For as much as I love hoppy beers, dealing with all the hops throughout the process can be challenging. Racking to a serving keg or bottling bucket from a primary fermenter full of loose hop pellets has its issues. Dry hopping in kegs and dealing with clogged poppets or a hop bag blocking the dip tube isn’t fun either. I’ve tried sinking fine mesh hop bags with stainless steel washers. I’ve tried hanging bags of hops with floss inside a keg. I’ve tried ramming tea balls with hops. I’ve even gone the pantyhose route. For racking, I’ve tried dry hopping loose in primary and putting a mesh bag over the racking cane or just bagging the hops in primary. All of these methods work OK, but I wanted a more reliable solution that allowed me to dry hop loose both in kegs and during primary fermentation.
My worst experience dealing with hops and another reason I wanted to find a solid dry hopping solution came from transferring a NEIPA to a serving keg with loose hop pellets too early, which resulted in additional fermentation in the serving keg, which led to krausen inside the full keg which clogged the carbonation stone and the pressure relief valve. The additional fermentation also moved around the loose hops enough to get inside a filter I was experimenting with clogging the liquid out line. So I couldn’t release the pressure via the clogged pressure relief valve or through the C02-in poppet (because of the clogged carbonation stone), and I couldn’t pour beer through the clogged out poppet. This was the result…
Auto Siphon Filter
I’ve tried and didn’t like the mesh bag over the siphon approach. Mainly, the bag had a tendency to want to float it’s way off the end of the siphon. For awhile I would secure the bag to the siphon with a worm clamp, which worked alright, but was another step and I started losing track of which bags I used for dry hopping in sour beer and which I used for clean beers. I figured a stainless solution that was easy to clean and sanitize would be a better racking solution so I purchased a 300 micron stainless steel filter intended to be used to fill with dry hops and shoved into a glass carboy, only I would slide the auto-siphon inside the filter and cap the other end of the filter with the plug, which would allow me to stick the siphon in the fermenter and rack without issues. [The 300-micron filters are intended to be used with hop pellets and the 400-micron filters with whole leaf hops, I would recommend going with the 300-micron filters to use for both.]
This is the glass carboy dry hopper, notice the red silicone cap that sticks out from the bottom.
Although this does work, it wasn’t without problems, the rubber stopper on the end sits up too high above the last gallon or so of beer your racking out, which meant I would have to tilt my fermenter towards the siphon to compensate. The other issue is that these filters are only 1″ inch in diameter, which is too narrow to fit over the fattest part near the bottom of the siphon without rubbing and likely scratching the siphon, which could lead to infections down the road.
Since I purchased this particular filter from the online store at Utah Biodiesel Supply, I thought I’d reach out to them to see if they were open to slightly adjusting their dry hopper for glass carboys product into an improved auto-siphon filter. Turns out they were more than willing to help out and super cool to work with. We came up with a custom 300-micron stainless steel filter that is wide enough to easily slip over the racking cane without scratching it (1 1/8″ diameter) and has an enclosed inverted bottom, which means it sits flat against the bottom of your carboy when racking and eliminates the need to use the red rubber stopper used with the glass carboy filter, thus eliminating the tilting of the fermenter. The original test filter I purchased was 18″ inches to ensure it always sat above the beer you were racking, but as described below in the keg hopping section, was increased to be 21″ to create a multipurpose filter.
New custom made auto siphon filter w/ enclosed flat bottom and increased to 21″ and larger diamater to prevent scratching of siphon
Keg Filter
If you can dry hop in fine mesh bags inside kegs, then why even worry about loose dry hopping? One of the interesting things I learned when doing research for a post on hopping methods, was from a Hopsteiner study that tested the extraction of dry hopped beers with pellets loosely vs. dry hops contained in a finely woven sack. A lab trial was conducted to test whether using a finely woven sack reduced the solubility of the hops. Two separate green beers were dry hopped, one loose and the other in a sack. They found that the hops that were floating loose in the beer tested with almost 50% more linalool than the beer with hops in a sack, which they concluded could “increase the likelihood of a beer with a more intense aroma.” 1 In theory I can see how this makes sense, it’s kind of like taking a large bedspread out of the clothes dryer that appears to be completely dry, but until you lay it out across the bed do you realize the entire middle section is still wet. If you could, you would get a higher drying efficiency of the bedspread if you didn’t have to crumple it up into a ball to fit it in the dryer, similarly the study suggests you may see greater extraction from hops if they aren’t crammed in a mesh bag.
