Warning: Don't dry hop a carb'd keg!!

[Mountainsax]

I wanted to put this out there for my fellow new homebrewers so that hopefully you will learn from my mistakes and not make this mess!!

Here's the story, this is a Chinook IPA kit from Northern that we had some issues with (see details here). The keg was carbonated, then removed from the kegerator to come up to room temp. I went to add dry hops, added a couple sanitized steel balls to the hop bag, added the hops, tied everything closed with fishing line and put the bag in. The bag started filling with foam and then the foam just started gushing out of the keg!



Things I was NOT thinking about:

1) CO2 dissolves less in warm beer than cold.

2) Hops and a hop bag create a lot of nucleation sites (small imperfections that are places where bubbles will form)



Lessons Learned:

1) Don't dry hop a carbonated keg!

2) If you must dry hop a carbonated keg follow these steps

- make sure the beer is as cold as possible
- get everything ready

- squeeze all air out of the hop bag

- tie hop bag closed with fishing line and then tie fishing line to the inside of the keg lid (maybe to the underside of the PRV)

- QUICKLY put in the bag and seal the lid making sure nothing is interfering with the seal (did I mention doing this quickly?!)

 

[bobeer]

alcohol abuse!

Hopefully you saved enough to drink. Thanks for sharing some lessons!

 

[BigMack]

That poor beer. Cold and lonely on the floor.....

 

[Remmy]

Wow.

 

[mucci2k]

I took a brewery tour and they tried this on a much larger scale with same results. They said as they dumped the hops in they realized the mistake and couldn't get the port on top of the fermenter closed quick enough.

Here is their setup they had to clean.

 

[Mountainsax]

That poor beer. Cold and lonely on the floor.....

That was the worst part, beer down!!

 

[Mountainsax]

I took a brewery tour and they tried this on a much larger scale with same results. They said as they dumped the hops in they realized the mistake and couldn't get the port on top of the fermenter closed quick enough.

Here is their setup they had to clean.

That makes me feel so much better! I cleaned up my mess with one towel!

 

[MaxStout]

Get a straw...quick!

Thanks for the cautionary tale. Nucleation is not our friend.

/I put a pinch of yeast nutrient in a flask of boiling starter wort once. It didn't end well.

 

[andrewmaixner]

After having a similar experience to yours, I've learned how to successfully add and remove dry pellet hops, in a mesh bag, from carbed kegs. The key is very low temperature and very fast operation, and to operate while cold, then let it warm up fora few days, then back down to cold to remove. Not optimal, but it could rescue a beer that really needed the flavor.

And just in case, a large HDPE cement mixing tray : https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...cessories/shape-super-tub/p-1444441881203.htm
I use it for a lot of potentially messy things, to keep cleanup super easy --under the bottling setup, dishes/drying tray, etc

 

[Homercidal]

Dang! I was going to DH a chilled and carbed IPA tonight! Same process as the OP!



Guess I better put it in the kitchen sink first to avoid soaking the floor...

 

[Mountainsax]

If it's cold, the CO2 won't try to come out of solution as easily (but it will still try). Have everything ready, plan your moves, and do it quick! Good luck!

 

[dcbw]

I did this once. Now I have the keg lid in one hand and the hops in the other and I'm quick like a bunny.

 

[iijakii]

I think the issue is just from carbonating cold and then letting it come up to room temp? I've never had issues with adding hops to a cold, carbonated keg.

 

[hezagenius]

Happened to me a few batches ago. Luckily I had drank maybe a gallon or so already so the liquid level was not right at the top. I put the bag in whoosh! the foam started rising. I got that lid on quick! Bad thing was that when I vented it to purge any O2 that got in, the foam shot out of the PRV. That was a mess, too. And it stuck it closed so I had to soak the lid for a while after it kicked.

And last night, I was making a starter in a flask and added a bit of nutrient. Foamed right up to the top. I started blowing on it in hopes that it would cool it down enough to not overflow. Then I turned down the heat and added some FermcapS. That stuff works miracles sometimes.

 

[MattyIce]

This is no big deal when the beer is cold. I have done it multiple times.

 

[chickypad]

This is no big deal when the beer is cold. I have done it multiple times.

I've had it happen on a full, cold keg. Still good practice I think to be ready with the lid.

