Filtered beer woes

[Yooper]

How do you dry hop in your keg? Thats my one enemy with IPA's is that time really isn't on my side. Do you use whole or pellet hops, in a hop bag I'm assuming?

You can use either whole or pellets! For whole, you can use a bag or one (or more!) of those "tea balls"- the large ones that you'd use to make tea with loose tea leaves. You can only put about 1/2 ounce in the tea ball, so you may need more than one. Make sure it's stainless!

For pellet hops, you need a tightly woven hops bag. Like this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=1054 You can use that for leaf hops, too, of course!

I dryhop in the keg often. Since it's cold, I don't get "grassy" flavors but I do get nice hops aroma and flavor.

 

[Yooper]

I have never had clear wort going into my fermenter. I use an immersion chiller and drop the temp quickly. I do use a paint mixer to aerate...I will skip next time to see if it helps by not mixing the wort so aggressively. I also tend to transfer to the primary within 5-10 minutes...maybe I should wait longer. I am definitely getting a good hot/cold break, but it never drops to the bottom of my kettle before I transfer.

I wish I was located closer to one of you...would love to watch a brew day and see what you are doing.

Beautiful photos...I will get there someday.

Don't skip the aeration! I transfer to primary right away, with some trub and all. Even so, by the time I take my hydrometer sample the wort is clear. Some cold break in the fermenter is actually good for the yeast, so don't sweat break material going into the fermenter- it won't cause the beer to be cloudy!

Are you using whirlfloc in the kettle?

 

[beaksnbeer]

I use a silk hop bag my wife made that I hang off an o-ring that slides over the gas post. when the hop level gets to where I want it all I have to do is drink a 1/2 gallon to drop the liquid level so hops are no longer in the beer.... The trials to getting there!

 

[twalte]

Don't skip the aeration! I transfer to primary right away, with some trub and all. Even so, by the time I take my hydrometer sample the wort is clear. Some cold break in the fermenter is actually good for the yeast, so don't sweat break material going into the fermenter- it won't cause the beer to be cloudy!

Are you using whirlfloc in the kettle?

I am using irish moss at 15 minutes. Just bought some whirfloc too, so will try that on the next batch.

I am going to try the white labs WLP001 to see if it floccs better. Spec sheet says medium flocculation, but must be better than safeale 05. Also considering the Wyeast 1764 (Pac Man) which has some good reviews.

Thanks for all of the pointers!!

 

[JuanMoore]

How do you dry hop in your keg? Thats my one enemy with IPA's is that time really isn't on my side. Do you use whole or pellet hops, in a hop bag I'm assuming?

5 gal nylon paint strainer bag. Stuff the hops in, tie the top shut, drop it in the keg. I use whole leaf, but that's just because I prefer the flavor. Works just fine with pellets too. I've found that I get the best flavor by dry hopping in the sealed keg at ferm temps for 8-10 days, and leaving the hops in the keg until it's empty. The cold serving temps seem to prevent the grassy flavors that can happen dry hopping for too long at warmer temps.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I have found that time and patience makes for clear beers for em whether or not I keg. With an IPA yes you want it to clear quicker, but a dry hop definitely gets the aroma back. MMMM.... I could go for an IPA right now.

 

[weirdboy]

How do you dry hop in your keg? Thats my one enemy with IPA's is that time really isn't on my side. Do you use whole or pellet hops, in a hop bag I'm assuming?

That's what I do. I throw a (sanitized) stainless steel widget in there to keep the bag on the bottom of the keg. Usually an extra coupler or bracket of some sort.



I actually had some grassy flavors in the last pint I pulled from my kegerator. However, that was after moving the keg around a lot. I also found about a 1/16" of hops sediment in the bottom of the glass when I finished it, so I was basically drinking hops particulates. If the keg doesn't move, however, the beer comes out crystal clear and delicious.

 

[Chia]

If you're getting a good hot break and cold break, the beer should look very clear with clumps of break material in it as you're transferring out of the kettle. Something like this-

wow, my beer never looks like that! i really need to work on something!

 

[Antler]

I'm still bottling all my beers and all my beers had a little haze to them. Even beers that I filtered and had a buddy force carbonate and bottle from the keg, we're hazy and had some "dust" settle in the bottles.

I read on HBT that 2-3 weeks cold conditioning will get ride of chill haze so I tried it with my last batch and it pours crystal clear now!

 

[BetterSense]

wow, my beer never looks like that! i really need to work on something!

Not really. It looks like he's chilling with an ice bath. If you do that without stirring the wort, it clumps up like the photo. If you stir the wort or you stick in a chiller, it all gets stirred back up. It doesn't matter because it settles out anyway. See my thread here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/im-leaving-lot-beer-brew-kettle-help-272081/index5.html