The potential for greater extraction from hops, while reducing the total amount of hops used, was enough to convince me to find a way to dry hop in a kegs and fermenters loose. Searching online for possible solutions, I found the greatest potential in a method created by Derek Dellinger at Bear-Flavored.com [link to article]. I thought his idea to alter the use of a fine stainless steel corny keg dry hop filter intended to be filled with hops and capped but instead used to go around the dip tube and allowing the hops to float free inside the keg was brilliant.
Different size corny keg dry hoppers available
As you can see from the picture above, the stainless corny kegs dry hoppers come in various sizes, I started out by purchasing a 21″ inch one, thinking the higher the filter sat in the keg, the less likely hops would find their way in. I drilled a 3/8 hole in the lid of the screw on lid that comes with the filter with a step bit using one of the holes already in the lid as my starter hole. If you want to go this route (which I don’t recommend now) there are two things to keep in mind when drilling the hole yourself. The first is the center of the hole should be about 5/16 from the center of the lid. This is because if you drill a hole directly in the center of the lid, you will have a hard time getting the filter to align with the dip tube in the keg, which can make it difficult to get the dip tube to fully seat. The second thing is there is an inner stainless steel mesh screen on the inside of the screw cap that you have to support from underneath when drilling or you will rip it from the soldered joints with the force of the drill pushing down on the lid (I ruined one cap this way). I’m sure there is a better way to do it, but being there was an empty beer bottle next to me, I just used this to drill the hole at the same time supporting the mesh screen.
-
- Using the bottle to put pressure against the inside inner screen
-
- Drill the hole a little further to the side of the cap than this
-
- Don’t rip off this screen when your drilling your hole!
Now, I could slip dip tube through the drilled hole in the corny keg filter and dry hop loose around the filter and it worked (kind of). I used this filter for two kegs with no real issues, the filter kept the hops out and I had very minimal hop debris in my glass during the first couple pours. Because of the success of this, I decided I needed more of these for my other kegs, so I purchased a 2-pack of the shorter 11.5″ filters and drilled holes in the caps as described above. These shorter filters were cheaper and seemed to work fine for the first two kegs I used them on, but I was getting a lot of hop debris in the first 4-6 pours, which somehow made its way into the space between the dip tube and the drilled hole, or through the filter itself, which seems less likely. This isn’t a big deal, but still, that’s kind of a waste of beer, you can drink these pints if you don’t mind flossing hop debris out of your teeth (they taste aggressively raw and bitter). It also seemed that if some fermentation was still going on inside the keg or restarted after being racked into the keg, this would make the problem even worse by moving around the hops so much that some found their way inside the filter.
This is the 21″ stainless corny keg dry hopper, which goes nearly to the top of the keg
The third keg into using these shorter 11.5″ filters, I started having clogged poppet issues from the first early pours. If you’re lucky, the collection of hop debris in these early pours won’t clog and eventually you will get clear pours, but you’re not always lucky. Another downside of this dry hopping method is that the drilled hole in the cap was sharp enough to scratch the dip tube when sliding it into place. So although these filters seemed to work most of the time, they weren’t perfect. I decided to again reach out to Utah Biodiesel Supply to see if we could come up with a better solution.
This is the 11.5″ stainless corny keg dry hopper
My Favorite Dry Hop Method
At first, we experimented with having corny filter caps come pre-drilled when using the shorter corny keg filters, but I occasionally ran into the same problems with early pours being filled with hops and although I didn’t get a clogged poppet, it was definitely on my mind early on in a kegs life. What we ultimately came up with was to extend the length of the newly created auto siphon filter to 21″ from 18″ to allow the filter to extend almost to the top of the keg. You can then insert a #6 or #6.5 pre-drilled stopper (#7 stoppers are too big) into the filter and slide the dip tube through the stopper and into the filter, which seals up the filter from rouge hops. I would suggest avoiding the rubber stoppers that have an intense rubber smell to them (weirdly the same aroma I get from some sour beers). Instead, look for the silicone stoppers, or just give them a good sniff before buying! You might still get a little bit of hops in your first couple pours, but if the debris was small enough to get into the filter somehow, it shouldn’t be large enough to clog your poppet.
