LOB Dry Hop Idea

[uprightfever]

So, I brewed 12 gallons of pilsner a few weeks ago and pushed 5 gallons into a keg last night. I was wanting to dryhop the remaining beer. I have 6 gallons in a 16 gallon fermenter at 36° F, 10 psi. I really don't want to bleed all that CO2 off to add the hops. I had the following thought.

Add pellet hops (1oz?) to a blender and pulverize. Add hop dust and antioxidant charge to a 2L bottle. Squeeze the bottle, tighten carb cap, fill with CO2, release carb cap, squeeze, etc, repeat a few times. Fill bottle half full with beer to be dry hopped using jumper hose. Purge with CO2. Pressurize to about 40psi. Connect jumper hose to bottle upside down and let high pressure push hop/antioxidant suspension into fermenter.

My biggest concern is clogging the ball lock poppet with gunk. What's everyone think? Also, any thoughts on pulverizing the hops degrading them? They'd only be in a pulverized state for maybe five or ten minutes before being in the fermenter.

 

[MrPowers]

I definitely think that would clog the poppet on the liquid disconnect.

An easier way, if you can do it, is to rig up a TC valve on top of your fermenter with a T on top (shown below). Close valve. Hops go in the top of the T, gas goes in the side, purge, seal, open valve. I use mine as a blowoff tube as well, but, if you have a pressure capable fermenter, you wouldn’t need that.

 

[Qhrumphf]

What you're describing is a common method of dry hopping in commercial breweries (with larger stainless equipment). The hops would be forced upwards through the racking arm. Potentially a pump in the system could then recirculate the fermenter.

It's a definite improvement over just dropping em into an open fermenter. But clogging can be a concern even using a fermflask and dip tube to a racking arm, let alone a cornie poppet. The hop slurry can potentially get quite thick. You're definitely gonna clog your poppet the way you're describing.

That said, an enclosed, fermentation purged chamber attached to the fermenter with hops already in it is gonna be the lowest level of DO pickup.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Or build one of these... Not sure if this is enough oxygen prevention for you though...

3" butterfly valve, 3" sight glass, 3" to 1.5" TC reducer, and the spike brewing gas manifold on top. Load up your hops, purge out oxygen, pressurize to match tank, and open the valve and drop in.

Essentially the same concept @MrPowers posted.

 

[MrPowers]

Or build one of these... Not sure if this is enough oxygen prevention for you though...

3" butterfly valve, 3" sight glass, 3" to 1.5" TC reducer, and the spike brewing gas manifold on top. Load up your hops, purge out oxygen, pressurize to match tank, and open the valve and drop in.

Essentially the same concept @MrPowers posted.

View attachment 695480

Same concept, but fancier!

 

[uprightfever]

I tried it out the other day. As predicted, clogged poppet. I don't have triclamps otherwise I'd give one of these other ideas a go. I was just hoping adding the blender pulverization step would avoid the clogged poppet, it didn't.

Next step might be to try the same thing with the poppets removed from the stems and the connectors. I've done something similar before just to move fermenting beer around and it worked.

 

[twd000]

I plan on trying the hop tea method LOB Alternative To Dry Hopping: Making A Hop Tea or DIY Hop Extract.

Even with a wine filter screen on my floating dip tube, the vegetal matter in dry hops continues to be a problem:
-introducing oxygen
-sitting in keg for way too long until keg is kicked
-clogging poppets and draft lines

I'm hoping the hop tea will add the flavor and aroma goodness without the downsides of pellets or cones

 

[MSK_Chess]

I had pretty good results with putting whole hops in a hop basket inside the receiving keg which was being purged with CO2 from fermentation. The idea being that they are surrounded in an environment of CO2. If you can keep it cool it would help too I suspect. You can then do a closed transfer into the purged Keg with fresh hops kept fresh by the CO2 inside.

 

[Stonehenge360]

Or build one of these... Not sure if this is enough oxygen prevention for you though...

3" butterfly valve, 3" sight glass, 3" to 1.5" TC reducer, and the spike brewing gas manifold on top. Load up your hops, purge out oxygen, pressurize to match tank, and open the valve and drop in.

Essentially the same concept @MrPowers posted.

View attachment 695480

I am considering making a version of this, but with two ports on top instead of the manifold, and running it in line with my blowoff tube...basically letting fermentation CO2 continuously purge until I am ready to pull the lever and dump.

Thoughts on this? Would the moisture cause an issue with hops sticking inside the glass?

 

[Dgallo]

That is a scary amount of head space in the fv if you decided to open it. I would suggest you trying to feed it through a port with co2 if you can.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I am considering making a version of this, but with two ports on top instead of the manifold, and running it in line with my blowoff tube...basically letting fermentation CO2 continuously purge until I am ready to pull the lever and dump.

Thoughts on this? Would the moisture cause an issue with hops sticking inside the glass?

I would think this might cause the sticking issue but the other thing that comes to mind is would you lose aromatics from the hops by doing that?

 

[Stonehenge360]

I would think this might cause the sticking issue but the other thing that comes to mind is would you lose aromatics from the hops by doing that?

That’s true, I had not considered the hops losing some of their potency