Dry hopping in Grainfather Conical- avoiding blockages

[Jon Luke]

I’ve just bottled after dry hopping with hops and juniper berries. The sample valve got completely blocked with these ingredients even though a drew off trub first. Perhaps I should have cold crashes first.
I’ve seen hop tubes being used but how do you suspend these or don’t you need to.
Any other solutions for avoiding blockages when bottling. I’m trying to avoid buying CO2.

 

[peebee]

Tubes or small balls, stainless steel mesh (but small balls only for small quantities, 10-20g of pellets, the balls are usually for tea). But they're a pain to clean and sanitise (oven at 110-120C seems okay, only silicone extras, not plastics). Buoyancy for balls to stop them sinking in yeast sediment maybe, no need for tubes. Marbles to sink tubes if using whole hops. Some folk use fabric mesh bags). I'm sure suspending them have arguments for, but I can't be bothered ... if it's too much trouble, it's another reason "to forget it" (which isn't the answer!).

But these methods are a pain (I often forget to organise them in time). I was hoping just drawing off sediment before chucking in pellets free would work, but you're putting me off that!

"Hop tea", aroma extracts and "hop teabags" even (expensive and limited choice). Perhaps someone will post a good solution (I'll be watching!). At the moment I'm hoping my new "hop back" (a hop "missile", the poor-man's, or in my case ... the skinflint's, Blichmann "Hop Rocket") might be an adequate solution (but adds the hops, hot, before fermentation, and is too expensive, but needs-must...).

Good luck!

 

[Jon Luke]

Thanks for putting so much thought to this. I’m liking your suggestion of mesh hop tube . Something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/CENPEK-Hop...3&psc=1&mcid=6dc921e13d2b3c9aa29f17ce79bbac71

I think this would sit at the bottom of the fermenter and not block things.

In hindsight I think if I’d been more patient and spent a couple of days cold crashing and trub dumping it may have helped .

 

[peebee]

Something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/CENPEK-Hop...3&psc=1&mcid=6dc921e13d2b3c9aa29f17ce79bbac71

That's them.

(No extra thought, so no need for "thanks" ... it's my current active project; getting this "hop missile" sorted together with "no-chill cubes" and hopefully not have to worry about dry-hopping again?).

 

[JockyBrewer]

I've had the same issue with this fermenter, of which I really dislike the whole tap assembly!

Basically you will need to dump more when you do a big dry hop, or there is the longer sample valve pipework you can buy, but I've not had to do that even with a 200g+ dry hop.

Dump the trub and yeast before you dry hop, and then don't let the hops settle for more than a couple of days before dumping them. Once they're at the bottom of your conical cone they're not going to be doing much anyway (this is a problem with a conical). If you're doing a big dry hop you might want to split it into 2/3 batches, and give each one a couple of days before dumping to help avoid clogging the dump valve.

 

[Deadhead]

+1 on the dumping every few days - Don't let it build up