Dry hopping in a keg?

[redrocker652002]

OK, so my latest brew is going to require dry hopping. I was going to use a mesh bag as I have done in the past, but I hung the bag on my faucet in the garage without thinking about it and I am seeing what is possibly a bit of a dark spot on the bag where is was sitting on the faucet. So, in my search for other ways of doing things, I remember reading about hopping in the keg. I see there are tubes you can buy that will allow you to drop them into the keg or just drop a bag in it with the string attached to the lid so it can be pulled out. My initial question is, do you leave the bag or tube in the keg after you carbonate? Or do you pull the bag out and then go thru the carb process and prepare to drink? My thought is that the hop bag or tube must have to come out, or the flavor of the dry hop will turn bad and ruin the beer. But I thought I would post it just for the heck of it. Thoughts?

 

[DannyBoy270]

Will it ruin the beer? Nah, it just may taste a little grassy vegetal if you leave them in there. I prefer to pull my dry Hops after 3-4 days. Idea being that the longer they sit in the beer the more they will extract compounds from the hops; from what Ive read and experienced most of the flavors you want are extracted in those first 3 days or so, after that i feel like you get more of the grassy/vegetal character coming through from the plant matter. Just my 2 cents tho

 

[redrocker652002]

Will it ruin the beer? Nah, it just may taste a little grassy vegetal if you leave them in there. I prefer to pull my dry Hops after 3-4 days. Idea being that the longer they sit in the beer the more they will extract compounds from the hops; from what Ive read and experienced most of the flavors you want are extracted in those first 3 days or so, after that i feel like you get more of the grassy/vegetal character coming through from the plant matter. Just my 2 cents tho

Cool. Thank you for the info I am reading much the same, so my plan is to go with what I have done in the past as far as dry hopping. Gonna wait until fermentation is done, try and work it out so that about 4 days before it goes into the keg I add the dry hops. Then, off into the keg to sit for a week or two getting carbonated and conditioned (I have found that the beers I have made in the past get a bit better sitting in the kegerator for a week or two). That's my plan for right now anyway. LOL

Rock on!!!!!

RR

 

[Consigliere]

OK, so my latest brew is going to require dry hopping. I was going to use a mesh bag as I have done in the past, but I hung the bag on my faucet in the garage without thinking about it and I am seeing what is possibly a bit of a dark spot on the bag where is was sitting on the faucet. So, in my search for other ways of doing things, I remember reading about hopping in the keg. I see there are tubes you can buy that will allow you to drop them into the keg or just drop a bag in it with the string attached to the lid so it can be pulled out. My initial question is, do you leave the bag or tube in the keg after you carbonate? Or do you pull the bag out and then go thru the carb process and prepare to drink? My thought is that the hop bag or tube must have to come out, or the flavor of the dry hop will turn bad and ruin the beer. But I thought I would post it just for the heck of it. Thoughts?

I have keg hopped a few times with mixed results. In general, I find the hop flavour to be very good and quite strong hopping in keg with a stainless mesh tube holding the hops. I also have floating dip tubes on all kegs.

On 1 brew (IPL) I noticed the last 3-4 pints a grassy flavour that wasn’t there at all in this beer before that. I have done it 5-6 other times with a bit stronger malt bill that were good to the last drop. I think the problem can be solved overall by suspending the hops in the keg so they are only in contact for a portion of the drinking time.

I’ve had kegs with hops in for 2 months and no issue aside from the IPL noted. So I personally wouldn’t be too worried about pulling them out and potentially oxidizing the beer.

 

[scogan]

I watched a youtube video on dry hopping and in the comments someone suggested bagging the hops with a stainless metal object and using a magnet outside so that it can be suspended near the top .I dont know if you could even pull it up after a few days if the attraction was good.

 

[sibelman]

Maybe I'm just not sensitive to these veg flavors I've read about - but kegging with dry hops (contained or loose) has worked quite well for me. The oxygen ingress from removing the hops is more likely to be a problem (hops flavor and aroma fading away) than leaving them in.

 

[Willy22]

I've been doing Oxygen Free transfers from the fermenter into kegs that have a 300 micron stainless dry hopper with 6-8oz of hops. It sits for 3 days, then is transferred to another keg via a floating dip tube with a filter. Three more days of another "charge" of hops...then into the serving keg. I've had good results, but not what I expected from large quantities of hops. So, I'm going to run a tube from the bottom of the beer out dip tube (which is what I fill thru) and into a thru-hull fitting in the lid of the dry hopper (which will be placed upside down in the keg). This will allow me to 'rouse' the hops so they don't get packed in. I am fermenting a 10 gal IPA now, and will test my method by rousing one keg and not the other. Both will have identical hop charges.