Ping-Pong ball dry hop in keg?

[wischwm]

I used a stainless float in much the same way. Got tired of the clean up. Now I put a hose clamp around the relief valve protrusion and tie the hop bag using unflavored dental floss. I just estimate where to tie the dental floss so the bag hangs a few inches from the bottom of the keg.

 

[energee]

My nylon bag floats on its own

 

[TAPPER]

Teflon pipe tape works better than dental floss in my opinion.

 

[Brewdawg81]

You won't need the ping pong ball. It's gonna float anyway. You may not trust this, but: In the past, I had intended to remove after a few days, but never got around to it. It didn't seem to affect it after the first week anyway, so now I just make a habit of leaving it until the keg is gone. Seems the hops do most if not all of their work imparting flavor & aroma the first week in the keg. I might reconsider this if it were more than a few ounces of hops.

 

[robertlhawley]

I use the drawstring from the hop bag and tie it to the keg's dip tube. This, however, is more to keep the hops from floating up and blocking the pressure relief valve, so more of a sinker than for retrieval...

 

[2talljones]

get a lid that you can tie the bag to from under the lid.

 

[NickTheGreat]

I've done the floss but didn't think I got a perfect seal. Then I realized I've never actually pulled the hop bag out of the keg. So . . . I just toss the bag in, now.

 

[55x11]

I think the difference is temperature of the beer. I recently dryhopped a beer for 5 days in the carboy at room temp and it does have a good bit of a grassy flavor. But, I have done dryhopping in the refrigerated kegs for the life of the beer and it never got to that point. YMMV

that may be true. I sometimes dry hop warm, but only for a few days and in fermentor (at the back end of fermentation), and sometimes much longer, in the keg, but for entire duration of the keg (6 weeks or more). No grassy flavors. You may be right, room temp + long exposure could give you that.

 

[55x11]

I have a bunch of these I use for dry hopping in the keg. 3" ball fits through the lid hole easily and holds ~ 1/2 oz of whole flower hops. I typically do 4 balls for 2 oz of citra in my pale ale. Even use coarse ground coffee in these for dry 'beaning' my stouts

https://www.amazon.com/Maxware-Stainless-Teaball-Strainer-Seasoning/dp/B00QVV9GAM/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1472061186&sr=8-16&keywords=3+tea+ball

I got a bunch these a while ago and never really liked them for dry hopping - the problem for me is the hop pellets swell up considerably in volume when they get wet. So you need to guess the expansion, otherwise you will end up with wet hops on the outside and dry hops inside. I find that fine mesh bags work best in the end.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

You can just attach a little worm clamp to the PVR valve on the inside of the keg lid, tie the hop bag up to that, no welding required.

this sounds like a winner.


Also, like i stated in the intro, I dont brew many hoppy beers. I've always just dry-hopped in the carboy for 3-5 days then kegged, I assumed I would get grassy flavors if I left the hops in the keg permanently.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I use 2 small rare earth magnets... one inside and one outside to hold onto each other. This worked wonderfully in kegs, although now I mostly dry hop in carboys as my kegs are O2-free zones. Still works in the carboy, keeps the bag from falling during racking.

I'm not sure if they have different coatings, but they never touch liquid.

this is also a really great idea!

 

[MagicMatt]

I've always just dry-hopped in the carboy for 3-5 days then kegged, I assumed I would get grassy flavors if I left the hops in the keg permanently.

As others have noted, the 'grassy" flavors you are describing can only come after relatively extensive aging. We all know that aging happens much quicker at cellar/ambient temps than at serving temps.

So what you really should be asking yourself is what temp are you dry hopping at? If you are dry hopping at serving temps, it will take up to 2 months to get the same level of dry hop as it would for 1 week in a keg at room temp. Aging slows to a crawl at serving temps. If you're dry hopping in your keezer, just toss it in and don't worry about needing to remove it. If you're dry hopping at room temp, you may begin to notice the grassy flavors you speak of after a week or two.

 

[slick098]

I have 2 stainless tea balls on nylon fishing line. This big one will hold 2 to 4 oz. of hops suspended in bucket. Found on ebay.

 

[Madman_Joe]

As for the cork float idea, I have lost maybe a $600-700 batch of wine that tasted perfect to tainted corks. It did not matter that I tried to sanitize them--they were bad through and through. I ended up tossing all the remainder of the corks I have on hand, and that was a sin. For that reason alone, I wouldn't recommend natural corks. I would consider something like Supremecorq, however. If you want, I bet your LHBS has them in stock. Mine has them in a bin. Sterilization? Well, since the material is reportedly similar to those found in artificial hearts, it should be safe for beer.