Final Solution to Dry Hopping Loose
So after way more trial and error than you likely wanted to read about, the final filter I recommend getting is this new dual purpose keg hop and auto siphon filter, that Utah Biodiesel Supply sells for $35. I even use it in a 10-gallon keg I use for fermenting hoppy beers, which allows me to dry hop loose in the keg and make transfers without clogging poppets. I should note that I do not have any financial interest in these filters, I’m just happy they were willing to deal with me (since July) to come up with a product I think works great for dealing with hops!
Final Version of the Filter
One thing I should say, it’s possible you might find when using one of these filters that you have a hard time pressing down your dip tube all the way into the keg because there needs to be enough room between the keg bottom and the dip tube for the filter to sit. If you run into this situation, I’ve found the easiest solution is to clip just a tiny bit off the end of your dip tube. I’ve tried a number of ways to do this and by far the easiest way is by using a small mini pipe cutter. It’s extremely easy to do and will cut perfectly without scratching anything. I purchased the pipe cutter for about $5 from Harbor Freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/1-8-eighth-inch-to-1-1-8-eighth-inch-tubing-cutter-92878.html). You may not have to do this, but just in case anybody is afraid they are putting too much pressure against the bottom of the filter when pushing in the dip tube, this is a good fix. I actually just had to use this pipe cutter to fix a replace a bad washing machine valve, who knew that homebrew toys had real life value!
[Update 9.13.2017] I had intermittent problems with my fermenting 10-gallon keg not pushing beer out with a filter around the dip tube. It turned out that even though the filter seemed to have enough room to fit around the dip tube and have the gas ball lock seat properly, the dip tube was pressing against the screen and the bottom of the keg too tightly to dispense. As a precaution, it probably doesn’t hurt just to go ahead and cut a little bit off your dip tube.
Footnotes
- (W. M., & S. C. (2013). DRY HOPPING – A STUDY OF VARIOUS PARAMETERS. Retrieved from http://hopsteiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dry-Hopping-A-Study-of-Various-Parameters.pdf)
-610x915.jpg)
I have added loose hops to serving keg with no hop particle issues using this … http://www.clearbeerdraughtsystem.com/
Can I ask if if was whle hops or pellets?
Hop pellets.
FWIW, if you already have one of the dry-hop filters with a screw top lid from Utah or Arbor-Fab, the white plastic lids from Ball for small mouth canning jars have the same threads. You can get 3/8″ silicone airlock grommets and slightly undersize the hole you drill in the lid so it fits tighter around the dip tube. This has worked well for me although I would like to try a 200u filter as I still get too much hop sediment with the 300u for my taste.
That’s a really good idea! I originally wanted to get a silicone grommet in those small corny dry hoppers to reduce the space in between the dip tube and the hole and to prevent the dip tube from scratching–great solution.
Does this filter work with dip tubes that are angled toward the center of the keg? I have one Firestone corny that has a straight dip tube, all the others are angled.
I have one of those kegs too and I did use the filter with it, but I had already bent the dip tube straighter prior.
What’s the best method you’ve found to straighten the corny dip tubes?
I’ve only done it a few times and each time I did it by hand. It helps to position it in a way to give you some leverage and then you can usually slowly get it to bend.
I’ve been using the carboy dry hopping filter over the auto syphon as well. I folded the end to get rid of the red stopper. I find that it still clogs from time to time though. I purchased their filter that is designed for Better Bottles. It’s slightly thicker diameter. My plan is to sink this thicker diameter filter into the carboy, as well as the carboy filter over the auto syphon. I’m hoping that the wider diameter filter won’t clog as easily, and I sort of get a double filter.
Ordered. Great write up and thanks for the R&D! After clogging my 10-gal corny with hop hash while trying to closed xfer 2 weeks ago this is a no brainer.
