How do YOU Dry Hop in a Keg?

How do dry hop in a keg? In other words, where do you tie a bag off, inside the keg, and still hold pressure?

I have a batch in the brewing pipeline that calls for coffee and cacao nibs.

ultravista said:

How do dry hop in a keg? In other words, where do you tie a bag off, inside the keg, and still hold pressure?

I have a batch in the brewing pipeline that calls for coffee and cacao nibs.

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I would almost think a nylon bag, with some marbles added would work best. That way those hops are right down there on the bottom, where the dip tube pulls from. I wouldn't worry about tying it at all.

I've never dry hopped in a keg though, just my thoughts.

I dry hop in 1gal nylon paint strainers in kegs. I use glass marbles to weigh down the strainer, especially needed for leaf hops. I usually use glide floss to tie the top of the strainer, and tie the other end to the keg handle on the outside. I aim for having the hop sack hang down about 1/3-1/2 way.

I'm beginning to think I don't need to worry about hanging the sack this way (i.e. not tie off to a keg handle). I have actually cut the floss on a couple bags before so they'd sink to the bottom and did not notice any vegetal or grassy flavors from doing this (both were IPAs that didn't last longer than 1.5 months).

Keep in mind that I've never needed or wanted to remove the hop sack before the keg was killed. If I wanted to remove the hop sack before I killed the keg then I would definitely tie off to a handle.

Overall, I think as long as you put the hops in a strainer bag to keep them from free floating around and clogging your dispensing system then you'll have success.

I use paint strainer bags and tie them off with floss through the opening to the handle. I use mostly leaf hops and do not weigh the bag down with anything.

I used to just throw the bag in without tying it to anything, then one time I had part of a bag get sucked into the dip tube (pellet hops that time). Keg poured nothing but foam then nothing at all. I had to open the keg and fish the bag out with a spoon.

RoundKid said:

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I used to just throw the bag in without tying it to anything, then one time I had part of a bag get sucked into the dip tube (pellet hops that time). Keg poured nothing but foam then nothing at all. I had to open the keg and fish the bag out with a spoon.

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Very good to know. I can see how a strainer with pellets might be more prone to clogging the diptube. I think I'll keep with the floss method for now

I used a paint strainer bag for pellet hops, tied a knot in the bag then tied the bag with fishing line to the underside of the lid on the gas vent. After a week, I opened the lid and pulled the bag out. I tried trying the fishing line to the outside lid hadle, but I had a very small leak in the seal where the fishing line came through the seal even after sealing the keg lid with CO2. That's why I ultimately tied the fishing line to the vent. I am carbing the keg now, so we will see how 1 week of dry hopping worked out.

Fill 1 gal. paint strainer bag with hops. Tie knot in top of bag. Drop bag in bottom of sanitized keg. Rack beer onto hops. Close keg and apply appropriate pressure. Wait applicable amount of time for carbonation. Consume. Clean and sanitize now empty keg. Dump out old hops, rinse bag, soak bag in sanitizer. Repeat all previous steps. This has worked very well for about 6 batches now (just kegged a Green Flash IPA clone last night and dry hopping with Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe and Columbus). Does take a bit longer to get the full effect of the dry hopping as the keg is at serving temp.

I just sanitize a muslin bag, fill with hops and throw it into the key after racking beer. No weights, no marbles, nothing. If I ever clog a diptube I may reconsider. So far, so good.

For whole leaf hops, I either use a hops bag or a "tea ball". A large teaball strainer holds 1/2 hops of whole hops. For pellet hops, I have to use a fine mesh hops bag, otherwise the diptube gets clogged with debris.

I don't tie it or anything- I just put it in and then rack the beer into it. I don't take them out, as they stay in there for the life of the keg.

Yooper said:

For whole leaf hops, I either use a hops bag or a "tea ball". A large teaball strainer holds 1/2 hops of whole hops. For pellet hops, I have to use a fine mesh hops bag, otherwise the diptube gets clogged with debris.

I don't tie it or anything- I just put it in and then rack the beer into it. I don't take them out, as they stay in there for the life of the keg.

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Right on, Yooper posting helpful info as always!

Yeah, I never bothered tying it to anything, just filled a bag with whole hops and dropped it in. I did tend to get a little more hop debris towards the end of the keg and had to clean out the poppit once or twice, but never had any trouble with grassy flavors. The next time I do it, I've heard about people using a stainless scrubby on the dip tube to prevent hop debris from clogging up, or I think someone (Austin maybe?) had a diptube sheath to protect it. I don't think it would probably work to keep pellet hops out, but for the handful that I got with my leaf hops it might be nice.

I welded a little hook to the inside of my lids. I pull them at 7 days (I don'd kick kegs fast enough to justify leaving it in the entire time).