Ghetto Dry hopping mixer / torpedo / something

[Nodrog]

Possibly one for the more hop addicted of us......

Was reading the slides from the Aussie craft conference and saw that 48 hours dry hopping may be sufficient, but also that some kind of agitation / mixing greatly helps get some extra hoppy goodness going on.

Sounds as if there's some improvements available from just bunging in 2g per litre, beyond the obvious upgrade to 4g per litre.

So have been thinking about something ghetto like that could achieve the same. An 'external' torpedo could be good, but needs a pump and the torpedo itself, so what about something internal? Was thinking of something like a French press, but immersed in the fermenter, with a flapper valve top and bottom. 'Pumping' up and down would force the beer through the captive hops inside the 'press', and if fully immersed would have no oxygen exposure. Not sure if a sketch is needed? Or maybe a large mesh container with a gentle stirring paddle inside. Eventually this would evolve into something that would be thrown in on day 7 ish and left to run for 2-3 days before or during cc.

Obvious requirements:
Easily cleaned
Ideally use pellets not whole flowers as more varieties available for me that way. Flowers would mean that any screen can be a lot coarser though.
Can be put into the FV with minimum air/ oxygen being brought in with it. Believe pellets have advantage here, dried flowers full of air.
Some way of mixing/ stirring / agitating with the lid still on the FV, so a vertical drive shaft that can come up through small hole in top FV.
Eventually have this motorized, but for trials am happy to spend a few minutes a few times a day giving it a stir to see if it works.

So has anyone tried anything / seen similar contraptions? Will let you know how this gets on, but figured first stage was seeing if anyone had tried it before?

( I bottle, so keg hopping unfortunately not on the cards, yet)

 

[Nick JD]

I honestly can't understand why no one sells a little say, 200ml capacity clear plastic torpedo that simply connects to your beer-out line on your kegs.

You shut the line on each side, remove the torpedo, fill it with a few grams of hops, thread it back on and pour.

Would not affect your beer if left empty. Would be easy to empty when the hops got stale/flavourless.

Could easily be drinking 3 differently dried hopped beers from one keg in one night.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Coincidence - I found on the weekend a device they use in the US called the Hopback Randall or something of the like, its used for hopping beers just before it is served. You can buy them or make them from 2 x water filters and the lines.

You can google the websites and videos that show them in action.

 

[Bizier]

They are different things. SN's 'hop torpedo' is used to continually move finished beer through the whole cone dry hops, seeing as the beer is crystal clear, I am assuming this is before filtration. The randall on the other hand is in-line on a draught serving line, and there are a million ways to do this.

Re: OP, on a homebrew scale, perhaps it is as easy as having hops in a large bag and attaching it to a wire or similar at the top, which enables you to move the bag a bit, or to put the fermenter on a lazy suzan and just rotate the whole shebang.

 

[QldKev]

Aldi randal