Thanks for the recommendation! Figuring it’s worth a try I received mine last week. I’ve tried all sorts of stoppers I have lying around and none of them fit! Such a dumb question, but do you happen to have a link to the stopper that is pictured sitting nicely at/in the top of the filter? None of mine have enough flare to insert within the filter opening.
Anywhere you can find a stopper labled as either a #6 or a #6.5, I’d stay away from the extremely rubber smelling ones if you can (silicone stoppers preferred). Something like this should work: http://mdhb.com/product_info.php?products_id=70041
That Hopsteiner link wasn’t working for me, could you check/repost it, please?
Thanks for the heads up, the link should be working now!
I’m curious as to how you transfer into the dry hop keg in such a way that oxygen is purged from it? Or do you not worry about that?
I fill the the dry hop keg with C02 and release a few times (to purge) then fill to the same PSI as the keg that I used for primary fermentation is sitting at. I then use a jumper to go from the fermenting keg liquid out post to the serving keg liquid out post and a spunding valve on the serving keg set to about 3-5 psi less than the fermenting keg PSI, which allows just a little C02 out enough to transfer nice and slowly. There’s not much you can do about the C02 that comes out of the serving keg during the transfer.
I just got this filter and it seems like with some bending and maybe 1/2 inch cut off diptube it will work. In the pictures I see the dip tube looks straight which would require more cut off I think. I’m worried that the filter is straight and the dip tube isn’t so I guess I’m asking if my dip tube needs to have no angle because I can’t see how that filter will bend.
I was able to bend one of my keg’s diptubes straight enough to allow it to slide into the filter (this keg had also previously had the dip tube cut just a bit, likely around .5 inch or less). If the filter needed to sit inside the keg at a slight angle, I don’t see why that would be a problem as long as the diptube is properly seated.
Was there anything you did to get the machine grease off the filter? I cleaned mine in hot pbw and I thought it was good but today there is still grease smell and it comes off on my fingers too. I think dish soap but I hate using that on brew equipment.
That’s unfortunate, I don’t remember a strong machine grease or aroma from mine. I did soak IT in an oxyclean water solution overnight prior to using.
Clearer beer?; Minimum waste? Order up a glass carboy hop filter from utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php
and when you get them measure 3/4″ – 7/8″ (max) from the end, mark square around with a marker pen, then carefully cut along that line with some decent (sharp) scissors slowly down that line. You are going to use only a small section of the actual hop screen filter. You may have to temporarily flatten out part of the screen when cutting. What you will have is what I call a “smart” filter, reshape the screen to make round again, slide the red tip into the inside of the screen, tip first and push the tip from the back, through the inside of the screen so that it covers only the flat part of the red tip. Using something like a 3/4″ Craftsman long socket to push the tip (fits perfectly) works very well. (boil/sanitize) Slide the filter snug so it abuts the black ring on the syphon. I have used a 300 micron for the pellets and 400 for the flowers and no clogging. If you have, or can borrow a tube bender, it’s pretty easy to simply bend the tube so it is not pointing down. (Or) cut the tube no more than 1/4″ at a time” to see if it gives you want. Don’t worry, if you cut too much off, cut a piece of clear plastic food quality hose and slide it onto the tip, cut to size The beauty is that “if” you take your time you will end up with a damn fine syphon filter and you can still use the rest of the carboy hop filter. Actually works better, as one end of the carboy-filter can now tilt over to the glass and not stick up in the open pace so much as in a 6 gallon carboy. Last thing is if you are hopping it to the limit and more, I would suggest that that you make sure that you make enough room for the pellets or flowers to expand for best results.
You can also use panty hose, Japanese tea bag filters (L) or Muslin bags to drop additional hops into your keg for dry-hopping. Just go to your favorite hardware fishing supply and pick up some el-Cheapo “bobbers” and some fishing line so that it is easier to snag the bags to remove them from the ked and it won’t interfere with seal on the keg to make sure that no c02 or beer leaks out.
It’s only beer, Happy-Happy-Happy-Brewing, Cheers!
