Hop dropper??

[duff-man]

Has anyone heard of or built either an automatic or manual type hop dropper to reduce oxygenation when dry hopping?
I have an ss brew bucket. And very curious on how I could modify it to do this sort of thing. Let me know your ideas/specs.

 

[Beer4All]

Brewers Hardware just released The Dry Hopper. It is a 3" TC fitting w/ ball lock fittings & and isolation valve that would allow you to purge after adding. Little pricey at $275 and you would have to get an adapter for 1.5"TC to 3"

 

[stealthfixr]

If you have a TC port on the top of your fermentor, you can piece together a hop dropper more cheaply than $275. I have one on the 1.5" port on my Spike CF-5 lid, and it works well--noticeable change in my dry-hopped IPAs. Arrangement would be the (0) lid port, (1) butterfly valve, (2) a sight glass, then (3) pressure manifold. Certainly not automatic, however.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Here's the one I have on top of my Unitank. 3" butterfly valve --> 3" sight glass --> 3" to 1.5" TC reducer --> Gas Manifold from Spike Brewing.

 

[duff-man]

Stealthfixr. Could you post some pics by any chance. I would love to spend the 275$ but we have just renovated the basement. So spending much on anything is hard right now.

 

[stealthfixr]

Stealthfixr. Could you post some pics by any chance. I would love to spend the 275$ but we have just renovated the basement. So spending much on anything is hard right now.

Part of the assembly is on my fermentor, at pressure, right now and probably for the next couple weeks (lagering). I will post as soon as able, but I pieced my assembly together after pouring through the Spike Conical thread here on HBT. Butterfly valve from Amazon, sight glass from Amazon, pressure manifold from Spike.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Stealthfixr. Could you post some pics by any chance. I would love to spend the 275$ but we have just renovated the basement. So spending much on anything is hard right now.

It sounds like it's almost identical to the one I posted a pic of above. Sounds like @stealthfixr used all 1.5" fittings though, where I went with 3".

 

[hamachi]

I assume you know the "magnet in the hop bag trick", right? Having tried it once in my simple stainless steel fermenter, I can confirm that it works.

 

[Golddiggie]

I'll be making one soon. I have a sight glass (1.5" TC fittings) to use for the hops pre-drop. Plus enough spare 1.5" caps to sacrifice one for getting a PRV and corny gas post fitted to (I'll put the holes in it and get a friend to sanitary TIG weld them in). Already have some 'spare' 1.5" TC bufferfly valves too. IIRC, the sight glass was $50. Valve was another $50. Cap, clamps, additional fittings might run me another $50. My buddy will weld for beer, so I'll bring him some cans of my IPA in payment.

 

[Wilson Lima]

Hello! For those who did upgrade to dryhopping using one of those hop droppers, did it really made a difference over dumping the hops thru lid w/ positive pressure and purging? Thanks

 

[Rob2010SS]

Hello! For those who did upgrade to dryhopping using one of those hop droppers, did it really made a difference over dumping the hops thru lid w/ positive pressure and purging? Thanks

I can't say anything noticeable for me. Prior to this, I was hooking up the CO2 to the blow off cane and I'd let that flow through the blow off into the tank the entire time I was adding the dry hops. To me, this was more of a piece of mind kind of thing. While my previous method was "good enough", this ensures that nothing is getting in.