Length of time for dry-hopping

[TR6]

been brewing for years but new to kegging. I have read many posts about how long to dry hop. Some say 1 week is max or you will get a grassy taste. So I would normally follow that guideline. Throw a couple ounces in 1 week before bottling and strain them out at bottle bucket to avoid sludge and grassy taste.

Having said that I just did my first keg, and used a hop sack hanging from a handle with dental floss inside the keg. It seemed to work out well, but I haven't finished drinking the keg to inspect the hop bag post drinking. There is always a chance they did not hydrate and are just dry in the middle of the bag.

My question is, if you should only dryhop for a 1 week in secondary to avoid grassy taste. How can you dryhop with a hop bag inside a keg for months without getting a grassy taste? The math doesn't work.

I am thinking about avoiding the hop bag and going back to dryhoppiing prior to kegging. But it takes more planning. ie I don't know if I will have time to keg next Saturday.

 

[xpops]

maybe the fact that it's cold and under pressure, that the beer absorbs less from the hops? i'm about to do my longest dryhop based on a clone recipe (Unita's Dubhe imperial BIPA) which calls for 3 weeks....we'll see how that turns out! typically though, i do 5-7 days. i think the longest was from a 2 stage dosage on a DIPA, for 10 days.

i also experimented with keg dry hopping and dry hopping in the primary with a 10gal split batch of a 2 hearted ale clone last month. The beer dry hopped in carboy was MUCH better in terms of aroma and taste than the keg dry hopped batch. i should probably try this again, but honestly...i'm more inclined to just keep dry hopping in the carboy, then transfer to keg after.

 

[Atlmustang]

LOL...so funny story...I once forgot to dry hop my IPA and I was ready to keg. I had a few homebrews that day and got flustered about forgetting to dry hop in primary and I went went ahead and racked the beer to the keg and without thinking about the hop bag, threw the hops right in the keg. I like to have never got a solid pour out of it there were so much hop sludge at the bottom of the keg. I felt like an idiot.

Anywho, I have never tried your method of dry hopping with the floss in the keg. My guess is that the colder temps and pressure preserve the hops longer and slow down the grassier compounds from being extracted. I always dry hop in primary and take the beer off the top of the hop sludge and yeast when I go to rack to the keg.

 

[hezagenius]

My question is, if you should only dryhop for a 1 week in secondary to avoid grassy taste. How can you dryhop with a hop bag inside a keg for months without getting a grassy taste? The math doesn't work.

2 things come to mind:
1) If you suspend the hops so that they don't sink all the way to the bottom, then once the beer level gets below the hops, they will no longer be imparting flavor

2) Beer that is cold and under pressure may absorb flavors differently than beer at room temp and no additional pressure.

 

[kh54s10]

I have hopped in the keg a few of times. I don't know the chemistry but never had any grassy. I used I gallon paint strainer bags tied shut as close to the top as I could. I then pushed them under the surface and swirled them a little. I am sure the beer fully penetrated the hops. If you allowed enough space there should be no dry hops in the middle. My other one was in a mesh cylinder I used 2 ounces and the beer was quite hoppy, no grass. I have not retrieved it yet so I don't know how well saturated the hops were but I suspect they were fully penetrated by the beer.

When I dry hop in primary I also contain the hops so there is not much debris in any transfer.

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

I never had grassy flavors. I used to just do the bag with the floss and put in keezer immediately but now I try to let it sit at room temp 3-5 days. One issue I have had is trouble force carbing with the bag but crank and shake works and it mixes the hops good. 3 min at 30 psi does it. I have a few 300 micron dip tube filters as well so I can just throw loose hops in there.

 

[jerbrew]

I always dry hop in my kegs now and wouldn't do it any other way. When I rack to my keg I throw the hops in hit it with some gas to slowly carb and seal the lid. After two days I though the keg in the kegerator. it gets cold and the beer develops a bit more aroma slowly. Never experienced a grassyness but my beer (especially an IPA) don't last long). If you're worried about it I would suspend them as stated above that way they're not always in the beer.

Oh, and I use a keg dry hopper I bought from jaybird somewhere around here. Woks great and easy to clean. fits about 3-4 ounces of leaf hops and a ton of pellets.

 

[VagueSkunk]

Gonna steal this thread for a dry hopping question that I have. For those of you that do multiple dry hop charges, do you remove the 1st charge when you add the 2nd? Or do you leave them both in?

 

[jerbrew]

If I do a double dry hop, which I do on bigger IPAs, I add an initial dry hop to the primary and a secondary dry hop in the keg. So, I remove the first by default of racking the beer out of primary.