Dry hopping a pressure ferment

[MrFancyPlants]

I was pressure fermenting a 15 gallon batch of pseudo octoberfest at ~40 psi. (Kveik yeast at ~70f). Going for the natural carb.

I have some fresh hops coming in tomorrow and was planning a 4oz dry hop. However it occurred to me I could end up with a gusher at this pressure.

Now I am letting it spund down to 5psi over night. Think I’ll be ok to dump in 4oz of pellets? Should I chill it first?

 

[SanPancho]

If you have a conical or something with ports then you can just use a dry hop assembly. Lots of examples here, typically it’s a sight glass or a spool and a few valves.

Drop in hops, purge with co2, and drop them into beer. As long as you maintain the pressure it’s fine.

Although typically this is done with much less pressure, typically under 1 bar.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Fermenting and serving from the keg.. though sometimes I transfer some to some 5, 3 or 1.5 gallon corneys. I could chill it, but I’m afraid that would keep more CO2 in suspension for gushing when I add the hops.
The ferment is still ongoing, so I’m not too worried about keeping O2 free, and I can even flush from a tank if need be. My main concern is not gushing all over the basement. But also I’d like to keep some lager like qualities to my Fäktoberfest:

 

[DavidWood2115]

It’s too late for this batch (at least without opening long enough to swap lids), but you could get/make a corny lid with a TC port. Then you could use a dry hopper like @SanPancho suggests.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I lugged the keg to the stairwell outside the basement, after opening up the spunding to <5psi overnight, and had my wife drop in the hops while I was ready to seal it back up, but no gusher!

Maybe the white oak stave provided enough cavitation points to let it off gas efficiently?

I purged with a C02 tank, long enough that I had to take a little walk when I started getting light headed. I was sniffing to see if I could smell the new hops yet.. I guess you can’t fix stupid.

Then after my head cleared I vented a bit more and let it pressure up a bit with the tank. I left it outside in the warmth to see if it will build pressure on it’s own, but I am only guessing how much steam is left in the fermentation. I’d like to have it venting at 40psi for a bit for natural purge and carb.

I used 4oz solero hops… I’ve never been much for staying on style even for a Fäktoberfest. I have enough for a smash next batch.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

It’s too late for this batch (at least without opening long enough to swap lids), but you could get/make a corny lid with a TC port. Then you could use a dry hopper like @SanPancho suggests.

That would be pretty sweet.
Do you have any links where one could be purchased? I don’t think I’m handy enough to make one myself. I’m lucky that beer is not so hard to screw up as is.

 

[DavidWood2115]

Do you have any links where one could be purchased? I don’t think I’m handy enough to make one myself. I’m lucky that beer is not so hard to screw up as is.

I don’t have a link to buy one. I saw this post on making one before my previous reply.

You could reach out to @Bobby_M at Brewhardware.com and see if he could make one for you.

 

[SanPancho]

That would be pretty sweet.
Do you have any links where one could be purchased? I don’t think I’m handy enough to make one myself. I’m lucky that beer is not so hard to screw up as is.

Send me a pm If you’re interested in one. I ended up getting a small conical so no longer need the one I made. I’ll sell it to you for cost.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Thanks @SanPancho . I think I’m on my way to building a low O2 dry hopper.
I did get Covid a couple years ago, before the vaccine came out, and I can still smell hops, but I think not as well as I used to. I’m hoping to sniff some beers with impunity when I am done with this. Yes, I am a beer sniffer.

Hey how many oz of pellets do you think I could fit in a 2” site glass? I was going to use 2” ball valve and 2-1.5” reducer.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

One other follow up, but will I be able to “disengage” the site glass, under pressure with the ball valve closed? So I can load up into the kegerator for serving?

 

[SanPancho]

As long as you close the valve to the keg, no problem. Can’t really help on hop volumes tho. Dig around here for some tri clamp dry hop assembly diy threads and I’m sure other folks can chime in on how many ounces their setups hold.

 

[DavidWood2115]

Hey how many oz of pellets do you think I could fit in a 2” site glass? I was going to use 2” ball valve and 2-1.5” reducer.

I use a 1.5” sight glass, 5” long, and can get 3 oz in it. A 2” sight glass will hold about 1.7x as many hops per inch (volume is length * pi * radius^2).

I would be nervous about putting the reducer after the valve. This would leave the potential for a clog that you might not detect or can only clear by opening the fermenter up to air.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Thanks for the support everyone. I’m having a little trouble locating a 2” tc piece that would allow me to cap the top and purge o2 either via spunding or ball-lock to the tank. I think I could get 2” tc and 1/4” or 1/2” NPT to attach a spunding valve, but I am thinking spunding the bulk of the fermentation through pellet hops could moisten them up and cause a jam. And it puts me in the same boat as far as estimating how much fermentation is left before dry hopping.
My OP brew is doing well, but there was a lot more fermentation left than I imagined, which I could tell was blowing off all the aroma I was after. So I popped it open, added another 4oz of solero, and vented the crap out of it and charged it back up to 40 psi for the tail end of the fermentation.

 

[DavidWood2115]

Here's my dry hop rig. It's a 1.5" set up, but I'm sure you can swap out the 1.5" TC to 1/4" NPT for a 2" TC. My gauge reads both positive pressure and vacuum, since I use my vacuum sealer to evacuate (most of) the air from the sight glass before pressurizing it from the CO2 tank. I repeat this process 4-5 times to make sure the O2 in the sight glass is well less than 1%. I bought the gauge on Amazon and the rest at brewhardware.com. My CF10 has the three port lid, so I spund using one of the other ports.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

That looks great, but I don’t have a vacum pump. Am I going to need another pressure release pull thingy on the other side?

 

[DavidWood2115]

That looks great, but I don’t have a vacum pump. Am I going to need another pressure release pull thingy on the other side?

That should work.

 

[HM-2]

Have you got a second keg? I'd throw the dry hops on there, purge with CO2 and then closed transfer on top of them.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Have you got a second keg? I'd throw the dry hops on there, purge with CO2 and then closed transfer on top of them.

I have a few 5 gallon cornys I could use, but I’ll probably serve out of this one until I’m ready to make the next batch. I’m getting close to terminal gravity based on the slowing of the venting. I’ll probably cold crash this weekend and maybe even pour a sample pint with the floating dip tube.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I received all pieces except the 2” ball valve. In retrospect, I think it was overkill converting to 2” and cost me some extra pieces($$$). Also I think I ordered the incorrect thread for the pressure release, which is a bummer

Length 2"(50mm),Thickness 2mm,SS304

Vs

1/4"1/2" NPT BSPT Male Stainless Steel SS304



Also the Fäktoberfest turned out pretty good.