Hop Bits in Draft Beer!

In several of the beers I've kegged, I've ended up with small floating hop bits/leaves in the glass. I know I suck up some from the kettle when transferring into the fermenter, but it seems like they never settle out or get left behind. Does anyone else have this problem??

I tried cold crashing the beer, putting a hop bag over the dip tube, and the little floating hop bits still come through. The latest offender is a hefeweizen, and I'd rather not have to fine it with gelatin and get rid of all the good cloudiness for the sake of getting rid of hop junk. Any ideas???

Thanks in advance!

Are you sure it's hop bits?

I just set up my keg a few weeks ago and we've already killed 3 1/2 filled corny kegs (bottled half, kegged the rest). I was going through the process of cleaning out the lines and noticed that some stuff that looked like small leaves came out after about 30 seconds of flushing with the line cleaning fluid.

Are you sure your lines are all completely cleaned and sanitized from one end to the other?

FWIW: Of the three kegs, two were paler ales, one was a darker one with LOTS of sediment but we didn't have any issues with anything large enough that I'd call it hop bits. Just some sediment and not any more than I was expecting.

Also, I've read that you can cut off the end of the spear or tube so that you don't pull in as much sediment, just leave it for a week or so after you cut it. Something about oxidizing the SS that makes it so it doesn't react with or affect the beer.

At first, the dip tube had some of the bits in it. They are green, leafy things (hence assumed hops.) After I blew the tube out with CO2 and tried using the hop bag to "filter", I'm still getting some of these floating leaves in the glass. It didn't seem like there was a lot of them coming out of the fermenter when I racked, but now every glass I pour has some in it. I feel like its impacting flavor.

Cburke501 said:

At first, the dip tube had some of the bits in it. They are green, leafy things (hence assumed hops.) After I blew the tube out with CO2 and tried using the hop bag to "filter", I'm still getting some of these floating leaves in the glass. It didn't seem like there was a lot of them coming out of the fermenter when I racked, but now every glass I pour has some in it. I feel like its impacting flavor.

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edit: Sorry dupe post

Cburke501 said:

At first, the dip tube had some of the bits in it. They are green, leafy things (hence assumed hops.) After I blew the tube out with CO2 and tried using the hop bag to "filter", I'm still getting some of these floating leaves in the glass. It didn't seem like there was a lot of them coming out of the fermenter when I racked, but now every glass I pour has some in it. I feel like its impacting flavor.

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I'd try taking everything apart and cleaning it all thoroughly and see if it's still there the next time.

I cleaned the keg with PBW and flushed it with clean water before filling it. What could it be if not hops? I know the PBW, water rinse and sanitizer did not stir it up, so I can only assume its something in the beer I just racked.

I may just try gelatin and see if that works, even if I end up with a kristalweizen instead of a hefe.

Cburke501 said:

I cleaned the keg with PBW and flushed it with clean water before filling it. What could it be if not hops? I know the PBW, water rinse and sanitizer did not stir it up, so I can only assume its something in the beer I just racked.

I may just try gelatin and see if that works, even if I end up with a kristalweizen instead of a hefe.

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I'm not sure what it could be but I used hop pellets so in my case when I saw it in the cleaning solution I figured it was some kind of gunk from having dirty lines or something. (algae maybe? )

I'm new at this so I'm just guessing but the beers I had on tap didn't have anything but hop bits so I didn't expect to see anything green and leafy.

Maybe someone with more experience with this will chime in...

You can try putting a bit of stainless steel braid on the end of the dip tube (like you'd use for a mash tun cooler). I've done this in the past when dry hopping in the keg, after having a problem with hop bits clogging things up and causing foam. This will probably only keep out the larger chunks.

Aside from that, a few floaties won't hurt anything - the other day I bought a pint of dry-hopped MPA from my local brewpub (Migration) with lots of hoppy goodness floating around in it. It was delicious

I get hop floaties in my dry hopped IPA, but I wouldn't expect it in a Hefe. I would think hop pieces stuck in the post/QD/faucet from an earlier dry hopped beer, but it seems like you cleaned all that stuff. Unless maybe you dry hop your hefe...

I had a few hop leaf pieces make it into my kegged blonde ale.

No biggie, part of home brew.

To the poster questioning if it's algae? Um, I hope not. Algae need Oxygen and Light to survive. If you have those 2 items in your kegs, I would think you'd have much more wrong with your beer than just that.

k2zr2 said:

I had a few hop leaf pieces make it into my kegged blonde ale.

No biggie, part of home brew.

To the poster questioning if it's algae? Um, I hope not. Algae need Oxygen and Light to survive. If you have those 2 items in your kegs, I would think you'd have much more wrong with your beer than just that.

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Thanks, that was me and I know I'm a noob. I just couldn't figure out where I could get anything that looked distinctly leafy like what came out in the cleaning solution because I only used an extract, steeped grains (filtered before kegging) and hop pellets, no buds or anything.

It was my first really thorough cleaning with the tap/line cleaning solution but I had been circulating iodophor through the lines once a week since I got it. I just saw the one leafy thing in the solution and it didn't look like the sediment that I'd seen in the beer.

Thanks, I guess that makes sense that it couldn't be algae, just tried throwing it out there.

I put a paint strained over my auto siphon when I rack into the keg. Keeps everything out especially when I dry hop

a_shorething said:

Thanks, that was me and I know I'm a noob. I just couldn't figure out where I could get anything that looked distinctly leafy like what came out in the cleaning solution because I only used an extract, steeped grains (filtered before kegging) and hop pellets, no buds or anything.

It was my first really thorough cleaning with the tap/line cleaning solution but I had been circulating iodophor through the lines once a week since I got it. I just saw the one leafy thing in the solution and it didn't look like the sediment that I'd seen in the beer.

Thanks, I guess that makes sense that it couldn't be algae, just tried throwing it out there.

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Hop pellets are little shredded hops leaves packed together that break up as they are saturated. Try throwing one into some water and see if it looks like your floaties... I'm betting it does - you are describing them pretty much spot on.