Dry hopping

[wrestleb]

How do you prevent hop flakes from spreading in the beer? My last beer required a dry hop, this is also the first time I kegged a beer. Every glass I poured there were a ton of hop flakes floating around, making it very difficult to drink.

 

[Miraculix]

Use a very fine hop sock.

 

[Staylow]

I personally don't mind a few hop flakes in a hoppy beer, but to each his own.

To prevent it, you have two options. Use a fine mesh bag as Miraculix said, or cold crash before racking to your keg/bottling bucket. Cold crashing for 12-24 hours should drop most everything out of suspension. Be very cautious of oxidation if cold crashing - oxygen is much more soluble at colder temps.

 

[Bigfly]

Here is what I use: http://arborfab.com/7-Dry-Hopper-for-Corny-Keg_p_15.html Works good and is easy to clean.

 

[wrestleb]

That poses another question. Since I am new to kegging, where is the right place to dry hop... secondary or keg?

 

[PADave]

That poses another question. Since I am new to kegging, where is the right place to dry hop... secondary or keg?

I've never done a secondary, so that's out. But I have dry hopped in the primary, and used one of the screens above in the keg. Personally, I like in the keg better. Try both, do what you like, it's your beer.

 

[brick_haus]

+1 on cold crashing or “filtering”.
I have had success by zip tying a 1 gallon paint strainer over end of the tubing during transfer. Sanitized of course.
Dry hop in the fermentor

 

[Calder]

Do you keg or bottle, and how do you transfer?

I bottle and use a racking cane. I cover the inlet of the racking cane with a 5 gallon paint straining bag (available at most hardware stores and re-usable), and that keeps the hop particles out of the bottles. If you use a spigot to bottle, it may be more difficult.

Alternate (which I use for leaf hops, but could be used for pellets), is to put the hops in the same 5 gallon bag, and then put in the fermenter. If using leaf, weigh down with sanitized marbles, glass shot glasses, or similar.

 

[ReaperOnefour]

I dry hop with a sanitized muslin bag. I add 3 large ( Boulder) marbles, also sanitized. I add them & the hops in the last 3 days of primary. When racking to my bottling bucket I'll put my auto siphon in a sanitized 5 gallon paint strainer, & transfer. The paint strainer usually does a pretty good job at keeping all the hop debris in the fermenter. You can also try using a regular cooking strainer to strain the wort when pouring it into your fermenter. That usually works for me as well. Just make sure to sanitize everything that comes in contact with the wort/beer.

 

[Bigfly]

That poses another question. Since I am new to kegging, where is the right place to dry hop... secondary or keg?

I do a secondary in a keg with corn sugar and dry hops. Then do a closed transfer to a serving keg.