Dry hop through keg gas post?

[mijclarke]

May not be possible but has anyone thought of trying to add small hop pellets into gas post of corny keg while simultaneously pushing some CO2 into keg through PRV valve? So you’re gently purging while adding hops? I know it’s a very tight fit but maybe with a long narrow tube they could fall through the hole?

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I don't see this being possible, to small of an opening. You would have to push one in at a time, probably use a rod to do so. Picture the difference between a muzzle loader and a gatling gun. Plus with co2 going in they would likely break up and you would end up with hop dust everywhere except in the keg. But, I could be wrong.

 

[grampamark]

Do these steps in order:

1. Take an empty keg.

2. Remove the gas post

3. Remove the dip tube.

4. Try to drop a hop pellet through the hole.

5. Return to this thread and tell us how that worked out for you.

 

[mijclarke]

sometimes my imagination runs wild and then reality comes crashing down. Yea that hole is too small and squeezing them through with positive air pressure sounds kind of landing a red ring on a glass bottle at the carnival. I appreciate the civil responses as alot of people wouldn’t bite their tongue at my dumb idea

 

[DuncB]

Could be a bit like a BB machine gun if you got the pressures wrong, I'd wear eye protection!!

 

[McMullan]

Anything's possible. Here's what I'd do, if I insisted on pushing hop pellets through a corny keg gas post. Get a PET bottle and one of those thingies with 2 post caps and a dip tube:

Put the hop pellets in the sanitised PET bottle. Purge air from the PET bottle containing the hop pellets using CO2. Transfer some beer from the keg to the PET bottle. Wait for the hop pellets to hydrate and go mushy. Make sure you add enough beer so the hop pulp isn't too thick. Pressure transfer the hop pulp through the gas post. Job done

 

[DuncB]

@McMullan Looks like trouble to me.
Had a look round Larkin's brewery yesterday. Cask ale only. Gentle filling of casks, priming and fining and then hammer in the bung.
Very relaxing.

 

[RyPA]

I ferment in my kegs now, what I do to dry hop is break the keg lid loose and have it on an angle so it can't re-seal itself, and then turn on a few PSI of CO2 to hopefully prevent O2 from sneaking in. Then I drop hops in and re-align the lid so it seals, lock it, and then do a few (a lot ) of purges for good measure. It works well, I haven't seen any O2 related issues in my NEIPA's.

 

[GBRbrew]

Anything's possible. Here's what I'd do, if I insisted on pushing hop pellets through a corny keg gas post. Get a PET bottle and one of those thingies with 2 post caps and a dip tube:

View attachment 776222

Put the hop pellets in the sanitised PET bottle. Purge air from the PET bottle containing the hop pellets using CO2. Transfer some beer from the keg to the PET bottle. Wait for the hop pellets to hydrate and go mushy. Make sure you add enough beer so the hop pulp isn't too thick. Pressure transfer the hop pulp through the gas post. Job done

I don’t know if it would work but I love the outside the box thinking here lol

Cheers

 

[RyPA]

Interesting idea, I may try this. Is that setup available on MoreBeer? It looks similar to the setup I just bought to clean my beer lines, except it has a QD instead of air pump. I bought line cleaning kit with an extra QD fitting, so I may be good to go by screwing off the pump fitting and screwing on the QD fitting.

https://www.morebeer.com/view_product/57209

 

[Gibby_man]

Anything's possible. Here's what I'd do, if I insisted on pushing hop pellets through a corny keg gas post. Get a PET bottle and one of those thingies with 2 post caps and a dip tube:


















Put the hop pellets in the sanitised PET bottle. Purge air from the PET bottle containing the hop pellets using CO2. Transfer some beer from the keg to the PET bottle. Wait for the hop pellets to hydrate and go mushy. Make sure you add enough beer so the hop pulp isn't too thick. Pressure transfer the hop pulp through the gas post. Job done 



I was just thinking of doing this and a search brought me here. I use this for adding things to my pressure ferment (mostly gelatin). Do you have success with hops?

 

[Gibby_man]

I was just thinking of doing this and a search brought me here. I use this for adding things to my pressure ferment (mostly gelatin). Do you have success with hops?

 

[Wolfbrau]

I figure if you're pressure fermenting you can just open up the fermenter, drop in the hops, and let the beer flush the headspace by changing the spunding valve to a lower setting. Assuming you can work quickly.

 

[DuncB]

Beware beer foams up as you vent to get lid off.
Add hops is lots of nucleation so more foam
Get lid on fast and done up tight, pray it all seats okay as you try to cap the volcano.
Having Co2 to inject immediately to repressurise or overpressure will get the volcano under control.
Then worry about spunding.

 

[odie]

how about putting the hops into an empty keg. purge the keg. then transferring the beer from keg-to-keg? if you are that worried about O2

Or just spund the keg to zero PSI, open lid and drop in, close and purge a few times with CO2? will remove most all the oxygen.

Or if you haven't reached FG, just spund, open, drop, seal. the remaining fermentation will take care of any oxygen that got in.

 

[RyPA]

how about putting the hops into an empty keg. purge the keg. then transferring the beer from keg-to-keg? if you are that worried about O2

Or just spund the keg to zero PSI, open lid and drop in, close and purge a few times with CO2? will remove most all the oxygen.

Or if you haven't reached FG, just spund, open, drop, seal. the remaining fermentation will take care of any oxygen that got in.

That's a 5-6 gallon keg full of oxygen to start with. Me having OCD would need to purge it 50 times to feel its o2 free.

For your third comment, yes, I've read that many dry hop while fermentation is still going but has slowed down, since any O2 that is introduced would likely be used by the yeast.

While I've had great success with popping the lid, dry hopping, then purging 10 or so times with co2. I am trying to figure out an easier way so I don't even have to pop the lid. I've done a muslin bag secured by magnets before, but I now prefer to drop my hops in commando so that won't cut it. I may try to find a container that I can hold to the keg wall with magnets, and then flip it over when it's time. 3d printing a custom cup comes to my mind -- my brother just got a 3d printer, but not sure if the 3d printer material is food safe.

 

[DuncB]

@RyPA

You could use a randall and recirculate thru the hops.
Why not use a wide mouthed plastic bottle with the hops in and with 2 magnets in the bottle you could tip the bottle over by rotating round one magnet.
Not sure what the bag and magnets disadvantage is.

 

[RyPA]

@RyPA

You could use a randall and recirculate thru the hops.
Why not use a wide mouthed plastic bottle with the hops in and with 2 magnets in the bottle you could tip the bottle over by rotating round one magnet.
Not sure what the bag and magnets disadvantage is.

I've never heard of a Randall but just read up on them, I am going to try this..load a Randall up with hops, purge it 10 or so times, then at dry hop time, let some beer in to dissolve the hops into the liquid then push all the liquid back into the keg.

The bag and magnets disadvantage is the bag..IMO, it takes away some of the utilization/efficiency of the hops being stuck in a compacted sack.