OK, so my latest brew is going to require dry hopping. I was going to use a mesh bag as I have done in the past, but I hung the bag on my faucet in the garage without thinking about it and I am seeing what is possibly a bit of a dark spot on the bag where is was sitting on the faucet. So, in my search for other ways of doing things, I remember reading about hopping in the keg. I see there are tubes you can buy that will allow you to drop them into the keg or just drop a bag in it with the string attached to the lid so it can be pulled out. My initial question is, do you leave the bag or tube in the keg after you carbonate? Or do you pull the bag out and then go thru the carb process and prepare to drink? My thought is that the hop bag or tube must have to come out, or the flavor of the dry hop will turn bad and ruin the beer. But I thought I would post it just for the heck of it. Thoughts?
Also, my beer recipe says the fermenting process is 14 days total. I need to dry hop, and my plan was to wait until fermenting activity has slowed or stopped and add the whole cone hops in a bag for 4 or 5 days, pull and finish up the 14 days. Does this sound about right? Or should I wait the 14 days before doing the dry hops? Is there any advantage or disadvantage to either?
Thanks guys.
RR
Your ispindel will tell you when your fermentation is actually done. I use the 3 days at the same gravity rule of thumb with my Tilt and find that to be a great guideline for when I can keg. Most likely it will be done before 14 days. But, 14 days is a pretty good guess and there is definitely no harm in waiting longer.
Regarding dry hopping. First, you could hand wash and thoroughly rinse the dry hop bag that got stained. I am sure it would be fine.
I dry hop in the keg without removing the hops ever. I have a floating dip tube. I just dump the hops in. They drop to the bottom and stay there.
Regarding dry hopping in your fermenter, just wait until fermentation is complete or nearly complete and add the hop bag. If you time it right you can add it so that you never take the bag out. Just drain the beer off into the keg when it’s dry hopped the correct amount of time.
Denny dry hops 2-3 days at 35F. I’ve done that once and it is effective.
Other people dry hop when fermentation is nearing completion but not done. I have never tried that.
Others dry hop in the keg but remove the dry hops. That’s sounds close to Denny’s method above. I have never done that either.
So, there are a million ways to do it. I’m sure you’ll get lots of opinions.
Prost