Dry hop in keg or primary

Beer is in primary still but it has reached its FG. Trying to decide whether to dry hop in the primary and let it sit for a few days or transfer beer into a keg and dry hop.

Either way I’m planning on bagging the hops. It’s 1oz Citra and 1oz Mosaic. Probably an oz in each bag with some marbles as weight.

If I transfer to the keg can I just purge it, transfer and drop the bags in there with some fishing line to hang it from the opening, set the pressure to 20 psi to seat the lid vent a couple times. Then check for leaks, pull the gas line off then vent the keg and let it sit warm for a few days before carbing?

I’ve not done it but have considered it at length and what you’ve outlined sounds solid to me.

Personally, I toss dry hops in a muslin bag directly into keg after transferring. Then I purge the headspace and let it sit at room temperature for the prescribed number of days before putting in kegerator to carb and serve. Typically I blow kegs in right around a month so I just leave the bags in for the duration. I’ve never noticed any vegetal or grassy taste that some have described by leaving the dry hops in too long.

:beers:
Rad

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I’ve left dry hops in for over 6 months and not run into grassy flavors. I think the risk is highly blown out of proportion, and is actually caused by oxidation. Not sure I’m ready to call this one a homebrew myth, but I’ve had plenty of small brewery bottled IPAs with a grassy flavor, which I think is much more likely due to oxidation during packaging. Just my 2 cents.

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I find that room temp is best… leave it for 3-4 days, either rack into keg, or chill the keg… I don’t have a preference as to which way… Maybe you take tasing notes and compare what you find… I do get grassy flavor if I try dry hop cold in the keg… hence the room temp first. Sneezles61

I’ve been dry hopping in the keg on last few batches just to save a few days wait. Just blew a keg that had a 3 oz dry hop since August and it still tasted great.

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Anyone transfer it through the liquid out post? Is there any special technique for this process? Probably have to pull the PRV or remove it to let it flow?

Well looks like fishing line is too thick to seal through the lid. Thought that was the case but only had mint floss so that’s what I used. Everything went smoothly and easily using a sterile siphon starter and through liquid out post.

Question should I just keep pressure I sealed the lid with on it if I’m going to keep it warm for a few days? Or won’t it matter because it will equalize eventually. Will it be a good enough seal if the pressure isn’t on it until I set it and forget it?

Funny you should ask…

LOL

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Nice work! I liked how easy it was to fill without a hose down to the bottom. No matter how well I position the hose I always hear it spraying around. My process wasn’t a closed transfer but it was pretty easy. First time using a sterile siphon starter and it was way nicer IMO to not have to pump the auto siphon and have to keep the hose from moving around. Plus it was a stainless racking cane. I made the sterile siphon starter instead of buying it because I already had most of the pieces. I need a longer racking cane though and it doesn’t have the orange tip on the end but worked well.

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I usually Dry Hop in a Big Mouth 5 gallon Carboy (transferring from Primary after 2 weeks) using Leaf Hops in an appropriate bag for another week. Then transfer contents to one key then filter it to another. It’s a lot of work but it turns out great tasting very clear beer. Only issue with dry hopping in keg is having hops get into the output line clogging it up. The issue with dry hopping the primary is the narrow opening if using a 6.5 gallon carboy. Hope that helps.

Should you like to dry hop in the keg, don’t worry about carbing while its at room temp… CO2 won’t readily dissolve into solution at room temp… hence cold conditioning… I have a SS shish kabob skewer with a little hook bent on the end to fish a bag out… Very seldom ever use it… I will dry hop AFTER primary fermentation is done… in the same fermenter… Sneezles61

I’m a keg DH’er. I quit trying to use even floss to secure hop bags due to loss of CO2 pressure. Just drop em in, leave em til the keg kicks.

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Cold or before you chill it? Sneezles61

Yeah I meant like while it’s still warm. Plan on a few days still around 68° before chilling and hooking up the CO2. Just thinking I wanted to make sure it was sealed. Not sure how well it seals without any pressure on it.

I dry hop for 3-5 days at room temp before chilling. I’ve found that hop aroma will be retained longer this way. When I’ve gone straight to the fridge on dry hopping it seems like the aroma starts to fade after a few weeks in the keg. JMHO and YMMV

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Usually not well. but I doubt anything will get in as there is perhaps a very small amount of CO2 from a bit of “clean up” fermenting going on. Sneezles61

I have been doing the same as dannyboy… taking the idea from him after reading his post previously on the subject. I have done it with multiple IPA batches and they tasted great right up till the kegs were empty. I don’t even recall having any “stuff” in the first couple of pints nor was there any mess left behind when the keg was empty. Just dumped the bag out and cleaned. It really simplifies things by going from the primary right to the keg, dry hop, seal it up and no more chances to oxidize the beer by transferring it around to secondaries etc. I have a keg of chinook ipa that is dry hopping right now and 5 days will be up on thursday so I will drop the temp to 38 and start carbing then.

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