Dryhops stuck on Chiller Coil

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sicktght311

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Anyone else with SS Brewtech BME gear have issues with your dryhops getting stuck on the top of the chiller coil? I've got a 7 gallon BME Chronical and since the top of the coil is around 7 gallons, its above the wort/krausen line for most beers. For my final dryhop i use a butterflyvalve/sightglass/co2 plate and do oxygen free dryhopping, however i find that the hops drop down right on top of the chiller coil and get stuck on a krausen/hop raft right on top. After fermentation is done and transffered to keg, i can see puffed pellets just sitting on top. Seems like i'm losing at least 1-2oz to contact.

If i had a way of working with stainless steel, i would think a simple upside down V Shaped plate/hat on top of the coils would easily solve this, but i dont have the ability to create. Has anyone else experienced this problem, and found a solution? If the chilling coils were installed lower in the conical it would have easily solved this problem
 
I dry hop with bags and ss weights to keep things submerged. If you did that, the hops would bypass the coil.

FWIW, I dot use the coil either to be transparent. But this still seems like a possible cheap solution.
 
This would negate my efforts to go oxygen free during dryhop. This issue doesnt arise when fermentation is still going, as then i just open the top and dump the hops in. However once fermentation is complete, i use a hop dryhopper under co2 pressure to dryhop to avoid any and all oxygen ingress.
 
I have the standard Chronical and I am thinking about side mounting the chiller coil so I can get the 3" TC lid and make a dry hop hopper like you described. It's been a year since your post; did you figure out any solution? Maybe slosh the beer around after dry hopping to knock those hops loose?
 
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I have the standard Chronical and I am thinking about side mounting the chiller coil so I can get the 3" TC lid and make a dry hop hopper like you described. It's been a year since your post; did you figure out any solution? Maybe slosh the beer around after dry hopping to knock those hops loose?
Didnt come up with any solutions, other than dryhopping in smaller doses. Instead of doing one big drop, i do it in multiple smaller drops which helps things drop through. I also give a swirl to move things around.

BUT most importantly, i kinda stopped dryhopping once fermentation was completely done. For instance, for a NEIPA, i've mostly moved to a schedule of dryhopping at high krausen, and then again when i'm a few points away from final gravity, and just opening the lid and dropping in.
 
I've seen where people have had the pellets sit in the chiller and expand into a solid lump inside. Somewhere there are pictures where a guy bent a piece of stainless to divert the pellets from going into the chiller coil but I don't recall how he held it in place.
 
Yes I had this issue. I carefully bent the coils so they're positioned towards the back of the fermenter. Also, I always have a 3" butterfly valve on the lid. Dry hops go into the valve, and valve is orientated so that when it is slowly opened the hops slide towards the front of the fermenter.
 
I feel like something as dumb and simple as this would be such a no brainer solution. If i could bend stainless or knew someone who would, i'd have this made in a second. Clip it on the coil sanitized right before you transfer into the fermenter, and then pull it off and wash by hand while the fermenter is CIP'ed after you're done.
 

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