinking fridge for a week maybe?, so it clears more and settlles better making racking possibly easier/cleaner?
 
jonmohno said:
Frick. I just dryhopped loose leaf in a keg today (Im a kegging noob) but I had put a small hop bag over the diptube before racking thinking it would work. I did the quick carb method and just tried to pour a glass. Clogged. Got a little bit of foam and it just wont come out.

Guess Im thinking I have to re-rack it? Should I just pull it out of the fridge and let it dryhopp a week room temp then rack it to a bottle bucket back to the keg? Or should I just leave it in the fridge a week and then rerack it? Im thinking fridge for a week maybe?, so it clears more and settlles better making racking possibly easier/cleaner?
Click to expand...

First, try depressurizing the keg, and removing the "out" post and diptube. It's what's clogged. Try to clear it and then try again to dispense. If you can dispense, I'd still get it out of the keg!

You can make a beer "jumper cable" with two black quick disconnects (QDs) and a length of beer line.

Trying to rack carbonated beer is a real son-of-a-gun. It foams like a real mess, so pushing it at 2 psi through the "jumper cable" set up would be far preferable if you can do it.
 
Thanks Yooper,I dont have 2 black disconnects and pretty shure it wont clear(unclogg). I only set it at 23 psi to force carb after cold crashing then rocked it for only 5 min or so. I dont think its probably very carbonated really, it is also a2.5 gal batch in a 3 gal keg,if that makes a difference or not I dont know.

Think Im going to set it in my cool basement for a week the rerack to a bottle bucket back to the keg.Other than that seems I have no choice but to maybe try to salvage most/all the hops by a long slotted spoon then put them in a sanitized strainer bag and then also get rid of my hop bag thats tied around the diptube. Ideally I would like to do that so I dont have to move the beer back and forth to containers. Also I would put the salvaged hops back in the keg -lesson learned with that one.

How about straining it to a bottleing bucket by tilting the bottle bucket and pouring slowly (the mini keg) it down the side of the bucket,catching the hops at the same time? Then I have all the hops contained and just have to hook up a tube from the bucket spigot back to the keg? Could I then force carb again without oxidizing it? If it has some co2 in it wouldnt it be ok to strain it without a bigger risk of oxidizing had I not tried to force carb yet with almost no carbonation?
 
jonmohno said:
Thanks Yooper,I dont have 2 black disconnects and pretty shure it wont clear(unclogg). I only set it at 23 psi to force carb after cold crashing then rocked it for only 5 min or so. I dont think its probably very carbonated really, it is also a2.5 gal batch in a 3 gal keg,if that makes a difference or not I dont know.

Think Im going to set it in my cool basement for a week the rerack to a bottle bucket back to the keg.Other than that seems I have no choice but to maybe try to salvage most/all the hops by a long slotted spoon then put them in a sanitized strainer bag and then also get rid of my hop bag thats tied around the diptube. Ideally I would like to do that so I dont have to move the beer back and forth to containers. Also I would put the salvaged hops back in the keg -lesson learned with that one.

How about straining it to a bottleing bucket by tilting the bottle bucket and pouring slowly (the mini keg) it down the side of the bucket,catching the hops at the same time? Then I have all the hops contained and just have to hook up a tube from the bucket spigot back to the keg? Could I then force carb again without oxidizing it? If it has some co2 in it wouldnt it be ok to strain it without a bigger risk of oxidizing had I not tried to force carb yet with almost no carbonation?
Click to expand...

You'd be risking severe oxidation by straining/spooning/pouring.

If you don't want to take off the post and clear the obstruction, you could try siphoning but that could be a bit of a mess.
 
I would definitely take off the out post and remove the dip tube and clear out the clog. From there you could use something (slotted spoon, strainer, etc) to remove the loose hops and reassemble. Like Yooper says, don't pour anything.
 
ArrowheadAles said:
I would definitely take off the out post and remove the dip tube and clear out the clog. From there you could use something (slotted spoon, strainer, etc) to remove the loose hops and reassemble. Like Yooper says, don't pour anything.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I did.:mug: My small hop bag I tried using as a fiter tied around the dip tube must have bunched up at the bottem,suffocating the entry hole- I had to use a longer ladle to get it out. I got one of those skimmer utensils that barely fit in and I wish was longer but it did probably 90% of the job I just skimmed the leafhops and put them in a bigger hop bag then back to the keg.I got a nice blast of citrus from the centennials.:)

Only thing is I got excited about it when I hooked the gas back up @10 and forgot to purge before setting it at ten.GRRR.It was on 10 psi for about 10 min before I realized I forgot to purge,hopefully I didnt screw that up and get oxygen into it.
 

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