Help w/corny & SS hop hook

[dbrewski]

when I dry hop in the keg, I use bags if it is whole hops, but stainless tea cages (balls) if it is pellet hops. For whole hops I weight the bag so the hops go to the bottom instead of floating, the balls just drop down there anyway. Problem is when you want to retrieve the hops to make sure they're not in there too long (grassy flavors).

So I had this idea of a hop hook attached to the corny lid. So far so good, I took an old lid so if I ruined it no big loss. I sanded the lid area down, and sanded the stainless s-hook (bent in half). Using normal plumbers lead-free solder and flux I tried twice to get both parts soldered together. Problem is, the SS hook just will not let the solder flow over it. I tried twice, it is not a matter of heat, the darn wire was glowing at one point. The first time it just popped off under a little pressure. This time it appears to be holding but I think it is only because of the massive blob of solder mushroom-capping it in place.

Any advice is welcome.

 

[evandena]

What about a magnet?

 

[phoenixs4r]

I use a bent clothes hanger to retrieve hop bags.

 

[day_trippr]

Are corny keg lids actually stainless steel, or are they aluminum? I have 14 ball lock kegs and for the life of me I've never figured out what type of metal the lids are made from.

Anyway...I dry hop in the keg with whole cones in a bag, with some piece of the wife's silverware in it (my favorite is the gravy ladle). I've actually left bags in kegs for weeks and have yet to detect any grassy off-flavors. Might be 'cuz the hops are either Amarillo, Cascade or Citra...

Cheers!

 

[pickles]

I have modified almost all of my corny lids. I bent an ss washer (for 1/2" bolt) in the shape of an "L" and soldered it just like you did. It works great.

 

[wolfman_48442]

Just use some JB Weld.

 

[Yooper]

I do the opposite- bags for pellets, teaballs for leaf hops. But I don't weight the bag at all, I just put it in the keg. I don't remove them, though. I just leave them in the keg until the keg is finished. Since I dryhop in the keg only at fridge temperatures, I never get grassy flavors and haven't felt the need to remove them.

If I wanted to have that ability, I'd consider a ziptie to the diptube and a hook like you've fashioned I guess.

 

[pickles]

Yooper - I leave mine in the keg for the life of the beer; however I find that if the bag isn't tethered it gets sucked into the dip tube and plugs things up. Have you had this problem?

 

[Yooper]

Yooper - I leave mine in the keg for the life of the beer; however I find that if the bag isn't tethered it gets sucked into the dip tube and plugs things up. Have you had this problem?

Never. But my diptubes go all the way to the bottom (I haven't cut them), so maybe there isn't "room" to suck it up?

 

[outside92129]

what kind of flux are you using?

 

[dbrewski]

what kind of flux are you using?

Just basic flux you'd buy off the shelf at home depot. Nothing special. I was wondering if you need special flux for stainless, but it seemed to work on the lid just not the hook.

 

[dbrewski]

I do the opposite- bags for pellets, teaballs for leaf hops. But I don't weight the bag at all, I just put it in the keg. I don't remove them, though. I just leave them in the keg until the keg is finished. Since I dryhop in the keg only at fridge temperatures, I never get grassy flavors and haven't felt the need to remove them..

Are you using the disposable muslin bags for the pellet hops? That's what I use, and I was getting particulates out of those bags so I went to the teaballs for the pellets. For leaf hops, it doesn't seem to matter.

 

[dbrewski]

What's driving this is that I have had a couple batches that tasted a little grassy because of the duration of the dry hop (my guess). Maybe I am trying to use a hardware fix for a process problem. I have a three-tap kegerator, and a freezer with room for four more kegs. So if I dry hop when I keg it, it might be a month before that keg is tapped. So I wanted a way to pull the hops out to avoid grassy-ness. I started using a wire like one poster here said. But I can't easily pull up a teaball.

Maybe I should wait to dry hop it until a week before I think it will be served instead and just leave it in there.