The Dry Hopper from Stainless Brewing

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

arborman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
446
Reaction score
34
Anyone try one of these yet?

http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Dry-Hopper_p_155.html

I just ordered one for the beer that I have fermenting right now... Seems pretty slick: I will transfer straight to my keg, then slide this sleeve into the keg and pop in the dry hop additions.... My recipe calls for 4 separate dry hops, set 3 days apart, so it will be a good test. Then, I can just pull the sleeve, throw some gas on the keg and chill it down! My only worry is how much will it displace the beer when you set it inside the keg? Guess I better not fill it too high up.
 
My only worry is how much will it displace the beer when you set it inside the keg? Guess I better not fill it too high up.

that would be my concern...it seems pretty big and i like to get as much beer as i can into the keg. guess you could always add it after it's down a gallon or so...
 
I don't know how many ounces of hop you're trying to dry hop with, but I just use a few 3" tea balls. They're like $3-4 each. This works especially well if you have multiple hop additions too.


Just google: 3" tea ball
 
I have one and I put 1lb of flaked coconut in the keg with a porter. By itself it doesn't displace too much. For my porter I only had to bottle a few from a 5 gallon batch.

I love the thing. It will make dry hopping in the keg so much easier. I haven't got to do an IPA yet with it but i'm going to order another one.
 
Only concern is going to be that clamp which is aluminum, not SS and they willl rust and collect crap.
Not what I want in contact with my beer at any stage.
 
Nightshade said:
Hmmm nevermind it may be stainless after alll, still a bug collector though

I don't think I'd worry about that too much.... Any booze in my beer should be able to knock down any nasties that may have made of past the sanitizing.
 
I don't think I'd worry about that too much.... Any booze in my beer should be able to knock down any nasties that may have made of past the sanitizing.

Agreed, and if you're really concerned boil it.
 
Anyone try one of these yet?

http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Dry-Hopper_p_155.html

I just ordered one for the beer that I have fermenting right now... Seems pretty slick: I will transfer straight to my keg, then slide this sleeve into the keg and pop in the dry hop additions.... My recipe calls for 4 separate dry hops, set 3 days apart, so it will be a good test. Then, I can just pull the sleeve, throw some gas on the keg and chill it down! My only worry is how much will it displace the beer when you set it inside the keg? Guess I better not fill it too high up.

After you've used it, it would be great to hear you report back on how easy/hard it is to clean hop particulates out of the mesh. The device looks promising.
 
i was all about this idea and even mentioned it elsewhere oon the forum. i want to force carbonate while simeltaneously dry hopping. the only drawback imo is that you will inevitably get more hop cloudiness this way. interested to see how this works for poeple on their IPAs
 
After you've used it, it would be great to hear you report back on how easy/hard it is to clean hop particulates out of the mesh. The device looks promising.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out in the end... I have a heavy dry hop schedule, doing 4 separate dry hops, 3 days apart. So, this should be a pretty good test:ban:

It fit very well into the keg, and did not displace hardly any of the beer.. That was my biggest concern when I decided to buy it. The only other issue I am seeing is pulling off the cap when I need to put in my other rounds of hops. You have to undo a screw to pull off the cap. But, I will figure out a good way to do it. ( I hope)
 
Well, this gizmo is sweet.... Worked very well on a 2IPA dry hop schedule I had. Was very easy to clean, and adding multiple dry hop additions was cake. Worth the $45!! Looking forward to many more brews with this thing
 
Nice. I ferment 4 gallon batches in kegs nowadays. This may be a great contraption to have for dry hopping in the primary.
 
Well, this gizmo is sweet.... Worked very well on a 2IPA dry hop schedule I had. Was very easy to clean, and adding multiple dry hop additions was cake. Worth the $45!! Looking forward to many more brews with this thing

I bought one, and used it for a Pliny the Elder clone for my dry hopping. It worked great. I used pellets in it, and it was super easy.

The only issue I had with it, was replacing the cap. Its all stainless. Cap, mesh, and strap/ band. The cap was a little tight getting back into it, but with a little work it was fine. Doesnt displace much beer at all in the keg.

The only downfall, was that I had a LOT of hop particulate in there. Not sure why, since it is such a fine mesh on there, but I had a lot of particulate floating in the finished beer. I ended up using gelatin to clear it, and it seems good now, but initially, every pint from the keg had lots of fine particles floating around in it.
 
SFGiantsFan925 said:
I bought one, and used it for a Pliny the Elder clone for my dry hopping. It worked great. I used pellets in it, and it was super easy.

The only issue I had with it, was replacing the cap. Its all stainless. Cap, mesh, and strap/ band. The cap was a little tight getting back into it, but with a little work it was fine. Doesnt displace much beer at all in the keg.

The only downfall, was that I had a LOT of hop particulate in there. Not sure why, since it is such a fine mesh on there, but I had a lot of particulate floating in the finished beer. I ended up using gelatin to clear it, and it seems good now, but initially, every pint from the keg had lots of fine particles floating around in it.

