Planning to try dry hopping in a keg. Going to add pellet hops loose and purge the keg. Do a closed transfer after cool crashing 2 days at 55. Let the keg sit a day at 55, cold crash 2 days at 33 then close transfer to a serving keg. My question is how much should I trim off the dip tube? If the popet does clog what is the best way to clear it without letting oxygen in? How does the dry hop plan sound? Going to be a 5 gallon batch of NEIPA with 6-8 oz dry hops.
Dry hop keg. How much to trim dip tube?
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If the pellets are going in loose the best way is with a floating dip tube with a screen.
Purging a mostly empty keg with hops in it will require massive amounts of CO2. I recommend doing it with fermentation gas.
Purging a mostly empty keg with hops in it will require massive amounts of CO2. I recommend doing it with fermentation gas.
Floating diptube like this one, or get a hop bag. I tried loose one time and spent an hour removing the valve and pulling out hops to get the keg flowing. Even if you use a floating diptube, I'd still recommend a hop bag. You'll need a few more hops that way, but the ease of transfer is worth a couple bucks of hops.
Do you need a screen for the floating dip tube? Might be able to get one for the next batch but current batch is ready for dry hops now. So I estimate about 1 liter per inch of dip tube. If cold crashing really packs the hop matter how thick do you think 6 oz of hops would be? I also read about the Utah Biodiesel screen tubes that you can either use to put hops in or drill hole in the top and put the dip tube in while the hops are loose in the keg. It does cost more that floating dip tube. Anyone try both and have an opinion?
In all my batches of beer I've never used nor needed a blowoff. Headspace and Fermcap have done the job. Now, I also have low pressure on it as well with the spunding valve on the serving keg to make sure that air doesn't go back in.
I've never used verdant though.
I have a CBDS with screen for the dip tube and it works great, it's just really pricy.
15 purges at 30PSI is a lot of gas to go through if you're supplying the CO2.
I frequently keg condition my beers so to avoid picking up sediment I’ve either shortened my dip tubes by about 1/2” and added a SS dip tube screen or add Clear Beer Draught Systems to about half of my kegs (6). The CBDS comes with a screen so it filters out hop debris as well.
A related question to CBDS and my practice of closed transfer.
hiw can I prevent the following?
Ferment in my ss brewtech bucket. Dry hop once ( NEIPA), than transfer ( closed system) to my keg ( pushed out all oxygen by filling it with starsan and emptying it under Co2 pressure). Will do a second dry hop in keg.
problem is that in most cases during transfer I pick up too much hop material and my CBDS gets clogged ( as I push the beer from fermenter through the CBDS into my keg) and/or my poppet gets clogged. I’m now taking filter off CBDS which helps a bit.
tried to put an inline filter between fermenter and keg. Doesn’t help much.
Suggestions? I have not cold crashed the beer in fermenter yet prior to transfer.
assume that would help?
Beer does need another 5 days on top of second dry hop in keg.
hiw can I prevent the following?
Ferment in my ss brewtech bucket. Dry hop once ( NEIPA), than transfer ( closed system) to my keg ( pushed out all oxygen by filling it with starsan and emptying it under Co2 pressure). Will do a second dry hop in keg.
problem is that in most cases during transfer I pick up too much hop material and my CBDS gets clogged ( as I push the beer from fermenter through the CBDS into my keg) and/or my poppet gets clogged. I’m now taking filter off CBDS which helps a bit.
tried to put an inline filter between fermenter and keg. Doesn’t help much.
Suggestions? I have not cold crashed the beer in fermenter yet prior to transfer.
assume that would help?
Beer does need another 5 days on top of second dry hop in keg.
If your transferring to a purged keg how are you adding the second dry hop without opening the keg?
As for Hop debris, you need some sort of inline filter before the keg. You’re just as likely to clog the poppet as your CBDS. of course, you could remove the filter on the CBDS before transferring.
I ferment and secondary in Better Bottles and use a closed transfer system with a SS racking tube. I have an adapter on the end of the tube with a SS screen that fits snugly and this prevents debris from clogging my poppets.
As for Hop debris, you need some sort of inline filter before the keg. You’re just as likely to clog the poppet as your CBDS. of course, you could remove the filter on the CBDS before transferring.
I ferment and secondary in Better Bottles and use a closed transfer system with a SS racking tube. I have an adapter on the end of the tube with a SS screen that fits snugly and this prevents debris from clogging my poppets.
Do you have a CBDS in the fermenter as well? That's what I have.
I cold crash prior to transfer. It's worked well.
No, I only use the CBDS in my kegs. The screen on my SS transfer racking “ wand” is more than sufficient.
Interested in the screen on your ss transfer racking wand. Would that screen fit of the ss brew fermenter spigot?
I already use an inline filter, but it clearly doesn’t filter enough.
I fill the keg with a closed transfer. True I have to open the keg to drop a beg of dry hope in, while keeping theCo2 connected to keg and slowly let Co2 flow when dry hopping. Not exactly oxygen free but minimal.NEIPA tastes great fir several weeks without any change of taste.
I already use an inline filter, but it clearly doesn’t filter enough.
I fill the keg with a closed transfer. True I have to open the keg to drop a beg of dry hope in, while keeping theCo2 connected to keg and slowly let Co2 flow when dry hopping. Not exactly oxygen free but minimal.NEIPA tastes great fir several weeks without any change of taste.
hmm a cbds in fermenter connected to ss brew tech spigot. That is an idea. I will try that!
Works great in a kegmenter.
St.Frank
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Nope
No. The SS screen fits nicely to my dip tube and SS transfer wand.
