Dry hopping kegged beer

[g_rath]

Has anyone ever tried dry hopping kegged beer? I think I want to dry hop some beer that's already carbed up. I don't think it would be that hard just wondering if people have had any unforeseen problems. Thanks.

 

[Zen_Brew]

Dry hopping in the keg works good to refresh the hop profile of an IPA that has started to fade. I beleive there are a couple breweries that use the technique as well.

The greatest downside is introducing oxygen to the beer. If you think the keg won't be on tap more than a couple weeks than you are probably OK, but if the beer will be around for a while you need to be careful of introducing oxygen to the beer, especially with leaf hops.

If I had a beer I really liked, and I thought it would be around for a bit, and wanted to be super anal, I would probably put the hops in a new keg and flush the keg with co2 then let it sit with pressure for a day or so to try to force much of the o2 out with co2. Then I would direct transfer the beer in a closed loop from the current keg to the new keg with the hops in it.

Just my .02

 

[Edcculus]

Do it all the time. Just get a big tea ball and zip tie it somewhere on the dip tube. That way, as the beer level drops, it leaves the hops behind, which will limit the grassy flavor of longer term dry hopping. Or you could just pull the ball out after a week.

 

[jmmarvel]

To the OP: You could also build a randall. Northern Brewer sells a kit to make one that basically just uses a filter as the main part, plus some other needed accessories. This should work just fine, but would cost some $.

To Edcculus: For your idea, couldn't you just use a stainless steel mesh ball like this one?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RIZ7/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I bought one of these like 2 years ago and just haven't come up w/ a use for it yet. Could this work for inside a keg?

 

[jmkratt]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RIZ7/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I bought one of these like 2 years ago and just haven't come up w/ a use for it yet. Could this work for inside a keg?

It certainly could, however those ball designs are tricky as not all the parts are stainless and it will start to rust - been my experience anyhow.

 

[RegionalChaos]

I use a medium sized grain bag. I just zip tied it closed and tossed it in. Worked fine.

 

[bdnoona]

To the OP: You could also build a randall. Northern Brewer sells a kit to make one that basically just uses a filter as the main part, plus some other needed accessories. This should work just fine, but would cost some $.

Do you have a link you can post for this? This really peaked my interest, but I can't find anything on NB website.

 

[Edcculus]

To Edcculus: For your idea, couldn't you just use a stainless steel mesh ball like this one?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RIZ7/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I bought one of these like 2 years ago and just haven't come up w/ a use for it yet. Could this work for inside a keg?

Yep, thats exactly what I was referring to. Use mine to dry hop in the keg all the time.