Keg Dry Hopping

[TriColor 1824]

Is there any reason I can't dry hop in the keg I'm dispensing from? Rather than racking my fermented beer from my primary to a secondary fermenter and dry hopping in the secondary before transferring to a dispensing keg, why can't I just rack the beer straight to my dispensing keg and place the dry hops in a sterilized hop bag suspended from the top of the keg by a sterilized non-flavored piece of unwaxed dental floss? It would seem to me that I could accomplish multiple objectives by doing this: I would only need to rack the beer once and while it was clarifying and carbonating it would also be dry hopping at the same time (added benefit also being that the beer would be ready for drinking sooner). Am I missing something? Is there some reason why I shouldn't be doing this?

 

[SGTSparty]

A lot of people do this already. It can be done, though some people say they have problems keeping a seal when using floss. Others say use keg lube and you're fine. Another way is to just dry hop in primary. They all work great depending on who you ask but like everything else in homebrewing its up to you what works best and YMMV

 

[hezagenius]

Another option is to use a SS worm clamp around the underside of the PRV on the bottom of the lid. Clamp the floss and then you don't have to worry about breaking the lid seal.

I dry hop in the serving keg all the time. The first few pulls have a good amount of hop material but that clears out pretty quick.

 

[d_flyer]

I do this all the time. I tried the floss method once and couldn't keep a seal. Now I just toss the hops in a bag and leave it until the keg kicks. Some people get grassy flavors from leaving the hops in the keg too long, but I haven't noticed. As mentioned above, YMMV.

 

[Jim311]

I have small leaks from the dental floss method but I still like doing it that way.

 

[TriColor 1824]

Thanks for the replies. It seems like a pretty obvious thing to do but it doesn't seem like a lot of people mention it. I've also had leaks w/ the dental floss but alsoresolved the problem with keg lube.🍻

 

[fatherdan]

I dryhopped in the keg and had floating hop debris for a week or so.....used the ss screen tube.

 

[specharka]

I am starting to do this exclusively with all of my dry hopping charges. Keg hopping offers many benefits:
1) ability to flush hops with CO2
2) retention of hop aromatics in head space (nucleation of CO2 on hops will blow off aroma)
3) hopping while primary fermentation is still active to scrub any dissolved oxygen introduced by the hops

Of course, there will be some sedimentation and diffusion of hop particulates, so it's helpful to use a dip tube screen and/or keg screen to minimize the amount of harsh particulate you ingest. I've also found it to be helpful to jump the beer to a clean, flushed bright keg for carbonating and cold conditioning. Minimizing oxygen introduction and hop aromatic blowoff is what it's all about. I'm currently looking to build a false bottom for my keg to achieve this very goal.

 

[TriColor 1824]

I tried the dip tube screens with several kegs where I had whole leaf hops floating around in the kegs. Ultimately the hops ended up clogging the screens and the beer wouldn't flow out of the kegs. I ended up having to transfer the beer to a hop-less keg but lost about half the volume to absorption by the hops; that's why I ended up switching to the hop socks. A false bottom to the keg though sounds like a pretty elegant solution to the problem.

 

[Homercidal]

I used the floss trick with no problems a few times. Then I decided to solder a tab on the underside of the keg lid to hold the hop bag up with. I intend to get a SS chain instead of sanitized string, but I haven't yet. I should probably solder the rest of my kegs too. Never know which one is going to be available when I want to dry hop.