Mer-man
Well-Known Member
Isn’t she running for prez? #aoc
We’re going to find out! Hopefully the c02 scrubbing & the cooling coil will mitigate any loss of aroma. I know Sierra Nevada keeps their bales in a slightly cool room, but open to the environment.
Keep us posted! I have this same conical with cooling coil. Interested to see how this works. I assume you are using a spunding valve instead of a blow off tube?
We’re going to find out! Hopefully the c02 scrubbing & the cooling coil will mitigate any loss of aroma. I know Sierra Nevada keeps their bales in a slightly cool room, but open to the environment.
When was the last time you’ve had an oxidized Sierra Nevada?
Like this-in a cool room, but no 02 mitigation:
There's a difference between hops being exposed to oxygen, and the finished beer being exposed to oxygen.
You mean besides the bale being pressed so tight that there is no air left in it any more?
When was the last time you’ve had an oxidized Sierra Nevada?
When was the last time you’ve had an oxidized Sierra Nevada?
I'm sure it doesn't take Sierra that long to go through a whole bale of hops if they're literally dishing them out with a shovel...Until they’re broken up w that pitch fork & shovel[emoji6]
[P]ositive CO2 pressure being forced into the tank at the same time keeps all but a negligible amount out.
What I meant was that Sierra's hoppy beers aren't very good, so why would you want to copy what they do?
We’re going to find out! Hopefully the c02 scrubbing & the cooling coil will mitigate any loss of aroma. I know Sierra Nevada keeps their bales in a slightly cool room, but open to the environment.
...I crack open the butterfly valve just enough to let pressure escape, up through the sight glass, taking the oxygen in the sight glass and which came in with the hops, out through the tubing terminating in the airlock jar. In other words, at this point I'm using the CO2 produced by fermentation to purge the oxygen around the hop pellets, creating an oxygen-free environment in the sight glass.
When I get down to about 5-7 points of gravity remaining, I open the butterfly valve and let the hops drop in. That's what you see in the video. I then remove the gas QD from the pressure manifold, letting the pressure build as the remaining fermentation proceeds...
I appreciate the additional information & context @mongoose33! I wanted to let you know I've been inspired by your approach and am "borrowing" your process to help with my own fermentation. Appreciate all the photos & information you've shared thus-far.If you read the whole thread, and I suspect you did, you can see some of that is inspired by others' comments and ideas. So I'd say it's not "my" process but "our" process.
Slight tangent, but one thing that is stumping me just a bit is how to best minimize the O2 when racking to the keg. There's that bit of O2 between where the racking Butterfly Valve is and the connection. Could you share how you go about your racking process?
Thanks again!
There's no O2 there. It's all been blown out with the O2 that is in with the hops. A fermentation produces copious amounts of CO2--about 1 volume per every 2 points of gravity. So between what is consumed by the yeast and what's being blown out, you have nothing left.
Now, with mine, I'm almost always closing up the fermenter with 5-8 points of gravity remaining to be fermented, so the beer self-carbonates. When it comes time to rack to keg, the fermenter is under pressure, and I add to that using some CO2 from my tank/regulator.
If you read the whole thread, and I suspect you did, you can see some of that is inspired by others' comments and ideas. So I'd say it's not "my" process but "our" process.
When it comes time to rack to keg, the fermenter is under pressure, and I add to that using some CO2 from my tank/regulator.
Definitely read this thread. I'm glad I asked a question in June (which seemed to kickstart the slightly dormant conversation).
kegging is the part that I was asking about (rather than the DH part). I'm new to stainless and not entirely sure how to best rack with minimal/no O2. I guess if I had a butterfly valve at the racking port open during fermentation, I would have wort/beer fermenting up against the TC fitting (to then rack to the keg)... Then all I'd need is to purge the tube to have No* (*low) O2 Transfer to the purged keg.
Is that how you do it?
@mongoose33 - you're an amazing example of how awesome & collaborative the homebrewing community is. Thank you for this detailed information! I can't wait to try the 1st beer bubbling away in my Spike Flex+ (a hazy pale ale) using the processes discussed in this thread.
I'll be sure to report back. Happy to share my nest packaged brew with you
I don't know if you got a cooling coil with your CF5 but if you did there's enough room on the 4" TC cap to weld on a 1.5 TC ferrule which you can attach your manifold to and frees up the lid 1.5 TC for adding hops or other things.
View attachment 634059
I did this to my CF10 so I could add a scaled down version of a hop canon I put together. Originally the idea was that I could use the co2 pressure that builds up in the fermenter to purge the O2 out of the hops through the purge valve on the hopper then use my CO2 tank attached to the second manifold to push the hops into the fermenter. I've also realized that if I remove the second manifold, cap that fitting off, and install a TC screen gasket above the butterfly valve I may be able to fill the hop canon up then recirculate wort through it using the purge valve which might allow dry hopping with less hop debris (possibly with leaf hops).
View attachment 634064
I realize it all probably overkill especially since I've had the CF10 for 6 months now and still haven't manage to get a batch into it but it was a fun project.
How is this working and have you ever recirculated wort through it? Where did you buy your hopper? I like this...do you happen to have a parts list? Thanks.
3" to 1 1/2" offset reducer - Stout
3" tri clamp cap with 2-1/4"NPT ports - Hardware Factory Store
Spike manifold
As far as I remember the rest came from Amazon
3" Viton screened tri clamp gasket (on the top cap to keep hop debris out of the pressure gauge when purging the hops with CO2 from the fermenter)
3" short tri clamp spool
1 1/2 butterfly valve
1/4"NPT 90 degree elbow
1/4" NPT valve
2-3" clamps
3-1 1/2" clamps
1/4" NPT to 3/8" hose barb
2-1 1/2" tri clamp gaskets
1-3" tri clamp gasket
1-1/4" NPT to 1 1/2" tri clamp fitting
I think that's it.
Other than pressure testing the hopper when I first built it to make sure it actually worked I haven't used it. I've had some health issues so I've not been able to brew since I finished putting my system together.
So this contraption works great. I pulled 30" Hg in the chamber with the vacuum pump and pressurized it with 20 psi CO2 four times (suck, pressurize, suck, pressurize, suck, pressurize, suck, pressurize) before dumping the hops. I may tweak that part of the process, but I think it's probably about as good as it's going to get. It's probably not even necessary to put that much CO2 pressure on it during the purge when pulling that much vacuum, but it made me feel good and CO2 is cheap!
Has anyone made a dry hopper hop the 4" port of the Spike flex+?
I'm not gonna be using it for the cooling coil and would love something more compact height wise
So how did it work?This is all I see!
View attachment 643136
On a more serious note, not a bad idea! I wonder how this affects the hops sitting out if you wait till week 1 or 2 of fermentation?
If you mean that hop dropper get up I made, the jury is still out. I've used it a few times, but I'm still conflicted about the hops spending so much time "exposed" to the ferm temps. Just did a IIPA with the more traditional dry hop through the 1 1/2" TC port with c02 trickling up through the bottom. Not kegged yet, so still need that data point.So how did it work?
@mongoose33 - you're an amazing example of how awesome & collaborative the homebrewing community is. Thank you for this detailed information! I can't wait to try the 1st beer bubbling away in my Spike Flex+ (a hazy pale ale) using the processes discussed in this thread.
I'll be sure to report back. Happy to share my nest packaged brew with you
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