Hop debris in keg

[Judochop]

I dry-hopped in my secondary for a couple weeks before transferring to the keg. Now that I'm serving, I'm continually getting clouds of hop debris from each pour. Granted, the first pour was the worst. A veritable fish tank it was.

I'm on beer #4 now though, and the hop chunks are still floating about. I figured all the gunk on the bottom of the keg would be gone after a few pints. Or does that theory only apply to sediment?

Am I doomed to have hop floatees throughout all 5 gallons?

 

[McKBrew]

It's quite possible that you will have chunks until it's gone. I forgot to properly strain a recent IPA, and it has the occasional floatie. Best bet is to use a paint strainer or mesh bag to filter before you keg next time. This time, not much you can do. Enjoy the hops.

 

[Chriso]

If it really bothers you (which I'm not saying is wrong) and if you have a spare corny, you can fix it, but it's not the easiest thing.

First, you'll need to make a Liquid-to-Liquid jumper with a ball lock on each end (or pin lock, if that's what your kegs are, sorry). It needs to be Liquid 2 Liquid because you want to have the dip tube completely submerged in the beer while it is transferring - just like it were a giant BMBF - to minimize the CO2 lost out of solution from the transfer.

Second, you'll need to take your sanitized spare keg, and a sanitized, rather large, straining bag. Carefully insert the dip tube into the keg post, guiding it into the straining bag carefully as you go. Reassemble the post, but go ahead and leave the top off of the keg.

Purge your first keg, then hook up your L2L jumper. Dial your CO2 down to 2-4psi, just enough to push the beer. Hook up the gas QD, and slowly push the beer from keg 1 into keg 2, making sure to keep a hold on the top of the straining bag so it doesn't fall into the keg. Wait a while, then once beer has transferred, you can unhook keg 1 and the gas.

Now here's the trickiest bit. You will need to disassemble the liquid post on keg 2 again, and gently remove your dip tube, while not losing hold of the top of the bag. Then, gently pull the bag up, and carefully, out of the beer. It should now have all the hop crud inside of it, and your keg should be left with clear beer.

Reassemble, seal, and gas back up as necessary.

That being said... I would just tell your guests that it's a "really fresh-hopped IPA".

 

[Judochop]

Best bet is to use a paint strainer or mesh bag to filter before you keg next time.

If I'm going to siphon from a dry-hopped secondary into the bottom of the keg where could I place the mesh bag so that it wouldn't cause a huge aeration issue during the transfer?

If it really bothers you (which I'm not saying is wrong) and if you have a spare corny, you can fix it, but it's not the easiest thing...

...That being said... I would just tell your guests that it's a "really fresh-hopped IPA".

Thanks again Chriso. A two-paragraph solution I might consider…

Unfortunately, five paragraphs is just way too involved for me.
I think I like your final suggestion. I may not even include any guests in the plan.

 

[Chriso]

Eh. I could've slammed it all into a paragraph... but I recognize that I type (and speak) like I'm having an epileptic seizure of words, so I throw in lots of carriage returns to make sure I'm making sense.

As for straining-on-transfer... Just like you would have done with the dip tube in the above procedure... you would do with your siphon hose when initially kegging the beer. After the keg is full, and you are removing your siphon hose, just gently and slowly remove the straining bag with the hose.