hopping after kegged?

[bailey mountain brewer]

so i brewed a west coast ipa, its a good beer but say i wanted to give a little more hop presence. is it possible to add hops post kegging. obviously to avoid oxidation i could trickle c02 while adding anything. i have one keg already being served and 2 more sitting at about 60 degrees in my basement. suggestions? or just drink it as it is? like it said it is a good beer i was just wanting a little more hop presence.

 

[Jag75]

You could make a hop tea and inject it

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

So boil the hops I wanna add.. how would you 'inject"?

 

[Jag75]

Some people use big syringes or bottles with connections. I've never made a hop tea before but I've seen multiple members discuss it . ,@RPh_Guy makes hop tea if I remember any @day_trippr does injections through the post.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...into-keg-without-opening.677499/#post-8837434

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Gotcha, I kinda want to experiment with the other 2 kegs without hurting them.. reason is I do 15gal batches so if I could experiment with different hops in either keg I would know which I like better for my next batch

 

[stickyfinger]

just try adding in a small amount of pellets to the keg in a sack. i don't like that taste personally (adding hops to the keg after the beer is cold and carbonated) but some people seem to love it. it's too dank and vegetal for me. i'd go with a small amount though, maybe 1 or 2 oz max in 5G.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

just try adding in a small amount of pellets to the keg in a sack. i don't like that taste personally (adding hops to the keg after the beer is cold and carbonated) but some people seem to love it. it's too dank and vegetal for me. i'd go with a small amount though, maybe 1 or 2 oz max in 5G.

Well I see what your saying but the 2 kegs I want to experiment with are not cold, they are at basement temp, 60ish. Which should still be a reasonable temp for hop extraction. Is a bag necessary, basically what I'm thinking is these kegs would act as a secondary fermenter and it would get cold crashed and carbed before serving.

 

[stickyfinger]

sorry, didn't read it closely enough. so, the warm kegs are carbonated and 60ish and waiting to go into the keezer? if so, my comment stands for sure. try adding some hops in a sack to the keg and invert the keg a couple times per day for a few days. you should get a boost in hoppiness. just try it in one. you made 15G of IPA that is underhopped? shame on you! ha ha. just kidding.

hops added to carbonated beer taste different to me. you might love the flavor. some people love adding hops to the keg and serve off of the hops the entire time.

you just need a way to separate the hops from the beer before pushing through the poppet or it will clog. bag is easiest. you can also put in a floating dip tube or a beverage dip tube filter screen. if you are opening up the lid and racking off, you may or may not have luck. that is more oxidation but it could turn out ok.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll have to get some bags and try it. I did underhop it, new recipe and didnt want it to be to dank. I like the beer overall just needs a boost like your saying. I'll try it with one and see what happens. I assume your talking about like a nylon muslin bag, i have a stainless hop screen canister I should be able to let hang in it.

 

[Hammy71]

Us old skool guys used these to dry hop in the keg.

https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/...R1xtpc_r4s4eY4AztPJ_4iS9VkAGluxhoCKqAQAvD_BwE

 

[stickyfinger]

yeah, try the stainless hop screen canister. put in 1-2 oz. a lot of flavor will come off pretty quickly, but you can leave it a few days or so. make sure to purge the headspace several times before letting it sit. i use 6x at 10 psi for no other reason than it seems to work lol!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Ok so a few days then pull it and purge again then cool and serve.. thanks again. I'll see how it goes.

 

[stickyfinger]

yeah, you can try that out or leave it in and see how that goes. up to you. i guess if you like it after pulling it out you could do the other one and leave it in for comparison? good luck, man! i HATE trying to fix a beer that's not right. very frustrating, but i'd say maybe 1/3 times it works out really well, so there is hope!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Haha, thanks again. We'll see what happens.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Some people use big syringes or bottles with connections. I've never made a hop tea before but I've seen multiple members discuss it . ,@RPh_Guy makes hop tea if I remember any @day_trippr does injections through the post.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...into-keg-without-opening.677499/#post-8837434

I bottle so I can't really help with kegging specifics. There is a thread about it though:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...g-making-a-hop-tea-or-diy-hop-extract.666210/

 

[DrinkFresh]

@bailey mountain brewer Im curious how did this turn out? Having a similar problem and was thinking of doing the same as you did. Let us know! Cheers

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

i was happy with the turn out. i had 2 kegs from the same batch that i did this with, one keg i put in 2oz of citra and the other i put in 2oz of mosaic, which was just what i had on hand at the time. i trickled c02 into the keg as i added the hops (which were in a mesh screen container) but i did get some oxidation towards the end of each keg. but 75% of both the kegs was excellent and much better then the first under hopped one. i have yet to re brew the recipe with hop adjustments but i intend to soon.

 

[DrinkFresh]

Good to hear it worked out for you and love the idea of splitting the batch into two kegs with different hops!

I might just give it a go and add an extra 1oz of hops, since I already had added 1oz of hops in the keg in a mesh bag at the time of kegging the beer a week ago. Unfortunately it just does not have the hop aroma I want (I'm thinking either because of past prime hops or I used a steel mesh container)

Did you end up leaving the hops in the keg until it kicked or did you pull them after a few days?

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I did leave it in, wasnt my intention initially but I didn't want to open the keg again. It didn't seem to have any negative effects leaving them in. But I imagine if it didn't get drank as fast as it did that would maybe be a different story.

 

[rwinzing]

This would be if you wanted to do it more than once. I use a in line Hop Rocket. Whole leaf hops that the beer goes through when you pour your beer out of the kegs. It imparts wonderful hop notes.