Please proofread my (low oxygen) plans

[whovous]

I recently returned to brewing after a three year layoff, and I feel like my process grasp is not as firm as I would like it to be. Please offer your thoughts on what I have right and what I might be about to do wrong.

BACKGROUND
I am making a "modern" West Coast IPA - a very pale malt bill, restrained bittering, and a fairly large dry hop charge. I brewed last Saturday, oxygenated heavily, and pitched a packet of Imperial Flagship yeast (i.e., Chico) into three gallons of roughly 1.050 yeast in a five gallon keg. I sealed the keg and set the spunding valve at 5psi. FC temp is held at about 66F. By Tuesday, bubbling in the SpundIt had declined substantially, plus I had to leave town for a week. I turned the pressure up to 20psi.

GOALS - I need to dry hop with about three ounces of Cryo Hops (roughly equal to six ounces of T-90 hops), cold crash and serve by a week from this Friday, or 13 days from original brew date. I cannot do anything until I get home next Tuesday. I am pretty confident fermentation will be complete by that time.

NOTE: Both kegs discussed here have floating dip tubes.

QUESTIONS:
1) Should I pop the lid on the current keg, toss in the hops and seal it back up?, or,
2) Should I put the hops into a three gallon keg, and then do several pressurize/de-pressurize cycles (query - how many cycles are needed if I go this route?) to get most of the O2 out of the second keg, and then do a pressurized transfer from the first to the second keg?, or,
3) is there any way I can add the hops and water to fill the third keg, and then force the water out with CO2? This seems like it would leave behind the least amount of oxygen, but it would also leave me with a bunch of waterlogged hops when I transfer my beer to the second keg. This seems like a bad idea. Am I right?
4) Whichever of these three routes I choose, how should I contain the hops? Should I just drop them in the bottom of keg #2? Should I put them in a weighted mesh bag? O should I put them in a weighted metal mesh tube? The tube is pretty large. Is it likely to interfere with my floating dip tube's ability to follow the beer as keg level's decline?
and,
5) My inclination is to add the hops in a weighted mesh bag and run multiple pressure cycles. Regardless of which route I choose, is there any reason I cannot cold crash just as soon as finish adding the dry hops? Reminder, I need to be able to serve this beer on the evening of 25 August. Also, while I realize a major point of pressurized fermenting is to avoid forced carbonation, should I plan on hooking up the CO2 cannister anyway? I don't want to wait for the last day to learn that my pressure schedule produced an under-carbonated beer.

All advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[madscientist451]

Don’t have any experience using the above methods, but it sure looks like a fine time to experiment! Divide your dry hops in half and use the first half using the above water displacement method, then pop open your fermenter keg and toss the rest of the dry hops in there. Serve both to your guests and see which one is preferred.

 

[AlexKay]

(2) — put the hops in the second keg, clear as much O2 as you can, and then transfer into that keg.

Throw the hops in loose, and trust the floating dip tube (double plus if it’s a FlotIt) to keep them clear of the beer.

No troubles chilling immediately after adding the beer to the hops. I do find it takes 2-3 days to develop maximum aroma.

Since you’re serving quickly, a little bit of oxygen won’t be the end of the world.

For next time, add the hops to the second keg, then jumper the first keg to the second (gas in to gas out) and let the CO2 from fermentation purge the second keg for you. It’ll do a better job than you’ll ever do with pressurize/purge cycles.

 

[Bassman2003]

Yes, I agree with Alex. This was a quick brew but next time you can plan ahead a bit and get your process down. I would cold crash after fermentation is complete then transfer off the yeast into the 2nd keg. Since it is a dry hop, sanitizer purging is out, but next time, fermentation gas purging with the hops already in the keg will be the ticket. If you have two kegs open you could daisy chain the purge, use one for the dry hop then transfer into the 2nd for hop free serving. That is a hidden beauty of pressure fermentation and transfers, they are closed so you can do multiples and get away with it.

I have been using magnets in the fermenter to drop the hops but a 2nd keg to pass through for 2-5 days would be quite easy.

 

[whovous]

Thanks all. I will add loose hops to the second keg, clear the O2, and do a pressurized transfer from the first keg.

Any advice on doing the transfer? This will be my first try, and while I have no doubt that it works, deep in my heart of hearts I feel like there simply has to be a little voodoo involved. Then again, I travel a lot and am certain that the day will come when the pilot announces that man cannot fly, and that flight has always been the greatest hoax of the past 100+ years.

 

[Bassman2003]

I use the simple gravity approach. Equalize the pressure between the fermenter and keg, lower the pressure a bit in the keg and if the fermenter is higher than the keg, the flow will begin and be slow which keeps the CO2 in solution. I also do a closed loop which routes the gas out of the keg back into the fermenter.

 

[jerrylotto]

+1 to the closed loop gravity assist method. If you connect liquid to liquid and elevate the full keg, bleed some pressure from the empty one to start the transfer and then connect gas to gas to equalize the pressure. The siphon should empty the upper keg.