Dry hopper

[Mr.Wyatt]

I recently just discovered the dry hopper. I love the concept of closing off the hops and purging the vessel before adding them to your fermenter. The only downside is the price!! I believe I can do this myself by simply using my sight glass, butterfly valve, and the gas manifold from spike. My question is has anyone else ever built this and how did it work out for you?

 

[Golddiggie]

That's basically how I built my CO2 purged hop dropper. I had the 1-1/2" sight glass, a spare manifold setup, and butterfly valve. So it was easy to just use all that. I can get about 3oz of hops into the sight glass at a time. Just be very careful for anything touching hop pellets is NOT wet. If it is, the hops will clump/puff up and cause issues. I had that happen with my first use. Lesson learned and not repeated.

All you really need, on the top of the glass, is a way to get CO2 in, and then purge it without letting anything back in. If you can do that with a lower cost option set, go for it.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

That's basically how I built my CO2 purged hop dropper. I had the 1-1/2" sight glass, a spare manifold setup, and butterfly valve. So it was easy to just use all that. I can get about 3oz of hops into the sight glass at a time. Just be very careful for anything touching hop pellets is NOT wet. If it is, the hops will clump/puff up and cause issues. I had that happen with my first use. Lesson learned and not repeated.

All you really need, on the top of the glass, is a way to get CO2 in, and then purge it without letting anything back in. If you can do that with a lower cost option set, go for it.

I already have the spike gas manifold. So I figured I can get dual use out of it doing it this way.

 

[doogie]

I decided not to spend the $ on a sight tube, but bought an 8" spool instead (Amazon.com: DERNORD Sanitary Spool Tube with Clamp Ends,Stainless Steel 304 Seamless Round Tubing With 1.5 inch Tri Clamp 50.5MM Ferrule Flange (Tube Length: 8 Inch / 204MM) : Industrial & Scientific). I get about 3 oz per dump as well and the only extra cost was the spool.

 

[Golddiggie]

I like the sight glass because it allows you to see inside. That way you know the hops all dropped into the fermenter and didn't hang in there. IIRC, the sight glass is no more than about 6" long.

 

[sibelman]

I'm headed this way too, and I'm curious about purging details. Multiple pressure/release cycles? What about CO2 flowing through the sight-glass?

I'm especially wondering whether purging the hop-filled sight glass with fermentation effluent will bring too much moisture, causing the feared clumping/puffing.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

I like the sight glass because it allows you to see inside. That way you know the hops all dropped into the fermenter and didn't hang in there. IIRC, the sight glass is no more than about 6" long.

I agree. I watched a YouTube video and the one issue the guy kept saying is some hops might get stuck in the valve.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

I'm headed this way too, and I'm curious about purging details. Multiple pressure/release cycles? What about CO2 flowing through the sight-glass?

I'm especially wondering whether purging the hop-filled sight glass with fermentation effluent will bring too much moisture, causing the feared clumping/puffing.

The way I see it you can Crack open your bfv and let some in from the conical or come from the top and just fill up to 2 or 3 psi and release it. I would do that 3 or 4x's just to make sure I got all the air out

 

[Golddiggie]

I typically connect the butterfly valve and hop dropper onto the conical when I have a recipe that will be dry hopped, at the start. With the valve closed, you don't have much to worry about. Provided you leave enough head space to prevent krausen from getting to the underside of the valve.

For purging with CO2, I typically hit it with at least 5 or 6 cycles. Pressure usually in the 5-10psi range. I typically ferment at 5psi these days. If you ferment at a higher pressure level, then adjust your CO2 purging pressure accordingly.

@sibelman Are you talking about pressure going into the fermenter through the valve? IME, the butterfly valves can handle at least 15psi against them and remain sealed. Unless you plan to hit the hop dropper with a significantly higher pressure level, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[doogie]

I've only just started doing this, out of 4 hop dumps the first was stuck badly (not sure why I thought I could pack it as much as I did), second dumped fine, third had about a half ounce get hung up*, and the last one dumped fully. I now give my spool a few little whacks to help encourage the drop.

