Keg dry hopping?

[trapae]

I’m thinking about dry hopping in the keg and just wondering peoples’ techniques and experiences? I know some people leave it in the entire life of the keg?. Just wondering what people do, and if you experience any off flavors, vegetal? And how the flavor is different from normal dry hopping?
Thanks

 

[schatzke]

What I do with my hoppy beers is dryhop in the fermenter first for a few days then transfer to a keg and add a 2nd round of dryhops in a muslin bag. I will leave that 2nd dryhop in until the keg kicks. I don't get any flavors that are offensive, just very hoppy.

 

[bobeer]

I agree with the above comment. I always dryhop in the keg until it kicks and I've never had any off flavors. I toss a muslin bag of hops in there and remove it once it's time to clean it out.

 

[GPP33]

I usually dry hop in the keg in a muslin bag. The one time I left it in it was nasty, removed the bag and it quickly became beautiful. The stitch on the muslin bag isn't tight enough to keep the astringent plant matter in, if it sinks it'll basically filter the beer through the bag and pull plant matter out, if you suspend it then it'll slowly leak out. Obviously some people have had different experiences but that was mine. I usually dry hop for about 3 days at room temp, then pull the hops, chill/carb and flush the first pint.

 

[day_trippr]

What I do with my hoppy beers is dryhop in the fermenter first for a few days then transfer to a keg and add a 2nd round of dryhops in a muslin bag. I will leave that 2nd dryhop in until the keg kicks. I don't get any flavors that are offensive, just very hoppy.

I do exactly the same, always with whole cones in a muslin bag (accompanied by the wife's stainless tureen ladle for ballast ), left 'til the keg kicks, never any off notes.

I've read of folks who try this with pellets in paint strainer bags but if what's left behind in my boil kettle with a 400 micron SS hop spider is indicative of what gets through even fine mesh I'd expect there'd be a lot of hop dust in the drawn beer...

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

I have done it a few times. I always left the paint strainer bags in for the entire time. A keg usually lasts no longer than 2 months, often less. The last time I used a SS hop cylinder. The first glass has a large amount of hop dust. I pour that one down the drain. The next couple are cloudy. After that it gets clear. I have never had any undesirable flavors. Maybe some would object, but I liked them.

 

[ba-brewer]

I am like the other I just leave the hops in the keg until kicked and have not noticed any vegetal or grassy flavors. Contact time normally not more than month or two.

With all the people talking about oxygen damage I started adding the hops when the keg is filled to try and limit oxygen ingress but it seemed like I got better aroma and flavor when I did all of the wrong things. I used to keg and start carbonation then open the keg and hit it with gelatin after a few days to a week then open the keg again and add hops a few days before serving.

I have a stainless steel hop tube but have not been real happy with it. Hop dust comes out the larger holes on the cover and the pellets turn into a solid block in the bottom. For me it was the last pint that were the problem with the hop tube, it would have a bunch of hop matter and clog my flow control faucets. I still use the tube but I put the hop pellets in a fine mesh bag before put that in the tube. Loose leaf hops in a mesh bag with a few big SS nuts seems to work better.

 

[thunderwagn]

I'm like most of the others. After racking to keg, I toss my hops into a hop sock (wilser Bag ) and use floss to tie it off and suspend off the bottom. I typically purge my kegs after racking and adding the hops and leave them at room temp for 1-2 days, then put them in the fridge where the will remain till keg kicks. I have yet to have vegetal or grassy flavors.