Inline dry-hopping

[Boaz]

Hello everyone!

I am going to trial an in-line dry-hopping system for the IPA I am currently brewing.
I will basically pump (from the racking arm on my conical through a filter canister (as pictured) with a muslin bag full of mosaic leaf hops in it, and back into my conical.
Has anyone had experience with this type of system? And if so does anyone have recommended times for circulation? I usually leave my dry hops in for about 3 days and am planning to do this particular one at about 12deg Celsius, on my way through the cold crash. Any and all thoughts welcome! Cheers

 

[couchsending]

Hello everyone!

I am going to trial an in-line dry-hopping system for the IPA I am currently brewing.
I will basically pump (from the racking arm on my conical through a filter canister (as pictured) with a muslin bag full of mosaic leaf hops in it, and back into my conical.
Has anyone had experience with this type of system? And if so does anyone have recommended times for circulation? I usually leave my dry hops in for about 3 days and am planning to do this particular one at about 12deg Celsius, on my way through the cold crash. Any and all thoughts welcome! Cheers

Do you have the ability to purge it of any and all O2?

 

[Boaz]

Do you have the ability to purge it of any and all O2?

Yes, I will flush through the entire system before passing any liquid through.

 

[SanPancho]

Yes. Purge thecrap out of it with co2. Or connect it to blowoff and let the ferment purge it.

Basically you are gonna need to go for a hour at a time until you get the profile you want. Dont go crazy. It tends to pull polyphenols which can be harsh. Be gentle. Never used leaf hops so not sure what else to advise in terms of time. Obviously, drop as much yeast as you can before you come back up through the bottom.

 

[Boaz]

Yes. Purge thecrap out of it with co2. Or connect it to blowoff and let the ferment purge it.

Basically you are gonna need to go for a hour at a time until you get the profile you want. Dont go crazy. It tends to pull polyphenols which can be harsh. Be gentle. Never used leaf hops so not sure what else to advise in terms of time. Obviously, drop as much yeast as you can before you come back up through the bottom.

Cheers for the reply!
My plan is to pull from the racking arm and push back in via the blow-off cane after a heavy CO2 purge of both the headspace and the hop filter system. I will pull off whatever yeast has flocc'd out via the dump valve prior to this. So your advice is just to run for an hour, then taste a sample?

 

[SanPancho]

Unfamiliar with a blow off cane. If you are going back in from the top im not sure thats a great idea. Could kick up foam and volatize the aromas into headspace. And out of beer.

However you run it, give it some time to settle a bit before you sample, even with leaf hops it’s probably still gonna kick up some gunk.

 

[Boaz]

Unfamiliar with a blow off cane. If you are going back in from the top im not sure thats a great idea. Could kick up foam and volatize the aromas into headspace. And out of beer.

However you run it, give it some time to settle a bit before you sample, even with leaf hops it’s probably still gonna kick up some gunk.

Thanks, I've changed my plan, and instead I will suck from the racking arm and return through the sampling port ( about 30cm up the side of the conical from the racking arm). It will be a smaller diameter hose on the return side, but if I run the pumping slow it shouldn't create too much pressure.
Cheers!

 

[Boaz]

Unfamiliar with a blow off cane. If you are going back in from the top im not sure thats a great idea. Could kick up foam and volatize the aromas into headspace. And out of beer.

However you run it, give it some time to settle a bit before you sample, even with leaf hops it’s probably still gonna kick up some gunk.

Thanks, I've changed my plan, and instead I will suck from the racking arm and return through the sampling port ( about 30cm up the side of the conical from the racking arm). It will be a smaller diameter hose on the return side, but if I run the pumping slow it shouldn't create too much pressure.
Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

Let us know how it went. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been eager to try forced dry hopping, like the pros do.

I would do a "dry run" with water and used up bagged dry hops saved from another batch, or with some cheap old hops you have laying around.
Your hop bag (being the filter) pressed against the inside of the filter housing would be my major concern right now to get enough flow.

I use fine mesh hop bags for boil hops and quite a bit of very fine hop dust makes it out. The courser the mesh, the less chance of plugging up, but also the more hop matter gets through.

 

[Boaz]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I think I will make a fairly loose bag of hops, to reduce the chance of plugging up. The hose that I have inserted inside the outlet, and extending almost to the bottom of the filter chamber, should hopefully mean that the majority of the beer passing through comes in contact with the hops before exiting.
I don't have anything suitable for a dry run unfortunately, but the way I look at it is, if I end up with a load of leafy matter in the beer, I can always filter it at kegging time. I will post again when I have run it, and will endeavor to make a video or at least some pictures if it works

 

[hafmpty]

This guy tried it. Been a while since I watched the video but it might be worth a look-see.

 

[Boaz]

Hi Ok, thanks for that. There are a few things I think I will do differently, like CO2 flushing pipes and hops etc, and running it for far less time so as not to totally exhaust the hops. But also this is an experiment for me too, so I'll post again when I'm done. Cheers!

 

[Boaz]

Hello everyone!

I am going to trial an in-line dry-hopping system for the IPA I am currently brewing.
I will basically pump (from the racking arm on my conical through a filter canister (as pictured) with a muslin bag full of mosaic leaf hops in it, and back into my conical.
Has anyone had experience with this type of system? And if so does anyone have recommended times for circulation? I usually leave my dry hops in for about 3 days and am planning to do this particular one at about 12deg Celsius, on my way through the cold crash. Any and all thoughts welcome! Cheers

Ok So I did it. Successful so far.
Pushed CO2 through everything then hooked up CO2 bottle to blow-off to equalize the vacuum caused by the liquid out of vessel. Pumped at 19liters per minute through 40gm Mosaic leaf hops in a muslin bag, for 1hr 40mins, this gave me the lovely fresh Mosaic flavour i was looking for at the desired level with no discernible change in the clarity of the liquid. Overall I am very happy with the results of this experiment, and will be using it for all future dry-hopping I do. I have uploaded a video of the system running on YouTube at:
Happy to answer any questions. Cheers everyone!

 

[cabron99]

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