* - Don't do what I did and forget that my FV was at 5psi when I opened up my dry hopper, saw a little hops left and thought "I'll just open the butterfly valve and dump it in" (without putting the manifold on and re-pressurizing) - pretty good hop cannon - it smelled really nice, but I'm going to be finding pellets for a while.

 

[matt_m]

I built 2 for my Spike fermenters which are limited to 1.5" TC connections if you use a cooling coil. One uses a 1.5" ball valve because I knew a 1.5" butterfly valve would be too restrictive. The one I got from Amazon didn't work great but a used one I picked up off a Facebook group works well. I use a Spike gas manifold on top. On this size I feel like you need to be sure to get a good valve and tune technique to dump a little at once. The other is a 3" diameter butterfly valve with a 3 to 1.5 funnel style reducer. Its pretty easy to dump though you still want to wiggle the valve to not clog the funnel. Its way overkill, even my hoppiest ~6.5g NEIPAI barely start filling into the sight glass. I've considered listing it for sale. It would be good for someone doing 3x as much per batch. I feel like 2", probably using a ball valve would be the sweet spot but it would take a reducer on each end getting expensive as a 3"

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

So this is the finished product. Used the spike gas manifold with the sight class and a bfv. Golden!

 

[sibelman]

@Golddiggie asked "Are you talking about pressure going into the fermenter through the valve?" Not exactly:

I'm imagining, once fermentation gets going, cracking the butterfly valve open a wee bit (allowing CO2 to flow up out of the fermenter but keeping the hop pellets from falling), with a line coming off the top of the sight glass and connecting to the serving keg "out" post. Spunding valve on the "in" post.

The CO2 would then purge the hop-filled sight glass *and* the serving keg. But if the fermentation output (CO2 and, doubtless, some H2O vapor) moistened the pellets, well, then Bob's *not* your uncle. Clear as mud?

 

[Golddiggie]

@sibelman IMO, way too complicated to work easily. I would also mention that the humidity generated by fermentation will make the hop pellets swell up making things more difficult for you. Far easier to simply leave the sight glass empty (and the valve closed) until it's time to add the hops to the batch.

I fail to see the attraction people seem to have towards using the CO2 generated during fermentation to 'purge' the kegs that will get the beer later. I know breweries (when they get big enough) capture the CO2 produced, compress it, and then store it in bottles for use in other areas. That requires a good amount of hardware to also reduce impurities in the CO2 being harvested.

I have a recipe on tap that was placed into keg about five or six months ago. It's an English ordinary bitter. Zero issues with it. I filled from fermenter (fully carbonated). I did a purge cycle on the keg post sanitization. Filled it with the gas post feeding into a container partially filled with Starsan (to act as an airlock). Poured some out yesterday, still good.

I do understand the desire to purge as much oxygen as possible from a batch when adding dry hops. It's easy enough to do, without making it more complicated (for little, if any, benefit).

@Mr.Wyatt I found that sight glass doesn't seal all that well. Plus it doesn't hold as much as the ones with four bolts holding it together. I could only get about two ounces of hop pellets into mine. I put it aside and am using the traditional design type, which can hold at least three ounces of hops. While that sight glass is a neat idea, I think it fell a bit short during implementation.

 

[K9tpr]

Here’s mine:
3” Butterfly Valve - Amazon
76mm 3” tri clamp site Glass - Amazon
3" Sanitary Tri Clamp To 2 X 1/4" Npt Female Tri Clover - Ebay
1/4” SSB PRV - SSbrewtech
1/4” npt gas ball lock - Amazon
3” clamps and gaskets

I add my pellet hops and purge air w/CO2. Drop the hops And close valve. I have a SS Brewtech spunding valve set to 15 psi. For safet. You can also leave the valve open and set your PRV to 15 as well.

Works great.

