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Author Topic: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?  (Read 16455 times)

Offline brewinhard

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #45 on: November 01, 2017, 12:39:06 pm »
I foresee two potential issues:

1. Your hops would be sitting at fermentation temperature for a couple weeks. Not ideal but maybe not a deal-breaker.

2. A slow trickle of CO2 leaves plenty of time for diffusion to homogenize the gases in the receiving keg. Fermentation produces ~20 vol CO2, so if the keg started out full of air (~20% O2), the end result, at least theoretically, would be a keg with ~1% O2 content.

damn

You may have better luck fully purging the keg with sanitzer first by fully filling, then pushing it out. Then pop the bail and add your dry hops.
Then you could attach your line from your fermenter to purge out any introduced O2 from adding the dry hops. May get you a bit closer to lower levels desired.

I have had good luck with spunding in the keg on top of the dry hops with residual extract remaining. The active yeast mop up any available O2 pretty quickly and leave you with that fresh dry hopped nose. Just a thought...

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #46 on: November 01, 2017, 12:45:58 pm »

I have had good luck with spunding in the keg on top of the dry hops with residual extract remaining. The active yeast mop up any available O2 pretty quickly and leave you with that fresh dry hopped nose. Just a thought...


Yep, I'm pretty happy with the final product using this approach.
Jon H.

Offline narcout

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #47 on: November 01, 2017, 12:58:10 pm »

I have had good luck with spunding in the keg on top of the dry hops with residual extract remaining. The active yeast mop up any available O2 pretty quickly and leave you with that fresh dry hopped nose. Just a thought...


Yep, I'm pretty happy with the final product using this approach.

I just tried it for the first time this week (not spunding but adding dry hops to the primary while fermentation was still active, though winding down).

I added them on day 4.  I was hoping to keg on day 8, but I was busy and didn't get around to it.  I'm hoping to get it kegged up tomorrow night (day 12).
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Offline trapae

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #48 on: November 01, 2017, 01:50:40 pm »
Denny,  how do you like the results of dry hopping with cryo-hops, and are you using half your normal amount of pellet hops for it?
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Offline denny

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #49 on: November 01, 2017, 01:54:21 pm »
Denny,  how do you like the results of dry hopping with cryo-hops, and are you using half your normal amount of pellet hops for it?

I like it a lot and I use about the same amount as I would with regular pellets.
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Offline Hooper

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #50 on: November 03, 2017, 08:00:10 pm »
Decided to dry hop the keg (1st time I've tried this). 1st few beers after dropping the hops in were a tad hazy...then the CO2 tank went flat. The HBS here in Denver said to go to the Hydroponics store to get CO2. Wow...there's more pot growing stores here than beer brewing stores...great $10 exchange at the Hydro store down the street...the beer is running clear and hoppy...
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Offline Kutaka

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #51 on: November 05, 2017, 02:21:18 pm »
A question for the people who sink the hop bag to the bottom of the keg.  I have done this several times and the result is the first 3-4 pints are super hoppy.  Then suddenly the rest of the keg isn't super hoppy even on the same day.  So I switched to free floating bags that eventually sink.  The result is hop aroma is more homogeneous throughout the entire keg. 

I guess my question is how can you sink the hops from the beginning and not experience the same thing I have? 

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #52 on: November 05, 2017, 02:47:40 pm »
To be clear, the reason I sink the bag now is to keep it away from the Clear Beer float which draws from the top.
Jon H.

Offline Kutaka

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #53 on: November 05, 2017, 02:52:06 pm »
That makes sense.

Offline chrisv

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #54 on: August 24, 2018, 05:16:03 am »

You may have better luck fully purging the keg with sanitzer first by fully filling, then pushing it out. Then pop the bail and add your dry hops.
Then you could attach your line from your fermenter to purge out any introduced O2 from adding the dry hops. May get you a bit closer to lower levels desired.

I’m about to try this method but one thing that worries me is that there will still be sanitizer left at the bottom of the keg that the hops would be in contact with for a few days while the fermenter is connected to the keg. Is that a cause for concern?

Offline goose

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #55 on: August 24, 2018, 06:40:20 am »

You may have better luck fully purging the keg with sanitzer first by fully filling, then pushing it out. Then pop the bail and add your dry hops.
Then you could attach your line from your fermenter to purge out any introduced O2 from adding the dry hops. May get you a bit closer to lower levels desired.

I’m about to try this method but one thing that worries me is that there will still be sanitizer left at the bottom of the keg that the hops would be in contact with for a few days while the fermenter is connected to the keg. Is that a cause for concern?

I always use this method and once the sanitizer if out of the keg, I rock the keg back and forth vigorously to shoot any sanitizer left in the bottom out through the beer dip tube.  I gets 99.9% of the sanitizer out of the keg.  The 0.1% that is left is not going to effect the taste of the beer.
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Offline Robert

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #56 on: August 24, 2018, 07:02:54 am »
I use a method I learned here on the forum.  My gas dip tubes are cut so they are flush with the inside surcace of the keg, or actually recessed a bit.  Blow all the sanitizer you can out the liquid side, then pressurize and invert the keg and let the remainder drain to the to the top for a minute.  With the gas post positioned to be the very lowest point,  pop on a gas QD and blow every last drop of sanitizer out!  (Especially helpful if you've trimmed your liquid tubes to avoid picking up sediment.)
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Offline hmbrewing

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #57 on: August 24, 2018, 11:35:53 am »
All right. That's it! I have my pale ale fermenting out right now that I normally dry hop for 3 - 4 days before I keg. But there's been enough positive feedback on this thread to give me the confidence to add the dry hops straight to my serving keg without worry! Once kegged, it normally doesn't last me longer than 3 months but I've always been bummed out when the dry hop aroma dies out completely around the 4 week mark. So next week - straight into the serve keg for the dry hops!
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Offline chrisv

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #58 on: August 26, 2018, 07:31:09 am »
I use a method I learned here on the forum.  My gas dip tubes are cut so they are flush with the inside surcace of the keg, or actually recessed a bit.  Blow all the sanitizer you can out the liquid side, then pressurize and invert the keg and let the remainder drain to the to the top for a minute.  With the gas post positioned to be the very lowest point,  pop on a gas QD and blow every last drop of sanitizer out!  (Especially helpful if you've trimmed your liquid tubes to avoid picking up sediment.)

That’s brilliant - thanks!

Offline Robert

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Re: Dry hopping in the keg questions ?
« Reply #59 on: August 26, 2018, 08:05:31 am »
I use a method I learned here on the forum.  My gas dip tubes are cut so they are flush with the inside surcace of the keg, or actually recessed a bit.  Blow all the sanitizer you can out the liquid side, then pressurize and invert the keg and let the remainder drain to the to the top for a minute.  With the gas post positioned to be the very lowest point,  pop on a gas QD and blow every last drop of sanitizer out!  (Especially helpful if you've trimmed your liquid tubes to avoid picking up sediment.)

That’s brilliant - thanks!
Yeah it is brilliant, and so "why-didnt-I-think-of-that?"  If I knew who originated it, I'd thank them profusely.
Rob Stein
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