Just goofed my NEIPA

[Jtvann]

Should have known better from the start.

I had to be out of town for a little over a week right when I would have normal cold crashed my beer. Since I wasn’t here to fiddle with the CO2 to keep from oxidizing, I just let it sit at 68 degrees the whole time. I was hoping that given enough time the hops would settle. Wrong.

Start my pressurized transfer and flow immediately stops. I coax it into flowing once or twice, but eventually it’s evident my dip tube I clogged with less than a gallon of beer in the keg. Remove the dip tube and clean it ... it was clogged, reassemble and start again. But nope ... clogged again. Screw it, I’ve already lost my CO2 purged environment, just take off the lid and fill from the top. Flowed 5 gallons of sure to be oxidized goodness into the keg. If it isn’t oxidized now, it will be by the time I have to clean my dip tube with the fill of every pint.

What a great way to come back home from a shitty trip.

 

[Jtvann]

Oh, almost forgot, when I pulled the keg lid off, the seal fell into the beer. So there’s that too.

 

[GPP33]

All of that sucks. At least you still have beer. Drink it fast!

 

[bobeer]

Should have known better from the start.

I had to be out of town for a little over a week right when I would have normal cold crashed my beer. Since I wasn’t here to fiddle with the CO2 to keep from oxidizing, I just let it sit at 68 degrees the whole time. I was hoping that given enough time the hops would settle. Wrong.

Start my pressurized transfer and flow immediately stops. I coax it into flowing once or twice, but eventually it’s evident my dip tube I clogged with less than a gallon of beer in the keg. Remove the dip tube and clean it ... it was clogged, reassemble and start again. But nope ... clogged again. Screw it, I’ve already lost my CO2 purged environment, just take off the lid and fill from the top. Flowed 5 gallons of sure to be oxidized goodness into the keg. If it isn’t oxidized now, it will be by the time I have to clean my dip tube with the fill of every pint.

What a great way to come back home from a poopyty trip.

 

[bobeer]

So you free poured your IPA into the keg? I'm not sure from your OP how you put the beer in the keg.

Do you dryhop in the keg at all? That's the only way I dryhop anymore. I use a muslin bag and just throw it in the bottom of the keg then rack the beer on top. Or, rack the beer first then put the hop sack in there. Then force carb as usual. I leave the hop sack in there for the life of the keg.

For the clogging... have you also checked the poppits in the quick disconnects of the keg posts? That's what always used to clog on my setup before I started using the muslin bags.

 

[ca_baracus]

^^ What he said. Not clear if you poured or used a siphon. If siphoned, your beer isn't ruined. I didn't do closed transfers on my two NEIPA batches and they turned out great.

 

[Jtvann]

I tried to do my normal pressurized transfer to the keg, but the popped clogged about 4 times within the first half gallon. After cleaning over and over and over ... and over my purged keg was pretty useless. At that point I just free poured into the keg.

I was hoping it was salvageable, but nope. It ended up being a dumper. There was a good solid 3 inches of hop sediment from the 6 ounces of dry hops at the bottom of the keg.

The issue from the start was that I did not cold crash at all. A clear beer draft system would have saved me, but that’s in hind sight ... and has been ordered now. Stupid mistake to not cold crash at all before the transfer.

 

[madk]

This happened to be the last time I kegged a NEIPA. In a panic I had to quickly change plans and use a good 'ol fashion auto-siphon. Somehow the beer turned out fine.

 

[bobeer]

I tried to do my normal pressurized transfer to the keg, but the popped clogged about 4 times within the first half gallon. After cleaning over and over and over ... and over my purged keg was pretty useless. At that point I just free poured into the keg.

I was hoping it was salvageable, but nope. It ended up being a dumper. There was a good solid 3 inches of hop sediment from the 6 ounces of dry hops at the bottom of the keg.

The issue from the start was that I did not cold crash at all. A clear beer draft system would have saved me, but that’s in hind sight ... and has been ordered now. Stupid mistake to not cold crash at all before the transfer.

It's shame you dumped it. Do you have an auto-siphon? I've been brewing since the start of 2012 and I've never used a purged environment to keg or bottle beer and I've never had any issues. I think a muslin bag and an auto-siphon will save you a lot of time, money, and aggravation. Put your dryhops in a muslin bag and dry hop it in the keg instead of the primary. I don't care what brewers are doing with this "triple dry hop" stuff but it's all just marketing bs IMO. I put the equivalent of whatever a double/triple/quadruple drop hop is into 1 or 2 muslin bags, rack the beer in the keg, put the hop sacks in, and by the time the beer is carbonated and ready to drink the hops will have added to the beer and will keep adding to it for the life of the keg. It's not "THE" way to do it but just a way that works for me. Good luck!!

 

[GPP33]

This story kinda reminds me of the guy who tossed his carboy off the balcony out of frustration. I don't believe you dumped 5 galls of highly hopped beer, too much $$$ and time tied up in that beer to give up that easily.