Dry hop in secondary or keg??

[Tilldeath]

Which should I do? I will end up with a cleaner beer by secondarying it but i'm not sure about siphoning it to my keg, I think it will get clogged. If I do it in the keg, do I just put the beer in, then add hops and start carbing or do I let the hops sit for the week and a half and then begin carbing?? And how do I prevent hops from clogging my dip tube??

 

[samc]

I find best results to be adding hops in a nylon bag to a fully carbed serving keg.

 

[david_42]

I keg condition, dry hop, force carbonate and serve.

Very fine mesh bags and only use whole hops.

 

[calpyro]

Which should I do? I will end up with a cleaner beer by secondarying it but i'm not sure about siphoning it to my keg, I think it will get clogged. If I do it in the keg, do I just put the beer in, then add hops and start carbing or do I let the hops sit for the week and a half and then begin carbing?? And how do I prevent hops from clogging my dip tube??

I do not secondary in the conventional sense. I leave the beer in primary for two weeks, transfer to a keg which is equipped with a Surescreen: http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/surescreen.html and has been purged with C02 and sanitized. This allows me to throw in whole-flower hops, loose. I have found that the utilization is much better than hops kept in a bag or similar device. The Surescreen keeps the pickup tube from getting clogged and with the hops loose in the keg. A daily “shake” helps keeps the hops in suspension and speeds the dry-hopping process.
I keep the beer in the dry-hopping keg for a couple of weeks at cellar temps, chill and transfer to a clean keg, add gelatin and carbonate. Within a few days, I have a clear beer which is as hoppy as I want.
I have tried a number of different ways to dry-hop. None works as well as my method of dry hopping in the keg.
One more tip, if you are making really hoppy beers, you will end up adding a lot of hops, which will absorb quite a bit of beer. I have fixed the problem by coarsely chopping the whole hops with a food processor to break up the cones. Pellet hops will clog the Surescreen, but whole hops which have been chopped, will not. After chopping the whole cones, the hops do not absorb as much beer and have another advantage or further improving the utilization of the hops.

 

[azscoob]

I put the whole hops in a big herb ball that I zip tie to the dip tube, keeps it off the bottom, and keeps it submerged. beer in my house never lasts long enough to get grassy from over dryhopping

 

[Tilldeath]

Great those tips help a ton, I will prolly just get a screen and put that over my racking cane and rack to keg. That way I can control the amount of time it is dry hopping, I do like the second keg idea though, so as soon as I pick one up I'll prolly go that route. Is there a calculator for volume of beer lost due to dry hopping out there? Also could I mix up say a small batch of fairly diluted wort to let the hops soak in for 1-3days prior to dumping everything unto the beer?

 

[jeffmeh]

You can also dry hop in the primary once fermentation is complete. I have done this, then crash cooled for a few days, and racked to keg with a paint strainer bag on the racking cane. Worked great for me.

 

[Brewinator]

One more tip, if you are making really hoppy beers, you will end up adding a lot of hops, which will absorb quite a bit of beer. I have fixed the problem by coarsely chopping the whole hops with a food processor to break up the cones. Pellet hops will clog the Surescreen, but whole hops which have been chopped, will not. After chopping the whole cones, the hops do not absorb as much beer and have another advantage or further improving the utilization of the hops.

Hey Calpyro, may I assume this chop-for-utilization method is true of the boil as well?

I needs to get me a kegging system one of these days.