Keg Hopping

[dordelli]

I dry hopped my latest batch of Zombie Dust Clone in the keg using one of Arbor Fabs 300 micron keg hopping filters. After 24 hours the flavor was absolutely amazing, very similar to a Sculpin IPA. Then another day later, that amazing flavor almost completely dissipated. I would love to find a way to get that hop flavor to last for my entire 5 gallon keg or much longer then just a couple days.

My recipe was the very popular Zombie dust clone, 10 gallon batch with 3 lbs of rye. 4 weeks primary, then straight to keg where I chilled and force carbed then keg hopped and served. The keg hop was 2oz of citra pellets.

I allowed the filter to drop to the bottom of the keg, so maybe I should suspend it? Or should I gently rock the keg to distribute the hops? Should I add more dry hops or dry hop in the fermenter as well as the keg? Or is water profile to blame, I don't do any water treatments except some ph5.2? Could I achieve better results keg hopping before chilling and carbing?

 

[nygel74]

im interested in this as well. This recipe is coming up on my list. I have made a two hearts clone and hopped in the keg and it was amazing all the way through. Was my understanding that dry hopping is much slowing in cold beer on gas then when its done in secondary.

 

[dbillingsby]

I've been doing research on this as well. Here is a thread with some good info in it. I have a keg showing up tomorrow and plan on dry hopping in it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=574139

 

[dordelli]

im interested in this as well. This recipe is coming up on my list. I have made a two hearts clone and hopped in the keg and it was amazing all the way through. Was my understanding that dry hopping is much slowing in cold beer on gas then when its done in secondary.

Yes this is what I had read as well, so was pleasantly surprised that after only one day of keg hopping, the hop flavor was so apparent.

 

[dordelli]

I've been doing research on this as well. Here is a thread with some good info in it. I have a keg showing up tomorrow and plan on dry hopping in it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=574139

Good info, thx for the link. I have a second keg of this same batch and will try more hops (once I see how much the 2oz expanded in the current dry hopper), hopefully 4oz will work and maybe give it some gentle agitation before pouring. I guess the hop flavors could be stuck close to the bottom and the co2 holds it lower in the keg and my first two pours sucked all that extra flavor out. Maybe will try to suspend the dry hop tube as well, at least if I have it attached to a string, I could pull it and re-dry hop it.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I just kegged the zombie dust hoping that a bazooka screen at the end of the dip tube would filter out the hops.

Big mistake. It's only been kegged for a week but I'm still noticing big hop flavor and aroma.

There's an article online where a Brewer dry hopped in a keg and transferred to it under pressure with zero o2 contamination. This person used some sort of cylindrical filter that's as long as the dip tube and about 2 1/2" in diameter. With this you can have the hops completely free floating in the keg.


I'm moving away from high dry hop beers just wanted to learn the IPA style but this seems like a great solution rather than having all the hops stuffed in a mesh bag.

 

[dordelli]

I just kegged the zombie dust hoping that a bazooka screen at the end of the dip tube would filter out the hops.

Big mistake. It's only been kegged for a week but I'm still noticing big hop flavor and aroma.

There's an article online where a Brewer dry hopped in a keg and transferred to it under pressure with zero o2 contamination. This person used some sort of cylindrical filter that's as long as the dip tube and about 2 1/2" in diameter. With this you can have the hops completely free floating in the keg.


I'm moving away from high dry hop beers just wanted to learn the IPA style but this seems like a great solution rather than having all the hops stuffed in a mesh bag.

That sounds interesting but am thinking what I have used to filter the hops should be similar results and yes the bazooka screen isn't gonna be fine enough and I tried the mesh bag in the keg and with pellet hops, wasn't happy with the results, fine for whole hops. I used this filter and have no debris at all with pellets.

http://arborfab.com/store/brewing-filters/corny-keg-dry-hopper

 

[oceanic_brew]

But your problem is losing the hop presence after a few days right? I'm wondering if getting your beer to the keg under constant co2 pressure could help.

I don't know! I'm sure many people just siphon off to a keg from the fermenter in an open vessel and retain a great deal of hop flavor with dry hop in a keg so it's hard to say that o2 is the culprit in your situation.

Would love to hear some other opinions as it seems like the hop container you are using would provide enough dispersion and saturation of the hop oils for it to continue adding a hop presence for much more time than you are experiencing.