Dry hopping in keg, and CO2 blasting?

[davekippen]

Not sure where I ran across this idea but now I cant find it. I read somewhere about the process of transferring from primary to a corny and throwing dry hops in there, then blasting CO2 in the liquid out tube every so often.

Can anyone point me to more info on this? Has anyone done it?

 

[grathan]

Do you intend to drink from the keg with loose hops?

 

[davekippen]

No, I think the process was to transfer to the keg, add hops, blast for some amount of time, cold crash, transfer to serving keg

I was just wondering if anyone actually has done this and if they saw a noticeable increase in aroma.

 

[grathan]

I think there are some breweries that do that. It just stirs the hops.

I really like the idea of using a keg to both dry hop and cold-crash. This will become my go to method for huge dry hop beers. This will be mainly to fight oxidation though. I plan to hit empty keg with co2 then drop the hops in and let them sit in the co2 for a bit, then transfer beer on top, then cold crash under pressure before transferring to serving keg.

I'd also like to try dry hops right in the serving keg at some point in the near future.

 

[davekippen]

I have been thinking about this too. Maybe even fermenting in a keg and moving it with gas instead of racking cane. Have had some infection issues lately and think this may help...

 

[davekippen]

Must be that no one is doing this!

 

[barnaclebob]

I just dry hopped in the keg and it worked fine. For whatever reason the first sample was ridiculously hoppy then after that it was good. Not sure what gassing from the dip tube does but give the co2 a little more surface area to dissolve into the beer.

 

[davekippen]

I guess the theory is that bubbling CO2 up from the bottom will "mix" the hops into the beer and provide better aroma than if the hops just sit on the top or drop to the bottom? This is what I was wondering!

 

[SimonHucko]

I don't have personal experience with this, but my guess is that the commercial guys do it in their big ferm tanks to keep the wort moving around/through the hops to aid with extraction. I don't think there's much of a benefit on a homebrew scale, and you actually risk scrubbing some of the aromatics from the beer every time you purge it. Giving the vessel a gentle swirl is a better option, IMO.

 

[barnaclebob]

Does anyone know how much beer actually moves around in the keg just by normal convection? It should take very little movement to get everything distributed evenly. This seems like work that doesn't accomplish anything. If you shake up the keg you also risk stirring up sediment if you normally have it.

 

[dobe12]

On several occasions I've dry hopped in the keg for the duration... meaning the entire time I was drinking from it. Most recently, I had 2.5oz of whole leaf cascade in a muslin bag, weighed down with marbles, and attached to the keg lid sitting in the keg for the entire life of the keg/beer (about a 5-6 weeks). The first 2 weeks or so it was a bit harsh, but mellowed over time and was very tasty for the last few weeks. I never hit it with CO2 except like normal through the gas in connection.

If doing this, I would definitely recommend letting it sit a week or two first then start drinking.