Solid stopper in carboy for dry hop

[GCPHomebrew]

My most recent brew I dry hopped on day 14, and after the airlock bubbled for about 5 minutes I replaced it with a solid bung. My thinking about this is that CO2 can be released but not created from the hops. This would not pressurize the carboy more than it could easily handle or already was with 0 airlock activity. Thoughts? And don't mention exploding carboy myth unless you had it happen or have hooked one up to an air compressor myth busters style. It gave me and amazing aroma. The CO2 can't bubble away any aroma!

 

[Paps]

If pressure built up i'm sure the bung would get shot out before the glass gave way. That being said though, the glass isn't intended /made for pressure and it could potentially weaken or stress crack it which could cause it to break/shatter in your hands while you clean it later on down the road. CO2 is still being created as you stated you still had active airlock bubbling. Sure, you might be `saving hop aroma` inside the carboy but when you go to rack it that will be lostr anyways. If your goal is to go "Wow, nice hop aroma." on racking day then i'm sure you will achieve it. But at the risk of weakening your carboy which potentially could lead to a hospital visit. As for the beer, it will be fine.

 

[jwelch1103]

I've only dry hopped a handfull of times but on every one I had what I considered a "secondary fermentation" after dry hopping!
I don't know if that is the right term for it but the beer developed a small krausen on top of the (initially) floating hops.

 

[flars]

A change in air pressure could pop the bung out. This would leave your carboy unprotected until you noticed the missing bung.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

It is unlikely that there is a renewed fermentation, I would venture to guess that the CO2 you saw coming out is a function of adding the dry hops. By adding solid materials to the fermenter, you are essentially creating a ton of nucleation points for the already dissolved CO2 (left over from active fermentation) to come out of solution. The only thing I would personally worry about is a slight positive pressure building in the carboy that could possibly push out the solid stopper. If that happens, your beer will be subject to contamination from anything that may happen to find it's way into the carboy before you discover the situation and replace the stopper.

 

[GCPHomebrew]

The bung was difficult to remove. But on its removal it did make a sound releasing pressure. I am assuming that the aroma is in the solution not just there is a gaseous form, so the pressure would not lose the aroma.

 

[Brewernaut51]

I think Brad's post is spot on. Any bubbling after adding dry hops is most likely CO2 getting released by adding nucleation points. It's very doubtful the hops started any new fermentation and as long as the beer's close to your FG you're probably OK with the solid stopper.

 

[GCPHomebrew]

Just did this for the second time. I put the airlock on after dry hopping for the first 2-3 hours the first time. With lots of airlock activity I plugged it and taped it. This time (2nd time)I just plugged it and taped it. The airlock for a few hours to release some co2 is needed. The bung almost came out on day 3. I retakes it just in time. The beer is has so must
More hop taste. After pulling the bung I co2 the carboy and put on my racking cane. I use co2 to push the beer into a purged keg.

 

[MagicMatt]

I use a BetterBottle DryTap when I'm cold crashing to stop oxygen (or sanitizer) from being drawn into the carboy, while still allowing positive pressure to release (should there be any). After one time where almost 1/4 gallon of starsan siphoned into the carboy, I said no more.

When cold crashing, the carboy will obviously develop a negative pressure, and there is a noticeable "whoosh" of air rushing in when removing it, but it's better than having that air in the carboy the entire time.