How are you dry hopping in the primary when you use a big mouth bubbler? I have the siphonless big mouth bubblers with the spigot at the bottom, and I’ve found closed transfer to the serving/dry hop keg through the liquid out post to be a pain when I have loose hops in the primary. Clogging issues.
When I use the Big Mouth Bubbler, I just toss the hops in loose. If I’m going to rack the beer into a keg via the liquid out post, I’ll use a siphon with one of these stainless filters around it. If I use the spigot, I’ll try and get the hops to settle out as much as possible in the beer and then just fill a keg with the lid open and a filter around the dip tube (this isn’t a closed transfer, but I worry about clogging the poppit during the fill like you mentioned). A cold crash might be enough to get the hops to settle below the spigot, which many be a good option to try.
If you are reading this and have pinlock legs ask them to do 18 and 3/4 in. Works perfectly for me. I had to trim the first one s couple of times.
Thanks for letting us know!
Thanks for the awesome post! We’ve been using the Utah Biodiesel Supply filters in our Corny kegs for dry hopping for a few months now. Unfortunately, for some of our hoppier beers, the filters tend to get clogged with hop pellets and we’ve ended up leaving a good amount of beer in our dry hopping kegs. Have you had any issues like this ? Any advice on how to get around the filter being blocked by the hops pellets sticking to the length of the filter?
We’ve considered cold crashing the kegs before transferring, and also just shaking the kegs to get the debris off the filter. However, I thought I would check in here to see if I could get any sage advice. Thanks!
Oh no! Are you using one of the auto-siphon filters with a drilled stopper?
I’ve had this same issue. The pellet hops seem to collect on the sides of the auto-siphon filter with the drilled stopper and the beer can’t seem to get through. This leaves behind at least a gallon of delicious beer.
I have a few questions about your process.
– what psi do you use for transferring from the dry hop kegs to the serving kegs?
– do you cold crash to refrigeration temps after dry hopping before transferring to the serving kegs?
– Is there a limit to the amount of pellets you can use for this setup? (I have been using 3-5oz per keg)
– how long do you dry hop before transferring to the serving kegs?
Thanks in advance for any help in this matter.
Cheers for beers!
Sometimes I have to tilt the fermenter towards the filter to get that last bit out (I also try and over brew my batches so that I can afford some losses during transferring and dry hopping). If you do cold crash, that might help compact the hops a little and improve the transfer. I do sometimes cold crash my hoppy beers, but with my setup, I can only cool down to about 50F. I typically serve with the hops in the keg, but if I do jump them to a clean keg without hops I just set the receiving keg a few PSI less than the source keg. I’m not sure if there is a limit, I’ve dry hopped in the same amounts you mentioned without issues. It’s probably safe to say that within 2-3 days you would be getting full extraction from the dry hops (even faster if you agitate them).
I’m having the same issue during transfers. The flow stops periodically, and increasingly frequently, because the mesh clogs with the hop matter. After waiting a few seconds, for the inside of the screen to fill with beer, I can transfer again for a bit. Has anyone figured out a way around this?
Scott, does your stopper fit tightly around the dip tube, or is it loose? LHBS has the pre drilled stopper but is slightly larger than the dip tube.
It’s a pretty good fit for me, below is a slightly blurry picture, but you can kind of tell how snug mine is. As long as it’s not a gaping hole, you should be fine, especially if you are filling your keg below where the hole in the stopper starts. http://scottjanish.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_2618.jpg
I see! I just went and bought a non drilled #6 stopper and tried to drill the hole myself. The whole didn’t come out looking very good and its not smooth on the inside, but I was able to make it fit tightly. I drain my BMB directly through the out post to avoid O2 pickup so I can’t really see where I should stop.
Im dry hopping with the cryo hops, I assume these would be less likely to clog. How long do you think it takes to get full extraction at 68f. I was going to leave the serving keg at 68f for to days then chill to serving temps (40f). Thanks for your help and research, can’t wait for the book!
You should get faster extraction with Cryo hops (less vegetal material to get in the way), I would think a couple of days is enough at room temperature to get full extraction, especially if you agitate the keg a few times a day.
