stonebrewer said:
TD: So I dry hopped in the keg during secondary and am having a few issues. First, there is a lot of hop sediment in the first pour...hope this will settle with time/cold crashing. The kegs got way over carbonated. I started secondary at 1.018ish and it finished at 1.011. Having a hard time with a couple of the kegs getting the dry hoppers out as even after I release CO2 , as soon as I try to open the keg it foams over with more CO2 being released. Ever had any of these issues? I am sure I can work around them, but this has been more trouble than I expected.
Sorry to hear that.
I'm not sure what advice I can offer you. Sounds like 1.011 should be Terminal gravity, or really close to it. i have never done a secondary in a keg. i assume you were trying to naturally carbonate the beer. continued fermentation in the keg could be responsible for the first pour sediment, and should clear with time hopefully. If you can supercool it in a freezer to drop temp to like 32°F for instance or a big tub of ice, you might be able to force some of the co2 back into suspension to keep it from gushing when you pop the lid (I assume you are doing this to remove the hops?). As far as removing the dry hop sack, I have never attempted to do so until beer has been consumed. It seems like the krausen or foam might be plugging the co2 release partially? When you dump the pressure using the lid valve, it should not gush when you open the lid. You can try to depressurize by depressing the gas in poppet, assuming it is above the beer liquid level. You'll probably get foam gushing out of that too.
Step one would be to get that keg as cold as you can, to lower the pressure, and keep using the pressure release valve to dump the head space pressure. Eventually you should be able to open the lid and fish out the hops if that is your desire. I wonder if a sanitized fishing line and hook with a sinker (lead I know, but you could maybe use SS hex nuts tied on) might let you fish a weighted hop sack out of a keg. Might tear the sack though. This is why I've always left the hop sacks in the keg. Don't forget that if you remove the lid, you should probably reseat the seal with 30psi on the regulator and then snap the gas connect onto the post. Then remove the gas connection, shut off regulator, bleed the gas line by depressing the stem in the gas connection (point away from your face) with a blunt screwdriver tip, readjust gas pressure to where it needs to be. Don't reconnect the gas line. Release the co2 vent valve to bleed out the air you just added to seal the lid.
Sounds like you had more than your fair share of troubles. Anyway, once you get the gushing under control, its sounding like its still could be over carbonated. Make sure keg and beer has chilled for at least 24 hours to get to the proper serving temp because temperature greatly affects the soluability of the CO2. Unfortunately once overcarbonated, it takes a lot of time and patience to fix. Basically, you need the vent the CO2 pressure every day or even three to four times a day, until its back to where you want it. I would not try to apply any additional CO2 pressure until the foaming and gushing is gone, and then just add enough so it will pour from the tap, you might not need any additional pressure for pouring for a while if it is really over carbonated. They make they valves I think called spudnig valves(?) that let your keg purge excess pressure to whatever you've dialed in. I have never used one. Not necessary, but might be easier and less time consuming to get your beer back to proper co2 level.
Personally, I'd get the keg into a freezer if you can or at least a cold fridge or huge bucket of ice water ASAP. Then I'd would purge the lid valve several times over the next day if using a fridge or over next hour if using ice bath. Then I'd try to see if it still gushes when you remove the lid if you're really determined to remove the hops, but me, I'd just leave them in. If the hops were going to plug the dip tube, they'd have probably done so already or within first few pours. Then I would hook to my beer line and see how it pours after giving it some time to settle after moving it. If it is way over carbonated like it sounds like, I'd proceed as above.
Good luck.
TD
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