do kegs settle out?

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todd_k

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do sediment and hop particles settle in a keg like it would in a bottle? Since the beer is pulled off the bottom of the keg, I'm wondering how much it would even matter in a keg since that's where the stuff is going to settle. I've been shaking my keg for a couple days so it's all mixed up and when i pour a little out, there are a lot of hop floaties in there. I dry hopped with pellets so I didn't think anything of it until I poured some.
 
It does settle. If you want to settle it faster, lager it for a couple of weeks. You can shorten the dip tube to draw less sediment, but I just toss out the first 1/2 glass.
 
Clarify...did you dry hop in the keg? Or dry hop in the secondary and then rack to the keg?

If the second, how did you filter out the hops?

Get your keg real cold and let it sit still (stop shaking it) for a couple days. Then draw off a glass or two and that sediment should shoot right out and leave the remainder of the beer clear.
 
If you dry hopped with pellets in the keg, you are in for a real PITA. If you dry hopped in the clearing tank, sounds like you should have waited a while longer to keg. Give the keg two weeks to clear, the first glass will still have crud in it, but then it should be fine.

Force carbonating by shaking doesn't speed up the conditioning process anyway, so you're looking at green, fuzzy beer.
 
I dry hopped in the secondary. It was in the secondary for 3 weeks. I didn't add any hops to the keg.
 
If you keg and like to dry hop, do it in the keg. There's nothing like it, so deliciously hoppy smelling. Just put it in a nylon hop bag with some sanitized glass marbles or stainless bolts.
 
Bobby_M said:
If you keg and like to dry hop, do it in the keg. There's nothing like it, so deliciously hoppy smelling. Just put it in a nylon hop bag with some sanitized glass marbles or stainless bolts.
I've done this before without any issue - I use a stainless mesh tea ball with the hops in that (in the keg). When I have done this, the beer was gone in a few weeks. Recently, I've started brewing more often, so each keg is going to last longer - my question: How long can the hops say in the keg - will it ever get to be "too much" of the dry hop, or does the effect hit a ceiling after a while and no longer get any stronger?
 
At any rate, you're all good. Just deal with those hops on the first couple glasses and it's all good. I go ahead and drink that first half glass that is hoppy as hell, but I'm a drunk.:ban:
 
i'm of the opinion that you can leave dry hops in the keg until the keg floats. many people say only a week or two, but honestly, i'm lazy, and once i put it in, i don't want to fish it out until the keg is finished. that's me though. i think it continues to improve over time, but then i like hops, and many people don't.
 
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