Dry hopping in the keg

[day_trippr]

I've never used pellets in a serving keg, but I would expect a muslin bag would allow a lot of pellet mush to escape.

I use whole cones in a muslin bag, toss it in a cold, carbed serving keg, and leave it 'til it kicks. Easier than pie, never any grassy notes - even in kegs that have taken a month to kick...

Cheers!

 

[LLBeanJ]

I dry hop with pellets and I use a nylon bag. Very little hop sludge, if any, gets out. I've never used a muslin bag.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Can a week dry hopping in the keg be considered to basically be the same as a week in a secondary.

Yes.

Is there any real difference?

Yes and no. If stored at room or basement temp for the week, then a week in the keg will be the same as a week in secondary. Put the keg in the fridge while it's dry hopping and it will take a bit longer.

 

[Yooper]

I plan to hang the mesh bag for my first dry hop attempt in the keg. My issue is that I only have 3 gallon kegs due to the wife not allowing me to remove the upper shelf in our basement fridge, so I split 6 gallon batches into 2 kegs of which one is sitting at basement temps until the other is finished. Would it be best to wait until the week before you plan to carbonate and throw in the fridge before dry hopping the second keg?

I no longer use a secondary, but normally wait 16-21 days before kegging to let the yeast clean up the beer in the primary. The IPA I just brewed called for Denny's Favorite 50 yeast, which kept bubbling the airlock for 11 days, which I am not use to. A lot of other yeast go gangbusters for 4-5 days and then nothing. If I start dry hopping in the keg at day 16, is that still enough time for the yeast to have cleaned up the beer in the primary? Can you consider the week dry hopping before refrigeration as secondary time? Just trying to collapse the schedule to around the same 21days if possible.

I dryhop in the keg all the time. Yesterday, I kegged 10 gallons (2 kegs) and put the hops into a muslin bag and into a tea ball (I had 1.5 ounces for each keg). I just let them go in there loose. If the beer is done, and ready to keg, it's fine to keg it. 16 days is plenty of time, if the beer is made properly.

A question to those who dry hop in the keg with pellets.

Do you find the muslin hop bags to be too coarse for pellets? Would I be better off with a finer nylon bag? Thanks!

I need a tightly woven bag for pellet hops. the "fine" mesh one sold by Northern Brewer on their website is perfect for pellet hops in the keg. I know other places have them, but if you want to look at other places, looking at the "fine" one at northernbrewer.com can show you what I mean.