 

[k-daddy]

Here's mine - 2" sight glass with adapters and Blichmann spunding valve on top. I don't fill it with hops until ready for the drop. Close butterfly valve, remove spunding valve, fill with hops, attach gas and purge hop chamber top and bottom by loosening clamps, retighten clamps, drop. I have to wiggle the butterfly valve back and forth and use some persuasion with a rubber mallet as the hops do have a tendency to jam. Holds 6+ ounces of pellets, if needed. Works great.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

@sibelman IMO, way too complicated to work easily. I would also mention that the humidity generated by fermentation will make the hop pellets swell up making things more difficult for you. Far easier to simply leave the sight glass empty (and the valve closed) until it's time to add the hops to the batch.

I fail to see the attraction people seem to have towards using the CO2 generated during fermentation to 'purge' the kegs that will get the beer later. I know breweries (when they get big enough) capture the CO2 produced, compress it, and then store it in bottles for use in other areas. That requires a good amount of hardware to also reduce impurities in the CO2 being harvested.

I have a recipe on tap that was placed into keg about five or six months ago. It's an English ordinary bitter. Zero issues with it. I filled from fermenter (fully carbonated). I did a purge cycle on the keg post sanitization. Filled it with the gas post feeding into a container partially filled with Starsan (to act as an airlock). Poured some out yesterday, still good.

I do understand the desire to purge as much oxygen as possible from a batch when adding dry hops. It's easy enough to do, without making it more complicated (for little, if any, benefit).

@Mr.Wyatt I found that sight glass doesn't seal all that well. Plus it doesn't hold as much as the ones with four bolts holding it together. I could only get about two ounces of hop pellets into mine. I put it aside and am using the traditional design type, which can hold at least three ounces of hops. While that sight glass is a neat idea, I think it fell a bit short during implementation.

I haven't used it yet but it will get the job done for me. However I have used my sight glass multiple times and havent had a sealing issue. I'll keep you updated on how it works out for me. I plan on doing a neipa this weekend.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

Here's mine - 2" sight glass with adapters and Blichmann spunding valve on top. I don't fill it with hops until ready for the drop. Close butterfly valve, remove spunding valve, fill with hops, attach gas and purge hop chamber top and bottom by loosening clamps, retighten clamps, drop. I have to wiggle the butterfly valve back and forth and use some persuasion with a rubber mallet as the hops do have a tendency to jam. Holds 6+ ounces of pellets, if needed. Works great.View attachment 762039

Do you have a prv on your manifold or is it just gas in and a gauge?
That's seems a little dangerous and still an opportunity to introduce oxygen if your loosening and tightening the clamps to relieve the co2 pressure right?

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

Here’s mine:
3” Butterfly Valve - Amazon
76mm 3” tri clamp site Glass - Amazon
3" Sanitary Tri Clamp To 2 X 1/4" Npt Female Tri Clover - Ebay
1/4” SSB PRV - SSbrewtech
1/4” npt gas ball lock - Amazon
3” clamps and gaskets

I add my pellet hops and purge air w/CO2. Drop the hops And close valve. I have a SSB sounding valve set to 15 psi. You can also leave the valve open and set your PRV to 15 as well.

Works great.

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.

 

[k-daddy]

Do you have a prv on your manifold or is it just gas in and a gauge?
That's seems a little dangerous and still an opportunity to introduce oxygen if your loosening and tightening the clamps to relieve the co2 pressure right?

Yes, the Blichmann spunding valve has an adjustable PRV. I ferment under about 8-10psi. For the DH, I seal the FV by closing the butterfly valve, slowly bleed the 10psi off that remains in the sight glass by loosening the clamp on top that holds the spunding valve. Fill with hops, purge top and bottom, tighten all clamps, then slowly open butterfly valve for the drop. No danger at all and I'm sure not much o2 infiltration. Haven't oxidized a batch yet.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

Yes, the Blichmann spunding valve has an adjustable PRV. I ferment under about 8-10psi. For the DH, I seal the FV by closing the butterfly valve, slowly bleed the 10psi off that remains in the sight glass by loosening the clamp on top that holds the spunding valve. Fill with hops, purge top and bottom, tighten all clamps, then slowly open butterfly valve for the drop. No danger at all and I'm sure not much o2 infiltration. Haven't oxidized a batch yet.

