Keg Hopping Options

[cbdeacon]

...never done it...your thoughts?
Thanks
CB

[StLBeer]

If by keg hopping you mean dry hopping, and not some physical activity you do while under the influence, then yes.

I use a hop bag with a couple ounces of leaf hops tied off and weighed down with some stainless steel bolts. I tie on a long chunk of plain dental floss on the top of the bag, push it into the keg, leave some floss hanging out, put on the lid, and repressurize. After 10 days remove the hop bag. Leaving the bag in for longer periods of time has resulted in a more grasslike aroma. This method has really helped out some of my pale ales.

This post has been edited by StLBeer: Oct 31 2008, 12:49 PM

[Wahoo]

I use a surescreen and just throw the hops in loose and have never gotten a grassy aroma from leaving them in as long as 2 months.

The only time I get a grassy aroma is in the first 2-3 days of hopping... after a week it balances out and it's nice from that point forward.

[MtnBrewer]

I use a surescreen and just throw the hops in loose and have never gotten a grassy aroma from leaving them in as long as 2 months.

The only time I get a grassy aroma is in the first 2-3 days of hopping... after a week it balances out and it's nice from that point forward.

This is exactly my experience as well. I let the hops sit in there while it's carbing. By the time it carbonates, the grassiness is gone. If the keg lasts long enough, I will sometimes throw another charge of hops in there to boost the aroma back up.

[Pete Maz]

This is exactly my experience as well. I let the hops sit in there while it's carbing. By the time it carbonates, the grassiness is gone. If the keg lasts long enough, I will sometimes throw another charge of hops in there to boost the aroma back up.

+1. In my experience the grassiness comes in the first few days of dry hopping, not by leaving it in a long time. YMMV.

One word of caution, if you dry hop before carbing you may want to avoid the "shake the keg" method of carbing, or else you'll get a bunch of hop debris mixed into the beer. I sorta found this out the hard way when dry hopping an IPA with pellets. They were in a hop bag, but enough debris got into the beer that the first few draws were almost undrinkable. You're better off carbing before dry hopping, or just applying the pressure and letting the keg carb on its own w/o shaking.