Dry hopping in a keg

[urg8rb8]

I'm sure many have done this with a hop bag using dental floss or something to keep the bag suspended in the middle of the keg. What the right way to dry hop and force carbonate? Do them at the same time? Force carbonate for a week, then open the led and throw the bag in there?

 

[Blazinlow86]

Ideally I would be dryhopping in the fermentor then transfering into the keg after cold crashing. Ive never tried adding a bag of hops to already carbonated beer but I'd imagine it would make a big mess. Cheers

 

[urg8rb8]

Ideally I would be dryhopping in the fermentor then transfering into the keg after cold crashing. Ive never tried adding a bag of hops to already carbonated beer but I'd imagine it would make a big mess. Cheers

My beer is still in the fermenter so I haven't transferred to the keg yet, so I have some options.

 

[Blazinlow86]

My beer is still in the fermenter so I haven't transferred to the keg yet, so I have some options.

I'm that case dryhops in the fermentor imho. I try to keep the finished product in the keg as clean as possible. Nothing worse than having a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the keg clouding your brew. Was there a specific reason you wanted to hop in the keg?

 

[urg8rb8]

I'm that case dryhops in the fermentor imho. I try to keep the finished product in the keg as clean as possible. Nothing worse than having a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the keg clouding your brew. Was there a specific reason you wanted to hop in the keg?

Mostly to keep the hops out of the yeast cake in the fermentor so I could save the yeast in mason jars. And to also keep the dry hopping as fresh as possible.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Mostly to keep the hops out of the yeast cake in the fermentor so I could keep them in mason jars. And to also keep the dry hopping as fresh as possible.

Fair enough. I'm sure some others will chip in with experience doing it that way. For myself being a large batch brewer shelf life is important to me so doing that way wouldn't work so well. Cheers

 

[carluchi]

I dry hop in the keg. I just put the hops in a nylon paint strainer bag, tie it shut and drop it in the keg while filling it. The bag stays in the whole time and never had a problem.

Something like this:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-...trainers-Fits-Container-Size-1-Gallon/1008385

 

[chickypad]

I do like the aroma boost that you get from keg hops. The drawback is you can't pre-purge the keg by filling with starsan. That means I only keg hop the occasional small batch IPA (i.e. 2.5 gal kegs that are gone in a couple wks). I have used nylon bags in the past but now I use stainless tea balls, I place them in the keg and rack onto them. I also usually use a diptube screen on those kegs like the one linked below.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/racking-cane-filter.html

 

[urg8rb8]

I do like the aroma boost that you get from keg hops. The drawback is you can't pre-purge the keg by filling with starsan. That means I only keg hop the occasional small batch IPA (i.e. 2.5 gal kegs that are gone in a couple wks). I have used nylon bags in the past but now I use stainless tea balls, I place them in the keg and rack onto them. I also usually use a diptube screen on those kegs like the one linked below.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/racking-cane-filter.html

What do you mean prepurging the keg with startsan?

 

[chickypad]

To completely purge a keg from oxygen you fill to the brim with starsan then push it out with CO2.

 

[urg8rb8]

To completely purge a keg from oxygen you fill to the brim with starsan then push it out with CO2.

Ohh.. interesting. I've never don't that. But then you gotta open the lid to syphon the beer into it.

 

[chickypad]

No you do a closed transfer.

 

[urg8rb8]

No you do a closed transfer.

So after you've pushed out all the Starsan with co2, how do you push the beer into the keg?

 

[Transamguy77]

I dry hop in the keg all the time just like carluchi, and you need to do it before carbonating or it will foam up and over flow and make a giant mess.

As far as close transfer goes there are many threads here on HBT and lots of videos on YouTube.

 

[chickypad]

As mentioned above you can check out the threads or videos online for closed transfer. Basically though you fill through the beer out port, pushing the beer from the fermenter with CO2. I've seen some do a gravity transfer with a return line from the gas port back to the fermenter but I've never tried it that way.

 

[Blazinlow86]

I do like the aroma boost that you get from keg hops. The drawback is you can't pre-purge the keg by filling with starsan. That means I only keg hop the occasional small batch IPA (i.e. 2.5 gal kegs that are gone in a couple wks). I have used nylon bags in the past but now I use stainless tea balls, I place them in the keg and rack onto them. I also usually use a diptube screen on those kegs like the one linked below.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/racking-cane-filter.html

Didn't even think about not being able to purge. Great point