Low oxygen dry hopping idea

[kcinpdx]

I may be overthinking this so bear with me. I've currently got an imperial brown ale in the conical that is ready for dry hopping. However I've become preoccupied with oxygenation as I think it has been leading to off flavors in my beer after a few weeks.

Here's my plan.
I have a triclamp fitting that has a gas in connection. I'll remove the blowoff tube and quickly attach the gas line. Then open the bottom dump while pushing 1-2 psi co2. After the dump, push the beer through the liquid out of a sanitized and co2 purged10gallon corny that already has the hops in a bag at the bottom. Dry hop for x days then retransfer into 2 smaller kegs. That step is optional. Thoughts?

 

[day_trippr]

The key here is the purged keg. Pretty much everything would equally apply to any kind of fermentation vessel that could hold modest CO2 pressure. If you managed to have the hops in the keg before the purge process, so much the better.

I would still blow out the head space after the keg is filled...

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

How exactly are you going to purge the receiving keg? Fill entirely with Starsan, push it all out with CO2? Then stream CO2 through the liquid out post while removing the lid and placing a sack of dry hops inside, then close it up again?

I usually dry hop in the keg too and was wondering how to add a sack with hops without introducing O2 to the system, once it was liquid purged.

 

[kcinpdx]

This is why I entitled it "low oxygen". My thought was to place the hops bag in the receiving keg first then fill w CO2 and burp off the o2 several times. When I'm ready to transfer, open the release valve and push beer in through the out post. Not 100% o2 free but seems close.

 

[IslandLizard]

Purging a keg filled with air wastes an enormous amount of CO2, even more to get it within reasonable specs (<1% O2). Best way is to 100% liquid purge. Costs 5.5 gallons of CO2, for the same or less residual O2. There are a few threads about this already.

The problem is with dry hopping, you can't stick a bag with hops in the keg and fill it with Starsan, then purge. So a different approach is needed. Hence the back flushing with CO2 while dropping the bag in slowly. I have mine suspended from a nut welded to the underside of the lid, so it would be open only a short time. Then after filling the keg, a couple headspace purges and you're all set.

 

[mbbransc]

@IslandLizard I do what you do with a slight variation

- Fill clean keg with StarSan and empty with CO2.
- Attach dry hop sack to separate sanitized corny lid.
- Quickly release pressure on keg, remove lid and install dry-hopped lid.
- Give the keg 2-3 bumps of CO2 to "purge"

My thinking is when the sanitized keg is purged and you remove the lid, you can visibly see the CO2 rising out, hopefully remaining relative O2 free (or at least very, very low). It's usually only uncovered 1-2 seconds.

Probably the best I can do on a homebrew level.

 

[kcinpdx]

I like it and I have 2 10 gallon cornies so two lids to work with. I'll try it soon. Seems that pellets would also work better in terms of bringing in less o2