[spowlison]

I've got a beer in my Corny keg, and it's ready to go. I dry hopped it in the keg, but despite my best efforts (putting the hops in a hop bag and tying it up), I am still getting epic hop particles clogging my "out" tube. I've taken the keg apart a few times, being careful to sanitize it along the way, unclogged it and tried it again, but each time it re-clogs quickly. Seems like something went awry with the hop bag. Any fixes you can think of to save this batch of beer?

[tom]

Is it just hop particles or do you think the bag might be clogging the diptube?
If it's the bag you can tie it with dental floss and hang it from the lid.
If it is just hop particles you can put another hop bag around the hop bag or the diptube opening and transfer to another keg.

[spowlison]

I can't really tell, but I believe it's the hop particles. I am afraid the bag came open or something like that. I did put a ping pong ball in the hop bag in the hopes that it would keep it away from the tube at the bottom. So are you suggesting putting another hop bag around the end of the dip tube to filter it? That seems sketchy but maybe there is a sneaky way to do this?

[dhacker]

Put a scrubby on the end of yer pickup tube . . problem solved. 

[spowlison]

Put a scrubby on the end of yer pickup tube . . problem solved. 

Umm... can you translate? What is a scrubby and where can I find it?

Thanks!

[dhacker]

A plastic (or stainless if you prefer) pot scrubber . . for cleaning dishes, etc.

Available anywhere housewares are sold.

[tschmidlin]

Stick with the plastic ones, I used a "stainless" one once and it corroded and made the beer taste awful.  I'm guessing the low pH of the beer is a bit much for the low grade stainless they use to make them.

[spowlison]

Gotcha... thanks for the help. Final question: how does this baby get attached to the end of the tube? Do you just open the top, hold the scrubby in there and poke the bottom of the tube into the mesh after it's been fed through the top of the keg?

[euge]

Sounds good.

[dhacker]

Yep . . that's all there is to it!

@ Tom . . Yeah, good point . . not all stainless scrubbers are created equal. I got some years ago from BBB and they are fine, but the ones from Dollar General . . probably not so much.

[hoser]

Surescreens work better and are made of better stainless steel than a scrubby.  They also fit over the end of your out tube.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/surescreen.html

A tincture of time and patience will also work.  Keeping the keg cold and stationary will allow the debris to eventually fall out.  The first few pints may be a little "dirty," but eventually it clears up.  Adding a little gelatin can speed up the process.

[tschmidlin]

Yep . . that's all there is to it!

@ Tom . . Yeah, good point . . not all stainless scrubbers are created equal. I got some years ago from BBB and they are fine, but the ones from Dollar General . . probably not so much.

True, there are probably better quality stainless scrubbies than the ones I got.

[James Lorden]

Sure screen says that pellets will clog it. I generally dry hop with pellets.  Any experience that you could share?  I have had this same problem when filtering an IPA, very annoying. 

[dhacker]

No experience, but the design of the Sure Screen looks (to me) to be indicative of quick clog when used on a pickup tube. There's no meaningful surface area where the beer enters the tube which is gonna pull all debris to that small pickup zone. As the bottom of the screen clogs, the beer will attempt to enter higher and higher up the screen. Seems like you could end up with 5 or 6 inches (the length of the Sure Screen) of beer in the keg as the intake has to works its way progressively up the screen.

[tubercle]

The Tubercle fixes the hop bag to the dip tube with a tyrap about half way down.

 You are using whole leaf hops, ain't ya?