Adding Hops to Keg

Any suggestions and tips to adding pellet hops to my kegged beer? Was going to put the hops in a nylon hops bag with a stainless steel washer to weigh down, finally attaching a fishing line to it and through the o-ring seal on my keg top. Fishing line will be about 2/3 the height of the keg in length to allow for the hops to be completely submerged, but not get stuck in the dip tube.

Any experience with this? How much hops is a good amount to add? I have a Honey Hefeweizen that I would like to be extra hoppy for the summer and my upcoming wedding.

Any help and suggestions would be awesome!

Fishing line will most likely cause a leak. You can zip tie the bag to the beer out tube.

I wouldn't use pellets for that application though. I did once and was sorry I did. It's one of the reasons that I think pellets suck.

I have a stainless tea ball that fits perfectly threw the opening of my keg. Got it at walmart for a couple bucks. Only fits about a half oz tho..

You want to use dental floss, tied to the the outside of the keg, make sure you get the non flavored dental floss, I just put the hops in a nylon hop bag add 5 of the large size marbles, everything sanitized in star san of course, and drop the bag in the keg, like you said, make sure the floss is long enough the bag almost reaches the bottom, good luck.

edmanster said:

I have a stainless tea ball that fits perfectly threw the opening of my keg. Got it at walmart for a couple bucks. Only fits about a half oz tho..

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This is what I've heard works. Just get 2 of these. 1 ounce should be enough.

Ok to use the tea ball things with pellet hops? Do you tie it down or just let it float?

edmanster said:

I have a stainless tea ball that fits perfectly threw the opening of my keg. Got it at walmart for a couple bucks. Only fits about a half oz tho..

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Halldawg said:

Ok to use the tea ball things with pellet hops? Do you tie it down or just let it float?

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NOOOOO! Don't use the tea ball with pellet hops! Trust me on that. It doesn't contain them after they disintegrate and your diptube will clog up!

What I do is use a tightly woven muslin hop bag for pellets in the keg. No need to zip tie, hang, etc. Just toss it in. If you're using leaf hops, either a bag or a tea ball work fine, but only hold about 1/2 ounce of hops due to expansion. No need to use anything on them, either- just toss them in when they are securely tied.

I just toss the bag in w/ some weights. I use a long handle SS spoon to fish it out.

I like the "suspended, weighted, via dental floss" method. I usually only drop the bag about half-way so that in the rare, rare instances where it takes a while to drink the keg, the hops aren't actually in the beer for weeks on end. Just my little method of preventing "grassy" flavors, but I admit I don't know that I would recognize them if I tasted them.

I use nylon knee highs, pellet hops and dental floss. Works great. Once I forgot to weigh down the sock so I just turned the keg upside down!

Is it bad to have the beer dry hop for a long time? Say it takes a month to get through the keg and the hops have been in there the entire time. Would it give off any funky flavors?

IPAAAA said:

Is it bad to have the beer dry hop for a long time? Say it takes a month to get through the keg and the hops have been in there the entire time. Would it give off any funky flavors?

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No. I think it's because the keg is cold, and it doesn't seem that dryhops in cold beer give that "grassy" flavor.

Hmmm. Well I guess I will dry hop in the keg from now on. Muslim bags and hop pellets work pretty well or do they flow a bit in the keg and get into your poured glass?

IPAAAA said:

Hmmm. Well I guess I will dry hop in the keg from now on. Muslim bags and hop pellets work pretty well or do they flow a bit in the keg and get into your poured glass?

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The only time I used pellet hops in a bag I got hop debris towards the end of the keg. I dry hop w/ whole hops exclusively now, in a nylon paint strainer, no weights, no fishing line.

-d

Sent from my iPod touch using HB Talk

Whole hops cost a bit more and soak up a bit of beer though right?

IPAAAA said:

Whole hops cost a bit more and soak up a bit of beer though right?

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I never found the amount of absorption to be objectionable, a couple of ounces at most. At least w/ dry hopping,in the kettle there's a bit more,but still not a ton. Plan your final volume to include the loss. Whole hops are a bit more money, but IMHO for dry hopping, they are a necessity.

-d

Sent from my iPod touch using HB Talk

I use pellets in muslin bags, weighted down and secured with dental floss. Only had a noticable about of debris once on a keg that I moved around a bit while the hops were in there. Since then I've made sure to be more gentle when moving a keg that has a hop bag in it and haven't had any issues since.