Gotcha!

 

[k-daddy]

Gotcha!

I too have the Spike PRV... it's collecting dust since I purchased this... Spunding Valve Much more versatile.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

Yes, the Blichmann spunding valve has an adjustable PRV. I ferment under about 8-10psi. For the DH, I seal the FV by closing the butterfly valve, slowly bleed the 10psi off that remains in the sight glass by loosening the clamp on top that holds the spunding valve. Fill with hops, purge top and bottom, tighten all clamps, then slowly open butterfly valve for the drop. No danger at all and I'm sure not much o2 infiltration. Haven't oxidized a batch yet.

How do you like the Blichman sounding valve? I purchased the spike all in one yesterday I'm excited to use it.

 

[k-daddy]

How do you like the Blichman sounding valve? I purchased the spike all in one yesterday I'm excited to use it.

See post #22.

 

[k-daddy]

How do you like the Blichman sounding valve? I purchased the spike all in one yesterday I'm excited to use it.

I use the fermenting gas to purge the keg. Don't know for sure by looking at the 2 pictures of the "all in one" but it looks as though that might not be possible. With the Blichmann, the co2 gasses off through the adjustable PRV barbed fitting and through the keg.

 

[Mr.Wyatt]

I use the fermenting gas to purge the keg. Don't know for sure by looking at the 2 pictures of the "all in one" but it looks as though that might not be possible. With the Blichmann, the co2 gasses off through the adjustable PRV barbed fitting and through the keg.

Im not to worried about using my fermenting gas for kegs. I clean 2 or 3 at a time anyway by transferring my star-san between them making sure they are purge fully. The "all in one" will however help me dial in more on my lagers, which is my main reason for getting it.

 

[Golddiggie]

I'm using the SSBrewTech spunding valve (graduated version) on my conicals. I like how it has the cup for sanitizer/liquid as part of it.

For the screw together sight glass (as mentioned above) leaking, I tested by pressurizing the thing and letting it sit that way for days (sealed off). It lost pressure (went to zero within a few days) so not something that seals 100%. The one I have that bolts together doesn't have pressure loss when I do the same thing.

I passed on the Blichmann spunding valve setup mostly because I've tried similar items in the past that were either problematic, or just failed to work all that well (if at all). I like having the setup that doesn't require sending a line to something else as part of the design. When I was using the Blowtie valves, I had a cup of sanitizer connected to them so that I could SEE bubbles coming out. That way I knew how much gas it was actually releasing. Not to mention knowing when it stopped letting gas through.

 

[matt_m]

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.

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.

 

[Brooothru]

Here’s mine:
3” Butterfly Valve - Amazon
76mm 3” tri clamp site Glass - Amazon
3" Sanitary Tri Clamp To 2 X 1/4" Npt Female Tri Clover - Ebay
1/4” SSB PRV - SSbrewtech
1/4” npt gas ball lock - Amazon
3” clamps and gaskets

I add my pellet hops and purge air w/CO2. Drop the hops And close valve. I have a SSB sounding valve set to 15 psi. You can also leave the valve open and set your PRV to 15 as well.

Works great.

Very similar setup I've been "working on" for a few months. I haven't yet resolved an issue of portability between my SSBT unitank and a 7.6 gal. kegmenter. My biggest fear is mis-positioning a butterfly valve upstream of a PRV, thus creating a pressure over boost. To facilitate dropping from a 3" sight glass to a 1.5" TC port I'll need both an additional 1.5" butterfly and a 3" butterfly with a 3" x 1.5" concentric reducer spool with a Spike manifold on top of the sight glass. The only part I need is the 3" butterfly valve to complete the build to have a portable hop dropper that can be used on the unitank and kegmenter without compromising sealed pressure or safety pressure and vacuum relief, despite potential user error.

 

[matt_m]

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.

 

[Brooothru]

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.

View attachment 762049

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.

View attachment 762044

View attachment 762048

@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!