Dry Hopping Filter Technique

[ueberdc4]

I'm dry hopping a Belgian IPA with an ounce of pellets, so I've been looking all over at dry hopping techniques.

Here's my idea: In order to filter out any hops when kegging my beer, I'd like to simply fix a piece of muslin bag or paint strainer mesh taut over the inside opening of my spigot. I've seen this suggested once or twice and people have responded that it will oxidize the beer. I don't understand how that would even be possible as it wouldn't be exposed to any air. Thoughts?

 

[Snagg30341]

When we dry hop we use a hop bag with fishing line tied outside. Works great.

 

[NervousDad]

How are you getting the mesh bag in the inside of the spigot? If you don't want hop particles you can just use a sanitized bag to dry hop.

I dry hope right in the keg with a muslin bag and gelatin to clear it. My beer is crystal clear in about 4 days.

 

[banks412]

Could you just buy a small reusable hop bag, sanitize it, and drop the pellets in the bag and then cram the whole thing into the secondary? I don't know much at all about kegging, but I have learned that 'straining' devices tend to get clogged - that'd be my only concern with your original idea...

 

[IslandLizard]

I'm dry hopping a Belgian IPA with an ounce of pellets, so I've been looking all over at dry hopping techniques.

Here's my idea: In order to filter out any hops when kegging my beer, I'd like to simply fix a piece of muslin bag or paint strainer mesh taut over the inside opening of my spigot. I've seen this suggested once or twice and people have responded that it will oxidize the beer. I don't understand how that would even be possible as it wouldn't be exposed to any air. Thoughts?

How do you get your beer in a spigotted vessel? Are you fermenting in a bucket that has a spigot already? Or do you use a bucket with a spigot as your secondary/dry hop fermentor after racking off your primary?

For most regular ales, the use of a secondary, even for dry hopping is really not needed. You could dry hop in your primary.

You want to limit beer exposure to air/oxygen as much as possible. So no splashing, or filtering in open air. We therefore stick the output hose of the racking tube under the beer surface.

Are you thinking of tying a fine mesh bag around the inside of your spigot? How would you do that? The orifice is very small at 3/8" or so and a tight piece of mesh bag around it will likely plug up quickly.

Most people will tie a sanitized mesh bag on the bottom of their racking cane, the input side, to prevent transferring hops and trub.

Conceivably, you could tie a sanitized mesh bag around the output hose (the end that is in your keg now) to catch all the hop debris and trub that makes it through the racking cane. Just keep the thing under the beer surface to prevent excessive exposure to air.

 

[ueberdc4]

I would be using a bucket with a spigot as my secondary/dry hop fermentor after racking off my primary. The inside of the spigot is almost an inch isn't it? I was thinking I'd just try screwing the plastic nut on over it or tying it on with fishing line or something if that didn't work.

I was considering just leaving it in the primary and putting a bag over the autosiphon, but this sounds slightly less annoying...plus I have a handy tube that connects to my bottling spigot on one end and has a quick disconnect on the other end for hassle-free (and oxygen-free) kegging.

 

[Wolfbayne]

I would go with the muslin bag with the hops in it. I would be afraid of putting a filter over the spigot. The movement of fluids over the trub, hops, and the mesh would possibly extract small bubbles from the beer and possibly oxidize your product. Slight chance, but if you can minimize this chance the better.

Some people run the siphon thru a bag filled with pellets, but this too runs the risk of oxidizing. So would covering the end of the tube with a strainer bag, even if you had it under the beer (IMHO). Any type of cavitation of moving fluids over solids will produce oxygen bubbles.

Easy answer would be drop a muslin bag with the pellets. If you are worried about haziness or even small particles getting thru, use a clarifier or drop your secondary temps down in order to make everything fall out of suspension. I use the chill method with the secondary dry hop and have clear beer.

Remember what ever you do will produce good quality drinkable homebrew!

 

[IslandLizard]

Yes, the spigot entrance is about 3/4". Still easy to clog.

I've made hop teas and strained the steeped tea through the finest mesh hop bag doubled up. I still ended up with a significant amount of very fine hop particles (dust) in the tea and after decanting some of that ended up in the bottling bucket. It will settle in your bottles with the yeast.

Don't secondary to a bucket. The head space is way too much. And after racking there is no CO2 left to blanket your beer. Plastic or glass carboys of the right size are much better, that is, if you feel the need for a secondary. There is always risk of infection when racking, so beware of that and sanitize well. Don't overlook the spigots. The 2 barrels that form the main spigot body do come apart for cleaning. Do a search.

 

[JoseM]

Did you encounter any changes when you filtered? I made a Pale Ale with tons of dry hopping, always very tasty and with lots of smell, but when I filtered my last batch I was surprised how much of the scent had gone.