Keg dry hopping

[aero-spaced-out]

Hello all,

I feel this may have been discussed before and but I want to raise it again.
I want to start experimenting with making happier beers. My first attempt I want to have a go at the TMM Oil for the Neck as I'm partial to a wee BT Neck Oil.
My current setup isn't really forgiving for wanting to dry hop.
My temperature chamber won't accommodate a hop bong and my thermowell may make it awkward to use magnets on the lid and I don't really want to put the magnets on the wall of the vessel. I'd rather just avoid magnets altogether if I could.
I'm wondering if I were to buy a stainless steel hop tube, put my dry hops into the keg and purge to minimise the oxygen.
Could I transfer the beer into the keg and dry hop in the keg?
Then transfer to my dispense keg using one of the 80 mesh MD inline filters to trap any hop debris that may be present?

the keg approach I've explained above wouldn't be a hassle for me to do as it would be very accommodating of my space.

My main questions are:

1. Is this a sound approach?
2. What sort of losses should I expect from hop pellets during a dry hop?

 

[Caramel Ox]

Is it worth trying the “just chuck them in” approach before you make it complicated? Your suggestion is fine it’s just a dry hop in secondary.

 

[Its 6pm somewhere]

Have you considered dip hopping? Throw your hops into the fermenter with a litre of 80c water for 30mins before transferring your wort on top and ferment as normal. I've done this with great results. I've also just thrown them in the serving keg before racking the beer and had great results, just make sure you're using a floating dip tube for that

 

[aero-spaced-out]

Is it worth trying the “just chuck them in” approach before you make it complicated? Your suggestion is fine it’s just a dry hop in secondary.

If you mean opening my fermenter and chucking them in, I did consider it but i sized my temp chamber pretty perfectly for a closed all rounder. Didn't think ahead on it at all tbh and now regretting it slightly
So id need to remove the fermenter from the chamber to get the lid off or tilt it at a really awkward angle which would be very awkward and inconvenient to sit and reposition.
I could do it but it's highly inconvenient and becomes much more of a chore

I'll eventually get another larger temp chamber that can accommodate this but I'm making my current setup up pay for itself before I do.

I'll have a go at my original idea and keep yas posted.
Cheers

 

[aero-spaced-out]

Have you considered dip hopping? Throw your hops into the fermenter with a litre of 80c water for 30mins before transferring your wort on top and ferment as normal. I've done this with great results. I've also just thrown them in the serving keg before racking the beer and had great results, just make sure you're using a floating dip tube for that

I had considered the idea of making a dry hop solution that I transfer into my wort but the idea started getting too complicated when I actually started thinking about it so I reverted back to this idea of hop tube in a keg and transfer through an inline filter to remove hop debris to a serving keg.

 

[The Baron]

Unless you are doing a Neipa or a very large dry hop just open the lid and put them in as done for years.
I still do this and have never had a Cardboard beer you only need to be extra careful with Neipa's doing it this way. Just make sure you have a quick sanitised robust way of opening up and closing quickly and you will not have a problem.

 

[aero-spaced-out]

Unless you are doing a Neipa or a very large dry hop just open the lid and put them in as done for years.
I still do this and have never had a Cardboard beer you only need to be extra careful with Neipa's doing it this way. Just make sure you have a quick sanitised robust way of opening up and closing quickly and you will not have a problem.

Aye that's my only thing is that it isn't convenient for me to do so quickly without lifting the entire fermenter out of the chamber which is rather awkward and inconvenient so this was my next best option

 

[The Baron]

If I remember the concensus of opinion in a previous discussion on here was that if you go above 150g dry hop you do really need to start looking at oxygen free hopping but below as long as you have a methodical common sense method you should be ok.

 

[aero-spaced-out]

If I remember the concensus of opinion in a previous discussion on here was that if you go above 150g dry hop you do really need to start looking at oxygen free hopping but below as long as you have a methodical common sense method you should be ok.

I think the TMM Oil for the Neck has a total 138g dry hop.

I'd be looking to keep it reasonably oxygen free in any case of dry hopping, which is another contributing factor to why I landed on the keg idea on top of it suiting my setup more

Popping the tube into the keg and purging with CO2 to mix the air and displace any trapped air in the dry hop tube with the hops should be a somewhat satisfactory approach to minimising oxygen exposure.

Just wondering what sort of liquid loss I'd be looking at as I believe it's pellets.

 

[The Baron]

I could not give you a exact amount but it will be a lot less than with leaf hops. You can minimise the loss with doing what is known as a cold crash although it is a term some brewers do not like as this will drop the hop residue and compact it at the bottom

 

[aero-spaced-out]

I could not give you a exact amount but it will be a lot less than with leaf hops. You can minimise the loss with doing what is known as a cold crash although it is a term some brewers do not like as this will drop the hop residue and compact it.

Happy days, cold crashing has helped with minimising losses in other brews I've done so handy to know it still applies to dry hopping.
2025 is going to be diving into new things in brewing for me.

Thanks for your help.
I'll give this a whirl and keep yas posted on the results!