Keg dry hopping with pellets in a hop bag ??

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seanppp

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I was wondering if anyone has experience dry hopping in a corny keg, specifically with pellets. If so, do you recommend using a hop bag, or will the utilization suffer too much? I'm trying to figure out a way to dry hop with pellets in a corny without getting too much hop crud into my dip tube/poppet valve.

Thanks!
 
I never keg-hop with pellets, it just seems like an inevitable pita. Whole cones in a muslin bag works fine, whether floating or sunk, and can be safely left in a cold keg for weeks without issue. I usually go with "sunk" by sticking a piece of stainless flatware in the bag. My go-to piece is the gravy ladle, much to the Spousal Unit's consternation when done around the holidays...

Cheers! ;)
 
I keg-hopped my last IPA with one of these. Two of them actually. One will hold ~2ozs of hops and my dry hop called for 4 ozs. filled them up, dropped them in and racked on top of them. Worked out fantastically and had no issues with clogging my dip tube.
 
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I've keg-hopped with pellets in a hop bag, with the bag hanging about halfway down tied to the lid. As the beer level drops it leaves the hops behind so I'm not dry hopping to grassy flavors.
 
I used to suspend the pellets in a bag with dental floss, mainly because I was worried about the bag possibly blocking the dip tube, now I've started using the mesh tea balls and just drop them in.
 
When I dryhop with pellets in the keg, I use a very finely woven hops bag, like this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/nylon-hop-bag-8-x-9-1-4.html

When I dryhop with whole (leaf) hops in the keg, I use a big teaball strainer or a hops bag or whatever. They stay put pretty well.

The pellet hops disintegrate and come right through the teaball strainer and clog up my diptube badly. I speak from experience- it sucked!

I don't tie my bag to anything- I just put it in the keg for the life of the keg. My kegs are kept cold in the kegerator, and it takes longer for the dryhopping to be apparent, but it seems like keeping it cold keeps it from getting any "grassy" off-flavors that others talk about. I've never had that happen.
 
If you use a standard muslin hop sock the pellet bits *will* get out and muddy up your first few pours. But if you leave the keg in your kegerator for a day or two and let them settle, the 3rd or 4th pour will be hop-bit free.

I would take Yooper's suggestion and use a very fine mesh bag, not a muslin one. But if all you have are muslin hop socks you're not dead in the water.
 
When I dryhop with pellets in the keg, I use a very finely woven hops bag, like this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/nylon-hop-bag-8-x-9-1-4.html

When I dryhop with whole (leaf) hops in the keg, I use a big teaball strainer or a hops bag or whatever. They stay put pretty well.

The pellet hops disintegrate and come right through the teaball strainer and clog up my diptube badly. I speak from experience- it sucked!

I don't tie my bag to anything- I just put it in the keg for the life of the keg. My kegs are kept cold in the kegerator, and it takes longer for the dryhopping to be apparent, but it seems like keeping it cold keeps it from getting any "grassy" off-flavors that others talk about. I've never had that happen.

I do this. I also try to use exclusively whole hops when dryhopping these days as it adds more flavor sooner and of course the already covered advantages...like the hops staying in the bag vs getting in the diptube.

One trick to clear your diptube if this happens is to put a corny "out" fitting on a gas line and hit the diptube with some C02. This may only be a temporary fix as the debris might readily go back into the tube when you start pouring again, but I've had some degree of success with it.
 
When I dryhop with pellets in the keg, I use a very finely woven hops bag, like this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/nylon-hop-bag-8-x-9-1-4.html


The pellet hops disintegrate and come right through the teaball strainer and clog up my diptube badly. I speak from experience- it sucked!

I did experience the hop disintegration when the keg kicked and the last pour was full of hop debris, so I will probably switch to the mesh bag for the next one and see how that works.
 
What yooper said! I always dry hop in the keg in a fine mesh nylon bag. No problems with particles leeching out, and get great hop utilization (I believe, I've never sent a sample to a lab). I sanitize the bag and a shot glass (to weight it down), add hops/shot glass, zip tie the top of the bag, and tie dental floss through the zip tie to suspend the bag from a keg handle.
 
These are great suggestions. If I use dental floss, can the floss go up out of the keg lid, past the rubber seal, or would that compromise the seal?
 
I used the bags with dental floss with great luck but then got one of these which I love. I still use dental floss in case I want to remove them if the keg lasts a while but you don't need it.

dryhopfilter2.5-8D8.5Lx300micronfiltera.jpg
 
I use knee-highs, most of the time, when I keg hop with pellets. It works great, considering I stuff it with about 4 oz's of hops, and just plop it in the keg.

I've opened the keg once, about halfway through, to replace the hops (Double Dry Hopped), and pulled up what looked like a massive knee-high hop sausage. It sank on its own in the cold keg, I didn't need to weight down, or anything.

I use this method for almost every keg... Haven't had a problem yet.
 
I used the bags with dental floss with great luck but then got one of these which I love. I still use dental floss in case I want to remove them if the keg lasts a while but you don't need it.

And where did you purchase these? Bio-diesel? I'm very interested.
 
And where did you purchase these? Bio-diesel? I'm very interested.

I can recommend Wilserbrewer's dry hop sock:
http://biabbags.webs.com/
I boiled to sanitize, put pellets in, overhand knotted the bag, and dropped in the keg.

Stayed in keg at 45-50F until empty, no grass/veg, and very little haze from the hopping.

I might see if he can sew up a skinny carboy friendly version...
 
Do you guys sanitize the bags/nylons before you drop them in?

i boil the very fine mesh bags i use and split the hops between 2 bags since i usually use 3-5 oz per keg, that amount forms quite the huge ball in one bag. after 5 days i remove the bags, chill and carbonate.
 
Resurrection.

Is there any concern with how tight the bag is when putting in the pellet hops? I kegged a Pliny the Elder clone a couple of weeks ago. I put in the 5 or 6 oz of dry hops in a 1 gallon paint strainer bag, twisted it above the hops and then wrapped the top part of the bag around the hops again before tying it off with floss. I didn't think about the how much the hop pellets expand before doing this.

Is there any reason for concern that the liquid will not be able to circulate well enough through the hops if they've expanded tightly in the bag? I'm a bit underwhelmed with the aroma and flavor of the dry hop at this point and am looking for reasons.

I dropped the bag into the keg and racked onto it. I then let it sit at 68F for three days before bringing it down to serving temperature.
 
It is good possibility if it packs too tight that the inner most portion will never see beer. I've pulled dry hops that were in too tight after 2 weeks that were still dry in the middle.
 
Resurrection 2

Is there any problem on doing Yoopers pellet method, on a beer already carbonated? How long I should leave the hops inside the keg?
 
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