Dry hopper

[Broothru]

Great thought! Fortunately I've got one of each kind (spares) in 1.5" TC, both the 90° lever-pull and 180° trigger squeeze types. I think a 90° lever-pull will work fine in 3" TC on the sight glass, but I worry about the 1.5" being a bottleneck. I only have a 1.5" TC port available on the kegmenter, so my options are limited.

 

[K9tpr]

I like your setup my only issue is how are you cold crashing? The 3" hole in my spike conical is used for my temp control coils.

The 6” TC plate on the base of the set up incorporates my glycol connections.

 

[k-daddy]

Something that just occurred to me, those finding success with a 1.5 butterfly valve may be using the style that can move 180 degrees. I only tried the style that can move 90. Wiggling the other style back and forth may work better.

Exactly! When I built my dry hopper, I purchased one of those 90 degree (blue ball handle) butterfly valves and it was a bear to get the hops to drop. I now use that valve on the racking arm and use the 180 degree Spike valve for the hop drop. Still have to use a rubber mallet at times but generally works great.

 

[Smudgey]

There's very robust plastic 2 and 1.5 inch tri-clamp versions for about $12 US - google hop-bong. Hard to beat that, pressure rated. Its worth a try at that price if you already have the clamps / BV! Clever simple, cheap solutions - theres a demo on the end of the New Fermzilla with Tri-Clamps fermenter vid. Skip to the 20min mark

 

[JAReeves]

I have been looking at setting up a system like this for my SS and Anvil buckets. I like DIY'ing stuff, so as far as a summer project goes, it's good for the brain.

The SS Brewbuckets come with a 1/2" blow off port in the lid, the Anvil does not. I tapped a #6.5 hole in the center of my SS brewbuckets in order to put an Anvil cooling system in the SS's lids. If I can get this together, I would need to tap the Anvil lid for a 1/2" port.

Is there anything readily available in the 1/2" size for a Dry Hop Cannon? All I see are 1.5" or larger. But as you can see, the blow-off ports would be ideal for a dry hop dropper that has been CO2 purged.

Here is how I modified the SS lids so I could glycol chill them on the cheap. I hammered them smooth after this picture, they hold pressure just fine and the Anvil cooling coils fit right down the middle. For less than the price of 2 official SS Brewtech cooling systems I purchased the Anvil systems and built the glycol chiller that handles 3-7G fermenters at full roar and/or dry-hopping/cold-crashing to 40F with ease.

 

[YeastFeast]

My big one is like @K9tpr's but with a short cone at the bottom. Finding the short cone was tough last fall, I ordered 2 pictured like this and got 2 long ones before I found this one. It's already tall and heavy but got really tall with a long cone. My most recent dry hop was 126g and only filled to the bottom of the glass on the sight glass. I'm probably going to sell this one because its just too big and my small one is working out well.

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The small one I think I prefer. I use a dedicated gas manifold rather than relying on remembering to open the valve between when not dry hopping. There's no way the 125g dry hop would have fit, I'd have to break that into 2-3 additions which wouldn't be that big a deal. Its also a little harder to dump hops into this one. Using the 3" funnel and lid like the other in place of the gas manifold wouldn't be a terrible choice. Nocal has a less expensive 1.5" option too.

The butterfly I had was a non-starter for me. Nothing dropped and the plate tended to compact half the hops in its path. The first ball valve I tried was OK but required tapping with a wrench to make the hops drop completely. This one is a lot nicer which was my main reason for buying it but also turned out to be just a little bigger and hops drop a lot nicer. Unfortunately the only markings resembling a part number is "HT 3N457845" and google doesn't find anything.

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@matt_m Hey Matt, plan on making one similar (to your smaller one) if I can find a decent ball valve (attaching to a 1.5" port on my Spike CF5). I know you don't know the manufacturer but can you tell me the inside diameter of the opening on it? I've seen a million of these on the internet and most don't list the inside diameter of the bore. The ones that do... show only .675" (or something like that) but some claim to be like 1.375" or so.
I'm guessing yours is on the larger side if it's working decently?
Thanks!

 

[matt_m]

I now have 2. One is the one in the pictures which I can't find anywhere based on those markings. The other is this one from Brewer's Hardware. The unknown one is very slightly better but the Brewer's hardware one works.

 

[YeastFeast]

I now have 2. One is the one in the pictures which I can't find anywhere based on those markings. The other is this one from Brewer's Hardware. The unknown one is very slightly better but the Brewer's hardware one works.

Thanks, just what I wanted to know. The one from Brewer's Hardware says 1.375" ID (which is the largest of those that list the ID that I've seen). Price not horrible either compared to some out there. Probably go with that one, thanks!