 

[Brewsit]

You know what else causes massive problems like that? Pouring Oxyclean into already boiling water. Even worse, pouring Oxyclean into boiling water in an Erlenmeyer flask. Oxy volcanoes tend to cause nice burns. However, It's a great way to clean your stove.

 

[bobby4]

It is very hard on the tongue cleaning all that beer off the floor.

 

[chickypad]

It is very hard on the tongue cleaning all that beer off the floor.

My pit mix would disagree. She's been in charge of brewery cleanup for years now, and would have that mess ship shape in no time.

 

[ttaylor137]

I apologize if this is a stupid question, however it is the Beginner forum

What is the reasoning/benefit of dry hopping in a carbed keg?.....I have always done it in primary or secondary (before kegging, let alone caring).

 

[cjones]

That poor beer. Cold and lonely on the floor.....

its not cold any more

 

[paperairplane]

I apologize if this is a stupid question, however it is the Beginner forum

What is the reasoning/benefit of dry hopping in a carbed keg?.....I have always done it in primary or secondary (before kegging, let alone caring).

I have a blonde I just made - it's kegged and carbed. The beer is fine, it's just lacking any real hop presence. I used all Saaz and Tettnang, which are really mild. So I'm going to dry hop to punch it up a little. Next time I will adjust recipe for more late addition hops.

 

[govner1]

Dang! I was going to DH a chilled and carbed IPA tonight! Same process as the OP!



Guess I better put it in the kitchen sink first to avoid soaking the floor...

Use a Randall when you serve

 

[iijakii]

I apologize if this is a stupid question, however it is the Beginner forum

What is the reasoning/benefit of dry hopping in a carbed keg?.....I have always done it in primary or secondary (before kegging, let alone caring).

Just another trick to infuse more hop presence into it. Higher temp dry hops definitely are the workhorse, but leaving a bag of hops in for the whole keg just kicks it up a notch and helps prevent it from losing much over the course.

 

[andrewmaixner]

I apologize if this is a stupid question, however it is the Beginner forum

What is the reasoning/benefit of dry hopping in a carbed keg?.....I have always done it in primary or secondary (before kegging, let alone caring).

Basically, you do it to adjust flavor when it doesn't taste as hoppy as you wanted one it gets on tap. normally one would dry hop in a keg or carboy before carbing.

 

[chickypad]

Basically, you do it to adjust flavor when it doesn't taste as hoppy as you wanted one it gets on tap. normally one would dry hop in a keg or carboy before carbing.

Yep. I've most commonly done it on the second keg of a 10 gal batch where the hop character has faded a bit.

 

[mradicsh]

It's called nucleation. Adding the hops give the CO2 millions of contact points to come out of solution. Science.

 

[chickypad]

It's called nucleation. Adding the hops give the CO2 millions of contact points to come out of solution. Science.

You mean, like the OP mentioned in the original post.

 

[MattyIce]

You mean, like the OP mentioned in the original post.

You think you're SOOOOO smart...reading the WHOOOOOLE OP and all that...:fro:

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Yep. I've most commonly done it on the second keg of a 10 gal batch where the hop character has faded a bit.

I also like preventing as much oxygenation as i can in these hop heavy beers that adding dry hops can inpart...atleast having it under pressure in CO2 i can vent out any oxygen the hops may add.

 

[Homercidal]

Just a quick note here. I did not get around to putting dry hops in the keg. Sometimes I just don't do everything when it should be done.

But, I entered into two competitions. The first was an open comp my club put on. I entered it just to increase the relatively low number of entries and and see how it would fair as an American IPA without dry-hopping. It scored a 42 from the brewmaster. He's normally a pretty critical judge. It went to the BOS round but I don't know how it ended up out of those 4 beers.

The next comp was a club comp JUST for American IPAs. It came in second and lost by 1 vote.

Frankly I'm amazed that a beer that was not dry hopped could score so high. There is a noticeable lack of fresh hop aroma when compared to most of the other entries.

I'm almost kicking myself for not getting the dry hop addition in there!

(almost...)

 

[CapnHook]

Get a straw...quick!

Thanks for the cautionary tale. Nucleation* is not our friend.

/.

* except in our beer glasses!

 

[dubbwelsh]

I've had much better luck using whole leaf at serving temps (think nucleation points again), to punch life into a brew that had gone boring. They also end up clearer, but probably not a high priority at this point. Having said that, not all hops are available whole leaf.