Dry hop in keg best option

[Alf34]

Hi!

I want to dry hop in the keg for the first time. With my current setup, I only have 3 options:

- sanitise the keg, dump sanitiser, drop the hop bag, close the lid, purge keg with C02 and then transfer the beer. I'm not sure I want to do this since I would need a lot of purging cycles to get rid of most of the oxygen. Not ideal.

- sanitise the keg, push starsan out with CO2, quickly open the lid, throw in the hop bag, close the lid, and finally transfer beer. I like the fact that the beer is transfered on top of the hops, so it gets quickly mixed.

- sanitise the keg, push starsan out with CO2, transfer the beer into oxygen free keg, quickly open the lid, throw in the hop bag, and then purge the headspace a few times. Something tells me this is probably my best option.

What do you guys think is the best option if I want to reduce oxygen contact as much as possible?

 

[tracer bullet]

- sanitise the keg, push starsan out with CO2, transfer the beer into oxygen free keg, quickly open the lid, throw in the hop bag, and then purge the headspace a few times. Something tells me this is probably my best option.

I've done this a few times. You do get an O2 free transfer which I think is important since there's a lot of beer movement at that time. And for purging later there's a lot less that is left to purge.

It' snot perfect but it works decently well. I've kept hop flavors for a solid week, the 2nd week they're starting to fade but still good. Don't expect a month or two though.

 

[Deadalus]

Another option I have read is to sanitize keg, let drip dry, add hops, seal keg, purge with fermentation gas. I don't remember who mentioned it though.

 

[mac_1103]

Another option I have read is to sanitize keg, let drip dry, add hops, seal keg, purge with fermentation gas. I don't remember who mentioned it though.

+1
I suspect that more than one or two people have mentioned it. The potential downsides are that the hops sit around for some period of time at something above freezer temperatures and that the fermentation gas might carry some of the hop aroma away before your beer ever touches the hops. But I've done it a few times and liked the results.