I have used the mesh hop ball thing like so many others here have listed. 90% of the time it was fine. The only downside was once I held a party and it did end up clogging the damn tube. Its always when you're entertaining that you have the issues...

I like the magnet idea. Pretty clever you hombrew folks are, aren't you?

Best,

MMJ

 

[Mountainsax]

If the beer is already carbonated, be extremely careful putting anything into it! The hops, bag, strainer, etc. will create nucleation sites and could cause excessive foaming. Whatever method you use make sure you execute it smoothly and quickly.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

If the beer is already carbonated, be extremely careful putting anything into it! The hops, bag, strainer, etc. will create nucleation sites and could cause excessive foaming. Whatever method you use make sure you execute it smoothly and quickly.

I haven't dry hopped a carbed beer in the keg before so didn't think of this. Thanks for the advice. I guess I should get everything ready and be really quick!

 

[paperairplane]

I put the hops in a bag and just drop it in the keg. At serving temp, it's gonna be drank before any negative occurs.
I also think the grassy thing happens with noble / low AA hops far more than with C type hops. I've never had an issue with a long dry hop of big AA american hops.

 

[William656]

Morebeer sells these corny keg lids with welded tabs attached. Seems like that's another reasonable way to go.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/cornelius-keg-lid-welded-tab.html

Cheers!

 

[gferlin]

I put the hops in a muslin bag and tie a knot in it. As I'm putting the liquid dip tube in the keg, I thread the knot through the dip tube at mid level, then slide the dip tube the rest of the way in the keg. The knot holds the hop bag below the surface of the beer and as the beer empties, it holds it above the level of the beer before it is empty.

I do this to hop freshen a beer too. Maybe I've had it for three months and want to brighten it up. I open the keg and slide the hop bag on the same way. I can also open it later to pull the knot up to get the bag out of the liquid after enough steeping time.

I don't know if this is necessary, but I boil the muslin bag for sanitation before it gets the hop charge and goes in the keg.

 

[Oldskewl]

I have question regarding dry hopping in the keg. What pressure are you using when the keg is at room temp. I usually go ahead and apply 30 psi to set the seal and keep it there for a day or 2. Then I gradually lower to serving pressure to introduce to the kegerator by day 5.

 

[NathPowe]

who says you MUST pull it out in 5 days? Leave it in! You may like it.

That's what she said.

 

[MagicMatt]

I have question regarding dry hopping in the keg. What pressure are you using when the keg is at room temp. I usually go ahead and apply 30 psi to set the seal and keep it there for a day or 2. Then I gradually lower to serving pressure to introduce to the kegerator by day 5.

A day or two of 30 psi at room temp isn't going to achieve much in the way of carbing. It is the correct pressure for that temp (~75°F), but it takes about 3-4 weeks to carb properly at such a high temp. So just a couple of days really isn't doing much, and if you intend to put it in the keezer to carb anyway, save your CO2 and just keep positive pressure on it (5-10 psi).

Set the seal with 30 psi like you're already doing (and be sure to purge liberally), but then just crank it down as low as you want. The goal here is to dry hop, not necessarily carb it. And since carbing will happen much faster when you put it in the keezer, no need to worry about that aspect just yet.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

If the beer is already carbonated, be extremely careful putting anything into it! The hops, bag, strainer, etc. will create nucleation sites and could cause excessive foaming. Whatever method you use make sure you execute it smoothly and quickly.

Again thanks so much for this little tidbit, I hadn't thought of that and it was needed!

I ended up using a combination of techniques posted here. I used a SS hose clamp around the underside of the pressure relief valve to hold a bit of SS wire, tied that to a nylon mesh bag with a few SS washers in it to keep the hops suspended in the beer (all metal cleaned and sanitized of course).

I then took the lid off the keg, quickly inserted the dry-hop charge in one fluid motion and the beer started foaming like crazy, but I got the lid sealed before any foam came out the top of the keg. I tapped the keg this weekend 5 days later and it tasted good and had decent aroma but didn't seem to have the aroma I usually get with a 4 day dry hop at ~75F, my normal procedure. Either way it was a fun exercise.

 

[Ravio11i]

Remove the hop bag before the beer is gone?