hennesse
Well-Known Member
Hi folks,
I want to kick my dry-hopping up a notch. I've been putting hops in a lingerie bag, and letting them sit in a secondary fermenter, or a serving keg, for 5 days. This works, but not great, because the hops just steep. I'll bet the Sierra Nevada "torpedo" method would work much better. SN recirculates beer from the fermenter through a "hop torpedo" and back into the fermenter. Recirculating the beer through the dry hops should be more effective, and a lot quicker than just letting them steep.
A Blichmann Hop-Rocket could easily take the place of late hop additions. But that locks in my recipe on brew-day. When I taste the fermented, but not yet carbonated beer, I might say "Mmm, this tastes good, but it could use a little more hop flavor/aroma". Since I do 10-gallon batches (2 Cornys), I might want to compare the same recipe with Cascade dry-hops versus Citra dry-hops. Dry-hopping in the Corny kegs sounds like the answer.
Here's the concept:
Put hop flowers in hop filter. Purge pump, hoses, and keg with CO2. Then attach CO2 to the Gas-In post, and push the beer down to the pump. Besides priming the pump, this starts a siphon. Once the pump is primed, turn it on and throttle back the output side. Pull the pressure release valve to vent off excess CO2. Come back in six or eight hours (not days).
To do two kegs at a time, use Tees and hook them up in parallel. Of course, this would require two of everything, and I'd have to prime each one with CO2 to start the siphons.
Corny Hop Filter
Adventures In Homebrewing has a number of interesting hop filters, but their only one that fits in a corny-keg doesn't have a solid bottom cap. I couldn't find any other reputable sellers.
Over on Amazon, there's this one ($14), and this one ($18), and this one ($19), and this one ($24), and this one ($17). There might be more! But only this one $13 shows the bottom, and it's solid. It's also the least expensive. I think they're all the same except the $24 one which has a screen over the holes in the cap, but I don't think that is really necessary.
These filters could also be used simply to replace the lingerie bags in the traditional dry-hopping method. The lingerie bags tend to get ugly with use, tear easily, and and are hard to clean.
Carbonation Lid Assembly
The "Carbonation Lid Assembly" is a Corny keg lid that has had a Ball-lock fitting and a 1/4 or 5/16 hose barb attached. Then a hose and a carbonation stone of varying quality. I don't really want the stone, but no one seems to sell the lid without the stone.
The Adventures In Homebrewing ($50) has a 1/4" MFL / FFL flare pair connecting the carbonation stone to the flexible downtube. The flare fittings offer versatility for easily changing between dry-hopping and carbonating.
MoreBeer ($60) offers a similar one, but the price is higher.
Williams Brewing ($35) and Amazon ($29) offered products that had barb-connected stones, so they would be quite a lot more trouble to interchange with a dry-hop setup.
Speaking of carbonation, this stone over at Chi Products looks like the best of the bunch. Chi has a number of products that are hard to find anywhere else. The have four original style poppets plus the common universal one. Here's the Cornelius poppet. Also check out their Tank Posts and Adapters. Over on page 2, they sell adapters to change the weirdo 19/32-18 (and other sizes) tank posts to flare fittings or pipe thread.
Holey Tube Inside the Filter
I think it will be just a length of stainless tubing with a bunch of holes drilled in it, and squished closed on the bottom end. A stainless shaft collar or stainless hose clamp will keep it inside the hop filter.
Ball-Lock Modification
The poppet in the keg posts and "pusher" in the ball-lock connectors could be removed to aid flow rate. I could substitute a regular lid at the end, but would still have to replace the liquid-out poppet. Might be more trouble than it's worth.
Once I've got this thing built and tested, I'll let you know how it works. Meanwhile, I hope I've given you some ideas. And I'd appreciate any suggestions, great or small...
Dave
I want to kick my dry-hopping up a notch. I've been putting hops in a lingerie bag, and letting them sit in a secondary fermenter, or a serving keg, for 5 days. This works, but not great, because the hops just steep. I'll bet the Sierra Nevada "torpedo" method would work much better. SN recirculates beer from the fermenter through a "hop torpedo" and back into the fermenter. Recirculating the beer through the dry hops should be more effective, and a lot quicker than just letting them steep.
A Blichmann Hop-Rocket could easily take the place of late hop additions. But that locks in my recipe on brew-day. When I taste the fermented, but not yet carbonated beer, I might say "Mmm, this tastes good, but it could use a little more hop flavor/aroma". Since I do 10-gallon batches (2 Cornys), I might want to compare the same recipe with Cascade dry-hops versus Citra dry-hops. Dry-hopping in the Corny kegs sounds like the answer.
Here's the concept:
Put hop flowers in hop filter. Purge pump, hoses, and keg with CO2. Then attach CO2 to the Gas-In post, and push the beer down to the pump. Besides priming the pump, this starts a siphon. Once the pump is primed, turn it on and throttle back the output side. Pull the pressure release valve to vent off excess CO2. Come back in six or eight hours (not days).
To do two kegs at a time, use Tees and hook them up in parallel. Of course, this would require two of everything, and I'd have to prime each one with CO2 to start the siphons.
Corny Hop Filter
Adventures In Homebrewing has a number of interesting hop filters, but their only one that fits in a corny-keg doesn't have a solid bottom cap. I couldn't find any other reputable sellers.
Over on Amazon, there's this one ($14), and this one ($18), and this one ($19), and this one ($24), and this one ($17). There might be more! But only this one $13 shows the bottom, and it's solid. It's also the least expensive. I think they're all the same except the $24 one which has a screen over the holes in the cap, but I don't think that is really necessary.
These filters could also be used simply to replace the lingerie bags in the traditional dry-hopping method. The lingerie bags tend to get ugly with use, tear easily, and and are hard to clean.
Carbonation Lid Assembly
The "Carbonation Lid Assembly" is a Corny keg lid that has had a Ball-lock fitting and a 1/4 or 5/16 hose barb attached. Then a hose and a carbonation stone of varying quality. I don't really want the stone, but no one seems to sell the lid without the stone.
The Adventures In Homebrewing ($50) has a 1/4" MFL / FFL flare pair connecting the carbonation stone to the flexible downtube. The flare fittings offer versatility for easily changing between dry-hopping and carbonating.
MoreBeer ($60) offers a similar one, but the price is higher.
Williams Brewing ($35) and Amazon ($29) offered products that had barb-connected stones, so they would be quite a lot more trouble to interchange with a dry-hop setup.
Speaking of carbonation, this stone over at Chi Products looks like the best of the bunch. Chi has a number of products that are hard to find anywhere else. The have four original style poppets plus the common universal one. Here's the Cornelius poppet. Also check out their Tank Posts and Adapters. Over on page 2, they sell adapters to change the weirdo 19/32-18 (and other sizes) tank posts to flare fittings or pipe thread.
Holey Tube Inside the Filter
I think it will be just a length of stainless tubing with a bunch of holes drilled in it, and squished closed on the bottom end. A stainless shaft collar or stainless hose clamp will keep it inside the hop filter.
Ball-Lock Modification
The poppet in the keg posts and "pusher" in the ball-lock connectors could be removed to aid flow rate. I could substitute a regular lid at the end, but would still have to replace the liquid-out poppet. Might be more trouble than it's worth.
Once I've got this thing built and tested, I'll let you know how it works. Meanwhile, I hope I've given you some ideas. And I'd appreciate any suggestions, great or small...
Dave
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