Hi Scott,
Do you leave the auto siphon black trub stopper cap on when using the Utah biodiesel filter?
I generally leave it off if I’m using the filter to transfer something.
I was having problems with clogged poppets when transfering hoppy beers from my 15 gallon Sanke keg fermenter to my serving kegs (I transfer under pressure into purged corny kegs). I came across this post as I had a NEIPA fermenting, and wanted to find a solution to the transfering issue. I ordered the Utah Biodiesel Supply filter you wrote about and attached it to the racking cane with a silicone stopper as you recommended. It worked GREAT! I had no clogged poppets and the transfer was the smoothest I have had yet with hoppy beers. I am now considering ordering another one to use for keg hopping. Thanks Scott for this article as it has saved me so much frustration when transfering!
Glad it worked out for you!
Scott,
I just got this filter and used it over my 1/2″ autosiphon to transfer from a bucket into the out post of a purged keg. It seemed to work great for a while, but towards the bottom it clogged from hop/trub/yeast material coating the outside of the filter and flow stopped. I ended up losing about a gallon of beer in the process (didn’t want to try to restart siphon and pump more air through the beer already in the keg). Have you had any issues like this and is there a way around it? I wonder if a 3/8″ siphon would work better with slower flow than the 1/2″ siphon.
Thanks,
Aaron
I haven’t used it over a autosiphon in a while, but I do remember having it slow or stop once it started to get down to the bottom, if I remember right, slightly tilting the fermenter towards the siphon helped. There will always be some loss though when dry hopping, I usually just build that into the recipe. If you have a way to slightly cold crash the beer, even a soft crash to about 55F, that will help compact a lot of the hop material and make the transfer much easier.
I have the 300 micron, and I love it. I find that it’ll clog if the transfer PSI is high. It’s best to keep in on the low end (5 or less). Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that the filter doesn’t completely eliminate that “hop burn” from the first few pours. It would be nice to avoid this problem all together, but I’ve yet to find a solution. Has anyone else?
It seems like some conditioning time can help with hop bite/burn.
Hey, thanks for the reply!
Yea, I figured that may be the solution going forward. I do know that the 300 micron definitely lets some yeast and hop sludge get sucked up even though my dip tube is cut short. I may end up cutting it even shorter, because my trub levels are quite high
I just purchased and installed the keg dip tube filter from Utah Biodiesel. To use it, I cut 1/2″ from my dip tube, bent the dip tube straight, placed it in the keg with the filter, then re-bent it so the filter sits in the simple at the bottom of the keg. I plan on using it for the second dry hop on an NEIPA, and will probably use a keg jumper to transfer from the hop keg to a serving keg. I am not certain if this last step is necessary, but I figure it couldn’t hurt. If you all think it would be better to leave it and serve from the hop keg, why? Fresher aroma on NEIPA?
Hope you like the filter! I don’t think transferring it to a serving keg is necessary. It could potentially reduce any conditioning time the beer might need to get less “green” from the heavy dry hop additions, but I’ve had good luck leaving beer on hops the entire time the keg is on tap.
I mash, boil and ferment all in the same corny. Do you have any suggestions on an good way to add the screen in if there’s wort in the keg already? Sounds like it’s probably easy if the keg was empty, but if full, could pose issues with the getting the screen on and adding the stopper?
I’ve added a filter to a full keg a few times without issues, only mine was already fermented beer so I was worried about oxygen. In your case, you could easily pull out the dip tube with the wort in the keg and drop in the filter and carefully slide the dip tube back in through the filter (with the stopper already installed in the filter).
Hi Scott,
We purchased the auto siphon filter and the issue we are wondering is if we install it on our secondary keg dip tube prior to filling isn’t all the trub from the primary (we’re using an SS Brew Bucket) going to transfer inside the filter as the keg gets filled?
It certainly could, you could also temporarily install a second diptube on the gas side to fill it and carefully remove it and put the gas tube back on. Cold crashing could also take care of dropping most of the trub and hops out of the beer before moving it over. Of course, you can always do an open transfer and fill outside the filter while purging the headspace to help reduce oxygen pickup.
Would this work better with an even finer filter? Did you try?
