What to do?

Kegging
1

i have a pale ale in ferm, been there since sunday (4 days now) krausen is starting to ebb. I want to dry hop with 1.25 oz citra (2.5 G batch). cold crash and/or bottle and/or keg. i read a technique about just tossing pellets in as krausen is fading…i like it. A problem arises as i don’t have all components of my kegerater. i have kegs and c02 but no way of getting c02 INTO keg (i’m ordering in next week).

i would like to know what would be my best option…

1). drop naked pellets in ferm on day 5 as krausen is ebbing/////leave for a week and begin cold crash at 40°for 3 -7 or more days and then put in keg and force carb

2). leave ale in ferm until keg accessories arrive (hopefully by 1/20 - totalling 15ish days) then dry hopping for a week then cold crash at 40° for 4 days then kegging (i used whirfloc also)

3). wait until I hit FG then put in keg at 40°(no carb - with pellets in sanitized sack) until accessories arrive then carb

4). something else i haven’t thought of (or mentioned - including bottling)

2

I would go with #2 personally. If your hell bent on dry hopping as krausen falls you could do #1.

3

I would do # 2 or #3 but you don’t have any way to purge oxygen out with #3. 5 days is WAY to early to take out of primary

4

Definitely leave it in the primary at fermentation temperatures for AT LEAST another week, 2 weeks would be better.

After that, cold crash and either dry hop for a week followed by kegging, or transfer to the keg with your dry hops inside the keg in a bag. I’ll typically do the latter, and I’ll use a length of Teflon tape (one end tied around the bag, other end held between the lid o-ring and the o-ring seat) to suspend the bag so it can’t sink all the way to the bottom and clog the beer tube. Seems to help preserve the hop aroma a bit better.