Hmmmm, now you've got me wondering. I assumed the particles floating in my finished beer were from the primary. After reading your post, I'm now wondering if some hop particles made it thru the mesh. I had 4 separate dry hop additions, so there were lots of pellets in the sleeve
 
Yep, my beer has an enormous amount of hop matter in it.. to the point where its giving some funky flavors in the once very good tasting beer. I thought the keg was going to clean up after the first few pints, but here I am 1/2 way thru and my beer looks like a spinach smoothie. Too bad my tester for this gear was on a very expensive batch of beer. Not sure if Im going to use this again, but if I do, I will throw pellets in hop bags, and then put those into the sleeve.
 
Yep, my beer has an enormous amount of hop matter in it.. to the point where its giving some funky flavors in the once very good tasting beer. I thought the keg was going to clean up after the first few pints, but here I am 1/2 way thru and my beer looks like a spinach smoothie. Too bad my tester for this gear was on a very expensive batch of beer. Not sure if Im going to use this again, but if I do, I will throw pellets in hop bags, and then put those into the sleeve.

Pretty much my experience. I made a Pliny clone with quite a bit of dry hopping. Its where all the aroma comes from for the beer. I have an insane amount of particulate. More than any other batch I have made. I was able to fine it with gelatin, but I still pull "green" pints from the keg. And i mean green colored, not tasting haha.
 
I have used mine once on a Red Chair pale clone. Worked great. No hop particulate to speak of. I used all whole hops though, so wondering if it might be a unique issue to using pellets.

Based on what I'm reading in this thread, I will likely dry hop in the corny, then filter/transfer to a new corny to carbonate in the future. Too much effort goes into a hoppy/dry hopped beer to end up with less than great beer.

I have to say though, that the mesh is so fine on the thing, I can't imagine much of anything getting through. My only complaint is the tolerances are so tight, that I can't get the lid down into the body the right way. I have to do it upside down. Great build quality. Future models should have a fixed stainless ring at the top, instead of just mesh.
 
dan_rouse said:
I have used mine once on a Red Chair pale clone. Worked great. No hop particulate to speak of. I used all whole hops though, so wondering if it might be a unique issue to using pellets.

Based on what I'm reading in this thread, I will likely dry hop in the corny, then filter/transfer to a new corny to carbonate in the future. Too much effort goes into a hoppy/dry hopped beer to end up with less than great beer.

I have to say though, that the mesh is so fine on the thing, I can't imagine much of anything getting through. My only complaint is the tolerances are so tight, that I can't get the lid down into the body the right way. I have to do it upside down. Great build quality. Future models should have a fixed stainless ring at the top, instead of just mesh.

That's an idea that I'm thinking of doing for future dry hops, using whole hops instead. I like the ease of pellets tho.

I bought this so I could dry hop in the keg, and not transfer again.... Need to find a way around that. How about hop bags inside the sleeve?
 
I am going to make another IPA, probably next week, and plan to try this thing out again. I am going to dry hop with all whole hops. Np particulate that way.

Even though, it does say on the stainless brewing site, that its for pellets hops. Doesnt mention whole hops. So, with the intention of using pellet, it didnt seem to do a very good job. I dont know if certain hop farms make a finer "grind" when making pellets, but the ones I got semeed rather fine. Fine enough to get through the mesh.

If I use pellets again, Ill do it in either primary, or use this thing, fine with gelatin, then transfer to another corny. But thats a lot of work for something that is supposed to eliminate steps and work.
 
i was all about this idea and even mentioned it elsewhere oon the forum. i want to force carbonate while simeltaneously dry hopping. the only drawback imo is that you will inevitably get more hop cloudiness this way. interested to see how this works for poeple on their IPAs



my buddy carbonated while dry hopping and it turned into a grassy nightmare that he had to dump. dry hopping is best done at warm temps.
 
my buddy carbonated while dry hopping and it turned into a grassy nightmare that he had to dump. dry hopping is best done at warm temps.

There is no need to drop the temperature while force carbonating. You just need to adjust the regulator pressure to the appropriate PSI based on the temperature of the beer to achieve the desired volumes of CO2. Here's a calculator.
 
Couple of things (based on my personal experience only). I dry hop (both pellet and whole) in the keg, in 1 gallon paint strainer bags. Fill, tie a loose knot in the top, drop in the bottom of the keg, rack on top. Stays in there until the keg kicks. Haven't had issues much with either particulates, or grassiness. I will say it takes longer (on the order of about 2 weeks or so) to get the full dryhop flavor if its cold. But what I love about this hobby as a whole is there's an infinite number of ways to get from point A to point B. YMMV.
 
