Dry hopping in a SS Brew Tech Chronical

Hi there,

I've done a handful of fermentations in the SS Brew Tech ½ Bbl Conical. But none of them dry hopped. The IPA currently fermenting needs it though. About 600 gram for 60L.

I'm very much in doubt whether it would be ok to dump the pellets right in or stick to what I would normally do, use a bag?

I have the ability to cold crash. And if I throw them in without the bag, I would dump the yeast prior to that and cold crash at day 5 or so. With a total of 7 dry hopping days.

What are your thoughts? Will it block the outlet if I skip the bag?

Thanks!

/Kim

posted in wrong thread.

I just used my new 7 gallon chronical for the secondary fermentation on a blonde ale. I dry hopped for 5 days by putting the pellet hops in a bag tied by a string (all soaked in Starsan of course). I put the string through the hole in the top and secured it with the rubber stopper so that the hop bag was sitting in the beer. When I racked to my bottling bucket the hop debris and leftover yeast was all below the first ball valve and my transfer was quite clear. After I racked to the bottling bucket I drained what was left out of the bottom dump valve, it worked really well. I would imagine that you could use the same type of process for your 1/2 Bbl and have similar results.

I own 2 seven gallon chronicals and just dump loose hop pellets in for dry hopping. They eventually settle to the bottom whether you cold crash or not. I used to use paint strainer bags, but had problems with them clogging the dump valve and/or the racking arm. My vote is to just dump them in loose.

Ok, so I threw in 600g of pellets yesterday without a bag. Hopefully it will settle nicely in the cone.

Update. So I kegged the beer yesterday and while it was mostly clear, I still got a lot of hop particles in the kegs. Cold crashed it at 36F for 4 days. Will the hop particles eventually settle in the bottom of the keg?

So I'm probably going back to my old method. Using a bag with weight. But because my batches using quite a lot of dry hops, I'm not really keen on marbles and steel parts. Can anyone recommend a one piece weigh down? Preferably in stainless steel. Something like 0.5 - 1.0 kg.

I have a half barrel chronical and I do the same thing mentioned by VApatriot. It's worked great so far! You cant see it in the pics but I put a SS weight in the bag with the hops to help keep them from just floating on the top.

That's what I'll be doing next time for sure. But I'm just looking for something useful to weigh down 20 - 30 oz of hops. Considering buying large steel balls.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...machine-bearing-ball/1630926_32344264536.html

SS balls like that would be perfect. But all I have laying around is SS Camlock dust caps. Not ideal but heavy enough to do the job and have worked great so far.

Well I bought two of them, so hopefully they will do the job. Will report back later on their usefulness.

KimJohansen said:

That's what I'll be doing next time for sure. But I'm just looking for something useful to weigh down 20 - 30 oz of hops. Considering buying large steel balls.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...machine-bearing-ball/1630926_32344264536.html

Click to expand...

Update, I cannot recommend those steel balls as they corroded in beer!

Thanks for the feedback @KimJohansen.

KimJohansen said:

I'm not really keen on marbles and steel parts. Can anyone recommend a one piece weigh down? Preferably in stainless steel. Something like 0.5 - 1.0 kg.

Click to expand...

I'm curious why you are opposed to using glass marbles.

KimJohansen said:

Update. So I kegged the beer yesterday and while it was mostly clear, I still got a lot of hop particles in the kegs. Cold crashed it at 36F for 4 days. Will the hop particles eventually settle in the bottom of the keg?

So I'm probably going back to my old method. Using a bag with weight. But because my batches using quite a lot of dry hops, I'm not really keen on marbles and steel parts. Can anyone recommend a one piece weigh down? Preferably in stainless steel. Something like 0.5 - 1.0 kg.

Click to expand...

Be sure to rotate the racking arm so that it is vertical when transferring to keg, otherwise it will pull in hop matter that sticks to the walls of the cone. I always set mine up pointed to the left and then rotate the entire valve to the right approx 90 degrees.