Adding Hops To Your Kegs

[devo]

On a spur of the moment whim I decide to chuck in a small amount (5gms?) of cascade hops into one of my APA kegs. About a month n a bit has passed and I finally tapped this keg, which dished out a little surprise explosion of hop debris into my glass.

Its the first beer Ive ever made that requires a tooth pic. <_<

Seeing that this was the first glass poured from this keg Im hoping that is not going to be the case for the rest of em. Talk about taking one for the team.

BTW it tastes great just a little more texture than Im used to. :huh:

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anyone else tried doing this when kegging???

 

[als_world]

I tried keg hopping once, and once was enough for me.....

 

[Trough Lolly]

Ah the joys of keg hopping with pellets!
If you don't mind the extra fibre, carry on...but if you prefer a bit less livestock in the beer, perhaps you might want to dry hop with whole flowers or plugs in a muslin bag that's tied to the top of the beer out dip tube - you get the flavours but less of the fibres!

Cheers,
TL

 

[mikem108]

I use a small stainless steel mesh ball that is originally sold for tea, whack a hop plug or two in there and away you go , no floaties

 

[mikem108]

Like these things

 

[Bazza]

I got my mother in law to sew up a few small nylon mesh bags (about 10cm x 12cm) with a zipper for easy opening etc. These hold a plug (or two) which go in the keg and it doesn't leach bits. Not sure what you'd do without someone who can sew....
The results have been pretty good so far - just make sure the beer can take the extra hopping.
Bazza

 

[mje1980]

Definately put them in a "sock" or something. I blocked up a keg once, and it was a pain in the arse. I had to unscrew the dip tube, and clean it out after every 2 or 3 beers. I now use a hop bag, works great!

 

[devo]

Thanks fella's. In any other situation a would have taken the step to put my hops in bag but I'd been sampling a little to much of my own product and kinda piffed caution to the wind.

 

[sah]

How do pellets in a bag in the keg go? How fine does the material need to be?

thanks
Scott

 

[Thirsty Boy]

How do pellets in a bag in the keg go? How fine does the material need to be?

thanks
Scott

I really hope that the voile material that you use for BIAB is fine enough... I made a hop bag out of that stuff and yesterday I dry hopped in my keg with a mixture of whole flowers and pellets.. so if its not fine enough, I'm gonna get chunks.

Mind you, the stuff was fine enough to filter hop pellet trub from the kettle on my last brew, so I cant see why it wouldn't be OK.

Fingers crossed

Thirsty

 

[devo]

I'd have to say that even though I had bits of hop pellet in my pour it did end up settling down eventually and produce a superbly aromatic and flavoursome brew.

I will try again with some kind of hop bag/bulb etc.

 

[sah]

Well this morning I dug out a nylon mesh bag that I used to use for steeping grain. I put 20g of E.K. Goldings pellets in it. Tied a knot in the top. Tied a length of dental floss around the top of the bag and slipped it into the keg. I left some of the dental floss out of the keg so I can easily pull the bag out. There was no problems sealing the keg again.

This evening I've had a few samples and it's working already. There is no change to the clarity. The aroma and flavour from the dry hopping is evident already and it tastes great. I'm very impressed. I'll be doing this again.

Thanks for the information.

Scott