I haven’t tried anything finer, I imagine it would work good though.
Scott – do you use the auto-siphon to move beer? I was told (Reddit) that auto-siphons are the devil; the they introduce O2 into the beer.
Your thoughts?
I’m pretty sure the devil is worse than auto-siphons : ) I do use them occasionally, but I typically use the spigot in a better bottle to transfer. When I do use an auto-siphon into an open keg, I’ll purge the headspace continually during the transfer with about 2 PSI.
Scott,
This is great! About to purchase one. When racking to the dry hop keg from the fermenter do you leave the dip tube filter on and rack through it (is this a possibility)? Or do you rack through the opening on the on the top of the keg? I’m trying to cut out as much O2 exposure as possible on my beers especially my NEIPAs.
Thanks!
Pat
I was scratching my head over the same issue. I use a Spike Flex+ fermenter which allows me to transfer under pressure. I take my fully sanitized and purged corny keg and flip it upside down onto a block of wood (to allow clearance). I then connect the butterfly valve from the fermenter to the GAS IN port, connect a black ball lock disconnect to the OUT post (the bottom of the screened dip tube is well above the surface of the filling beer), apply CO2 pressure to the fermenter, and fill the keg from the bottom up! At about 3/4 full, I remove the black disconnect and gently turn the keg over. I open the relief valve and leave in the open position until the keg is full.
what is your typical schedule when keg hopping? do you keep it at room temp for some time before chilling? how long does the beer sit before you feel it is ready for drinking?
Hi Scott,
Did you ever try using the final product on a Carboy? I ask because I want to end up with 5 gal of product and so dry hopping in a 5 gal keg would not be enough. I tried racking from Carboy to keg last night and found that towards the end air was going into the autosiphon even though there was ~0.5-1 gal left in the Carboy… have you ever run into this issue? I only dry hopped at 1.5 oz/5 gal… I imagine this is less of a problem for the keg since it is purged and transfer is pressurized. What do you think?
What kind of keg would you recommend dry hopping in?
How much loss did you get from a typical dry hop cycle, say at 0.1 oz/gal? 0.5 gal? More? Less? I’m trying to gauge whether or not I should just go ahead and dry hop in a 5 gal keg…
Thanks for the excellent write up. FYI for others I have found that they do not fit into standard 5.5 glass carboys and barely fit into 6.5 gal carboys. In the future I will just plan to dry hop with a better bottle and Fermonster.
Q
The easiest option I have found so far is a cask widge filter. Replace your diptube with a gas short tube and use this widge.
https://www.craftbrewer.com.au/cask-widge-float-red-9-11g
Do not use within the keg, the welding material on the seam will oxidize/rust and give the beer a metallic taste.
After pulling from the keg the oxidation was visible on the welded seam.
Works great on the auto-siphon. Also fits perfectly on a water hose end for cleaning.
Love your book! I’m highlighting nearly every page. Quick question before I buy this auto-siphon filter: for a regular pin lock keg, I need to buy the “1.125 x 21 300 micron” version, correct? Thanks!
Thanks for getting a copy of the book! Yup, that’s the one I’ve used. If the keg is a little shorter, you can always snip off the top a bit so it fits.
Great article Scott! Im definitely a fan of all you’re contributing to home brewing. Sorry if this question is just reiterating what you said in your update, but for those of us using kegs as primary fermenters (and subsequently dry hopping in primary), do you feel its best to shorten the dip tube anyway as to make racking off of trub a bit easier? I have been curious as to whether the bottom trub layer could potentially clog up the filter when the dip tube is at full length. Cheers!
Thanks for reading! It makes sense to me to cut the dip tube in the fermenting keg as you’d want to leave behind the yeast and any trub that made its way into the keg before kegging anyways. I think of it almost like dumping the cone at the brewery before dry-hopping. Cutting the dip tube should help you transfer cleaner beer into your dry-hopping keg, especially if you’re cold crashing first.
You really need to cut down on the backstory. Seriously. I don’t care about what didn’t work, stick to telling us a simple remedy instead of sharing your whole life story
Actually it’s helpful to hear and you’re kind of an ungrateful jerk.