Dry hopping in the keg!

[stevedasleeve]

I definitely have to do this from now on! My house IPA is dry hopped with 2 oz of Simcoe for 2 weeks, this time I put a stainless tea ball with 18 g of Amarillo pellets in the keg as well and mmm mmm good!

I picked up some whole leaf Amarillo and Cascade and a couple of these:http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/surescreen.html for next time. I suspect the whole leaf hops will make this even better!!

Steve da sleeve

 

[calpyro]

I definitely have to do this from now on! My house IPA is dry hopped with 2 oz of Simcoe for 2 weeks, this time I put a stainless tea ball with 18 g of Amarillo pellets in the keg as well and mmm mmm good!

I picked up some whole leaf Amarillo and Cascade and a couple of these:http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/surescreen.html for next time. I suspect the whole leaf hops will make this even better!!

Steve da sleeve

I have been using the Surescreen for a couple of years. You have stumbled on to my dry-hopping secret...

 

[stevedasleeve]

Cool - I stumbled upon it too and it looked really promising! So no problems with whole hops straight in the keg, no hop sack?

 

[RichBenn]

I usually use whole leaf for dry hopping in a keg using a bag. But last time, I was getting some leaf particles in my glass. Maybe it isn't cinched tight enough.

So this screen idea seems promising. Anybody have actual experience with it?

 

[AleJoe]

I weight a nylon mess bag with marbles, add hops and dry hop in the keg. This drops it down to the pickup tube. Definitely gives it a unique hop aroma and flavor

 

[calpyro]

Cool - I stumbled upon it too and it looked really promising! So no problems with whole hops straight in the keg, no hop sack?

The Surescreen is designed for whole hops and won’t work with pellets.
I have refined my process by coarsely chopping my whole hops in a food processor prior to dry hopping and to get them to settle into a compact layer in the keg. By doing this, the hops absorb less beer, impart their flavor quicker and gets them to mix into the beer quicker and reduces oxidation of the beer.
You will find that using your Surescreen will greatly increase the hop utilization over using stainless steel tea balls and bags. The Surescreen allows for 100% contact with the beer unlike tea balls and bags where the center of the hop mass contributes little to flavoring the beer.
When you run-off your beer either into a glass or another keg, you will find the fist pint or so will have a bit of luplin and fine hop matter until the hops set up a filter bed much like a mash tun does. After this, the beer runs remarkably clear except for the typical hop haze from dry hopping.
I have done 25+ batches this way and won't go back to hop sacks.

 

[stevedasleeve]

I am having a glass of my latest IPA, dry hopped with 2 Oz Simcoe for 14 days, and then I added (as an afterthought) 18 grams of Amarillo in a tea ball in the keg. I swear it is the best IPA I have ever had and I've made zillions!

 

[OneHotKarl]

My experience with keg hopping is whole hops only. The pellets for me have gotten a grassy flavor after 2 or so weeks whereas the whole cones can go for months (i've tried 3+) without getting the grass flavors. I'm assuming this is to the drastic increase of surface area btwn pellets vs cones.... my 2 cents.

 

[stevedasleeve]

You kegs last more than 2 weeks? Wow!

 

[virginiawolf]

I'm going to order one of these:rockin:

I am having a glass of my latest IPA, dry hopped with 2 Oz Simcoe for 14 days, and then I added (as an afterthought) 18 grams of Amarillo in a tea ball in the keg. I swear it is the best IPA I have ever had and I've made zillions!