I have an. IPA in my keg 3 plus weeks. I dry hopped with cascade in the fermenter about a week and then kegged without the hops. At first it had a nice cascade flavor which has no dissipated a bit. Can I open the keg now and toss in some more or is it best to leave it be?
You can toss more in but each time you do, you risk contamination. I like the taste of freshly hopped IPA’s for sure. I usually put the hops in a bag and let it hang with a piece of dentil floss.
I threw a sack full of hops in one of my kegs and just left it in there it was nice. This one was just waiting to be kegged so I figured what the heck. I thought about throwing it in the keg also when I racked the beer but decided not to. Ever done that or do they get fun key from the yeast?
I love dry hoping in the keg and have even done it half way through a keg a few times with good results.
Every hoppy beer gets keg-hopped. Probably depends on the hop variety, but with the classic American hops I’ve never had any grassiness from leaving the hop bags in the beer for months. If aroma is lagging, I’ll add a fresh bag (using pellets) and let the keg come to room temp for at least a couple of days, then return it to the chest freezer.
[quote=“Shadetree”]Every hoppy beer gets keg-hopped. Probably depends on the hop variety, but with the classic American hops I’ve never had any grassiness from leaving the hop bags in the beer for months. If aroma is lagging, I’ll add a fresh bag (using pellets) and let the keg come to room temp for at least a couple of days, then return it to the chest freezer.[/quote]Just curious, why let the keg get to room temp for a few days?
I don’t have any pellets handy but I have about an oz of leaf hops in the freezer. I’ll toss those in. They are the last of home grown from last season. They are probably loosing some punch. That may have been the problem.
Shade, does the beer ever drop clear when you leave the hops in the keg?
I’ve only DH’d in the keg once recently and pulled the hop bag after a week. The beer is still pretty cloudy with hop particulates a week later. It stayed in the fridge at 36 the whole time. My beers usually drop really clear after a few days in the keg.
[quote=“MullerBrau”]Just curious, why let the keg get to room temp for a few days?[/quote]Hop extraction at serving temp is a couple orders of magnitude smaller than at room temp, so at least a few days warmer really helps bring the hop character back quickly.
[quote=“dannyboy58”]Shade, does the beer ever drop clear when you leave the hops in the keg?[/quote]I use 4" paper tea bags for dryhopping and there is no hop powder in the beer.
I was wondering about that because when I hopped in the fermentor and then bottled as opposed to the keg the beer seemed to be hopier and so was I. That was why I thought to dry hop in the fermentor then throw that hop sack in the keg while racking. I didn’t do that last time but it seemed a shame since the hops still smelled awesome.
Does it matter if the hop sack floats on top ? I put weight in the sack but apparently not enough.
I’ve done a lot of research on dry hopping in the keg and have found that I far prefer dry hopping in primary or secondary. It had a lot to do with the ever changing flavor and aroma if the hops as the keg progresses. Not saying it’s a bad thing, just that it doesn’t work well for me.
I prefer DHing in the fermenter also but recently it’s been DH in the keg out of necessity. What? We killed that keg already? Guess we’re dry hopping that next IPA in the keg!
I agree with Shadetree, temps greatly affect dry hop character/time.
I caution against the use of pellets in the keg-- you can do it, and plenty of brewers do, but if your bag’s mesh isn’t fine enough, or somehow opens, you have a problem on your hands. I like to use leaf hops in a nylon bag, and ideally, I add it to the keg BEFORE I siphon the beer in. However, I have added them after the fact to brighten up a keg that needs more fresh hop character.
No dental floss for me.
Yeah I use a hop bag with pellet hops in the keg. My typical MO is to fill the bag with hops and a few marbles, drop into keg, and rack beer on top of it. Depending on space, the keg may sit at room temperature until I have room in my keezer. I’ve kinda gotten away from keg hopping lately as Ive found that the beer changes so much over the course of its life span in the keg. I actually prefer to just drop once or twice in the primary.
