How Do I Sanitise When Dry Hopping Into A Keg For 7 Days?

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evildrakey

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How do I sanitise when Dry Hopping into a keg for 7 Days?

I've got a love golden ale I want to dry hop... It's not a technique I'm familiar with, whats the best way to sanitise the hops (fresh flowers in a nylon hop bag) before adding to the keg???
 
Just add them in. Being under pressure with CO2 and with alcohol etc, they'll be fine just added in and pulled out later.

Maybe a little spray of starsan on the hopsock...
 
You don't need to sanitise hops. They are antiseptic.

Soak your hop bag in starsan for a few minutes, pop the hops in and close the bag (clean hands).

Wait a few minutes for the residual starsan on the bag to nuke any bugs transfered to it by your hands.

Pop it in with some sanatised tongs.

It's also a good idea to tie it to the outside of your keg with some plain dental floss, so you can whip it out if the beer starts to get grassy. Best practice is to remove it when the beer tastes how you want - no point leaving it in there after that.

Another cunning way (if you know the rough rate you drink at) is to tie your hop bag just high enough that it stays in the beer until the keg is 2/3 or 3/4 full and the hop bag ends up hanging in the space above the beer. It's a no-fuss way of dry hopping for only long enough that good flavours get in the beer, but none of the vegetal flavours ... without having to open the keg again.
 
Just add them in. Being under pressure with CO2 and with alcohol etc, they'll be fine just added in and pulled out later.


So just sterilse the hop bag and I'm golden... yeah, I'm cool with that...
I did do a search - seems dry hopping doesn't find what you need but keg hopping does...

Either that or I'm tired from looking at too many coal trains today...
 
I'm going to try out a dip tube screen I got from one of the retailers off here after Christmas so shouldn't need a sock just turfing them in.
 
evildrakey,
Make sure you heed the warnings about removing them. I chucked them in loose (so couldnt remove even if I wanted to) and it really ruined the beer. It tasted like grass so strongly that I had to tip what was a fairly good beer. I thought I would trick it up for some extra hit. Wrong.

I think 7 days will be too much. It could be hop dependent though.

Search for 'which hops are best for keg hopping' - something like that. There are many experiences. I just dont bother anymore. If i really want a late hop hit, I use the french press method. Again, search for that.

Where there's a will....... theres a relative.
 
Ok that does it, I'll do an overnight mash with a vac sealed rib fillet "sous vide" style.

Maybe.

Dry hopping depends very much on the variety - I find that Styrians, Bobek and Aurora are great, as well as UK and NZ Goldings and of course Cascade of any description.

However some hops such as Fuggles (despite the fact that Styrians came from them) or Hallertau give pure lawn clippings.
 
Ok that does it, I'll do an overnight mash with a vac sealed rib fillet "sous vide" style.

Maybe.

Dry hopping depends very much on the variety - I find that Styrians, Bobek and Aurora are great, as well as UK and NZ Goldings and of course Cascade of any description.

However some hops such as Fuggles (despite the fact that Styrians came from them) or Hallertau give pure lawn clippings.

The subset of dry-hoppable hops is much smaller than the set of hops.

Dry hop with fingers crossed!

I have also chucked a keg before because I thought it would be a good idea to "beef up the aroma".
 
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