There is no need to drop the temperature while force carbonating. You just need to adjust the regulator pressure to the appropriate PSI based on the temperature of the beer to achieve the desired volumes of CO2. Here's a calculator.

that's true but i wonder what happens to the carbonation when you do chill the beer down?
 
that's true but i wonder what happens to the carbonation when you do chill the beer down?

I'm not sure what you're asking, exactly. If you chill the keg after a certain volume of CO2 is in solution and you're in a sealed environment, there shouldn't be any change as long as you change your regulator to the appropriate pressure for the new temperature.
 
I'm rather disappointed with this product. Both the Stainless Brewing website as well as Bertusbrewery.com claim that this drop hopper will allow little if pellet hop material through. This dry hopper allows TONS of hop material though. I cold crashed and gelatin fined after removing the dry hopper. Still pulling pints with a fine layer of hop material after 12 pints. I think my only option now is to rack off the top into another corny, essentially negating all benefit of using this thing. /sigh
 
I'm rather disappointed with this product. Both the Stainless Brewing website as well as Bertusbrewery.com claim that this drop hopper will allow little if pellet hop material through. This dry hopper allows TONS of hop material though. I cold crashed and gelatin fined after removing the dry hopper. Still pulling pints with a fine layer of hop material after 12 pints. I think my only option now is to rack off the top into another corny, essentially negating all benefit of using this thing. /sigh

That's too bad. The stainless hopspider has woked very well for me. If you have hops in your finished beer I would take a close look at your process. Many people use nothing at all in terms of hop spiders or bags and still package beer free of hop particles.
 
That's too bad. The stainless hopspider has woked very well for me. If you have hops in your finished beer I would take a close look at your process. Many people use nothing at all in terms of hop spiders or bags and still package beer free of hop particles.

I generally do not use any hopspider/bags/etc at all during my brewing process and after a cold crash and gelatin all my beers are brilliantly clear. Even after more than 5 ounces of dry hop.

Although similar, the hopspider and dry hopper are meant for different things. The dry hopper is advertised as being fine enough to contain pellet hops in the serving keg. This is just not true. This product does allow tons of fine hop particulate to make its way into the served beer.

In my situation I was able to rack off the top of finished beer and leave the hop particles in the bottom of the corny. Although I did lose 2 quarts of beer to the hops. I feel that this product is a good substitute for hop socks and pain strainers but with the understanding that pellet hops will make their way through if used in the serving keg.

Here's a photo after I racked off the top of the hops

beer pic.jpg
 
I generally do not use any hopspider/bags/etc at all during my brewing process and after a cold crash and gelatin all my beers are brilliantly clear. Even after more than 5 ounces of dry hop.

Although similar, the hopspider and dry hopper are meant for different things. The dry hopper is advertised as being fine enough to contain pellet hops in the serving keg. This is just not true. This product does allow tons of fine hop particulate to make its way into the served beer.

In my situation I was able to rack off the top of finished beer and leave the hop particles in the bottom of the corny. Although I did lose 2 quarts of beer to the hops. I feel that this product is a good substitute for hop socks and pain strainers but with the understanding that pellet hops will make their way through if used in the serving keg.

Here's a photo after I racked off the top of the hops

ah, i did not notice that you were referring to the dry hopper, my bad. i have no experience with that device.
 
I've been very busy with two moves and keeping up with orders the past two months so I haven't had a lot of time to keep up on the forums. I usually just place the dry hopper in the keg without any shaking involved. I don't agitate the keg or the hopper when I remove the strainer. I don't keep the strainer in the keg while serving beer. If the strainer sits at the bottom while serving beer, you'll have a high chance of the dip tub pulling hop material into your glass. The method I've been using has been successful with only little material with the first couple of pints which is expected. From what I've heard, there's no need to have the hops sit in the keg for more than a week because of the chance of putting off grassy aromas or flavors. I haven't had but maybe a few people that's had this problem. If it continues to grow, we can always go with a finer mesh but these are also being used as a hop strainer for the boil kettle as well. http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Dry-Hopper-and-Hop-Spider-kit_p_167.html Going to fine would increase clogging and possible decrease hop utilization.
 
Greetings all,

great thread so far, and happy to see the post response from stainless brewing

as a result of all the talk its down to a choice between:

  • The Dry Hopper with Twist Cap
    The Dry Hopper and Hop Spider kit

It seems like the dry hopper with twist cap is the way to go given other peoples issues with affixing the cap due to tight tolerances of the machining.

Any thoughts on why the latter costs about twice as much but doesn't have a threaded end-cap? I'll email the company to check on their thoughts

I'll post my experience as well with making some seriously hopped brews as to the cloudiness.

---
Primary: Steamfitter Imperial Stout
Secondary: Biere De Mars clone, Bourbon Scotch Ale
Kegged: H3 - Heidi's Hoppy Hefeweizen, Bourbon Scotch Ale
RIP: Golden Snow Lager
On Deck: Nelson Sauvin Double RyePA
 
Back
Top