Dry hopping with Fermzilla fermenter (no pressure fermentation)

[GillesF]

Hi all

I use the Fermzilla as my fermentation vessel, I do not use it (yet) for pressurized fermentation but use the included airlock.

Next week, I'm going to brew a NEIPA which includes dry hopping during the last 3 days of fermentation. Since this beer style is very sensitive to oxygen I want to avoid introducing oxygen as much as possible.
Will I introduce oxygen if I simply remove the collection jar at the bottom of the fermenter, add the dry hops, purge the jar with CO2 and reconnect to the fermenter? Or is there a chance the fermenter might suck in oxygen through the air lock when doing this?

Or would it be better to pressure ferment straight from the start? I have a spunding valve but not yet the gauge to measure the amount of pressure in the fermenter, which is one of the reasons why I haven't tried it yet.

Thanks!

Gilles

 

[Biggz1313]

I think fermenting NOT under pressure will be fine, just before you go to dry hop, remove your Air Lock from top of fermentor and replace with a solid cap that won't let any air in OR if you have the capability put a ball lock connector on it and pressurize to like 1-3 PSI. Then do as you said with the bottom hop chamber. Place the hops in the chamber, attach to fermenter, purge a couple times and then pressuize the bottom chamber to same pressure as you did the top (i.e. when you pressurize the top DO NOT change the pressure on your regulator before you pressurize the bottom) and you should be good to go in my opinion.

I personally have a fermzilla all rounder that doesn't have the bottom part and I remove the cap to put my drop hops in and as long as I'm quick and then replace the cap and purge with CO2 a couple times i've never had any issues so there's most likely much more room for error here than what you're thinking. Oxidizing NEIPAs I think has been sort of blown out of proportion IMHO and uness you're planning on taking 3 months to drink all the beer you'll be just fine.

RDWHAHB is the motto to live by.