Keg Hopping

[ajmuzza]

So I kegged my first AG on the weekend and am pleasantly surprised (thanks again for the encouragement). A little bit sweet which could be a function of the rye and the fact that whilst the FG was stable, I'm not sure that fermentation fully attenuated (didn't reach forecast FG per Brewmate).

Rather than dry hopping in the primary, I thought I would short cut it and keg hop (with 1g/l of each of Simcoe and Cascase which I'd also used as late additions).

Day one, beer was slightly armotic and the bitterness was about what i was expecting. Day 2, no aromatics and more bitter. I've read that dry hopping doesn't add IBUs (no isomerization) but will give percevied bitterness. I've keg hopped in a bag that can be retrieved from the keg.

Questions:

1. How long should I leave the bag?
2. Will the bitterness mellow?

 

[manticle]

If I were dry hopping, I'd be looking at 2-3 days maximum, preferably in the cold.

Yes the bitterness should mellow/integrate.

 

[slash22000]

There isn't really an official "maximum" dry hopping time. Some people dry hop for two weeks, some people dry hop for two days. I've done both and I've never really noticed much difference, I think I'm just not very sensitive to the "grassy" compounds people abhor over extended dry hops but some people can't stand it.

Personally when I dry hop a keg I leave it at ~20ºC in my fermentation freezer for 3 - 4 days, then I just leave it in the keg throughout chilling/carbonating. I tie the bag off so after I'd consumed the top fifth of the keg or so the hops are no longer making contact with the beer. I got the idea for a brief "warm" dry hop followed by a long "cold" dry hop from Stone Brewing who apparently use this method on a commercial scale with their beers. It's worked out pretty well so far.

I'm experimenting with a few other ideas at the moment though. I recently listened to a dry hopping podcast hosted by some pretty cluey blokes, they talked a lot about things that I hadn't really considered, like how venting a keg blasts your aroma right out of the beer, and that the hops in the middle of a dry hopping bag don't come into contact with the wort properly. They were talking about professional breweries using constant motion to keep the beer in maximum contact with the dry hops, or using CO2 to blast the hops off the bottom and through the beer at certain intervals.

I'm thinking of making up some kind of ... hop ... "sausage". Instead of putting all my dry hops in one big lump in the bag and throwing it in the keg, tying off small amounts (maybe 10 grams each?) into their own little mini-bags and suspending them individually, trying to maximise the amount of hops physically in contact with the beer at any given time. Maybe I'm just crazy.

 

[lukiferj]

I keg hop all my pale ales and IPAs. Hop sock tied with dental floss towards the top part of the keg, similar to slash. I have had hops that would have been in contact with beer for up to a month and I have never had an issue with grassiness. I think some hops may be more prone to this than others. I too have noticed that if I force carb a keg rather than serving pressure carb it, that the dry hoppiness is slightly muted. Not overly but can definitely notice the difference.

 

[slash22000]

I've stopped venting my kegs for any reason if I can help it. I've found that if I drop my kegerator to ~1ºC, it only takes 6 - 7 days to adequately carbonate a keg at serving pressure. I'm willing to wait a few extra days rather than lose half my hop aroma out the pressure valve for the sake of faster carbonation.

 

[lukiferj]

Same. Happy to wait a few extra days for the extra hit

 

[Topher]

Anyone else had a hop stocking break open?

Got a lovely pale that had dropped totally clear, even with the hop bag in.

Yesterday things went wrong, things got frothy while I was bottling a few, then I could see the gunk through the beer lines. Poured a glass and it is GREEN.

Is there a solution here? Super cold Crash and siphon off to a new keg? Or will that be a frothy disaster?

Maybe I have to learn to love my chewy green pale ale.

 

[Yob]

Odds are the dip tube or post will block, can you lay your hands on a shorter dip tube?

 

[Topher]

Nope. Might try siphon.

I'm a bit sad about this.

 

[Yob]

Do you have a spare keg to siphon off to?

 

[Topher]

Yep, in that case I suppose if I can work out how to change dip tubes I could shorten one fron a spare. Are they interchangeable?

 

[Danwood]

I keg hopped once with pellets and a hop sock...never again. I got heaps of fine particles still getting through. I would have thought the bag had broken, but it hadn't.
A finer meshed bag might help somewhat.

Only hop flowers for me from now on.

 

[Yob]

Should be interchangeable

 

[Topher]

I use a stocking, never Had a problem before. Clear, tasty beer.

 

[dannymars]

Keg hopped an APA last month with 50g of Motueka flowers... Soooo delish.
Best thing was that over the two days I was drinking it, it was getting slightly hoppier by the hour.
Even squeezed the hop bag into the last few glasses..... Wowsers

 

[Wall]

How do you retrieve the stocking or hop sock once the keg gets low?
Just blocked the dip tube on my steam ale because the stocking full of cascade couldn't float high enough anymore (was worried it wouldn't work but thought I'd suck it and see)
Didn't really matter because there was only a few pints left, just pulled the stocking and drained the keg that night with a mate.
Would be nice to know where you tie the dental floss off on a corny keg to avoid a repeat.
Don't have an empty keg at the moment to look at the inside of the lid.

 

[Blind Dog]

Tie it off anywhere. Most of mine have handles, all of them have posts or tie it to a weight of some kind outside the keg.

 

[CoxR]

Floss to the outside . It won't bother the seal.

 

[Topher]

Good news...... sort of. Turns out my bag didn't break, the keg was mostly
frozen. And that could have caused the blockage and particles I guess. Stayed weird and tasted grassy and had lots of green **** till the end though.

Second keg of this batch was not keg hopped, but the beer post was leaky. So after I hooked the gas up to carb up, all the beer got pushed out overnight.

Cursed batch. Must have had some bad karma due.

 

[Yob]

I don't usually tie mine off at all, friction of the lid on the floss keeps it from dropping, too easy.