Keg hopping

[Jason s]

Hi all.

I'm in need of some advice on keg hopping. I made a beer a few weeks ago and was experimenting. Was aiming for body and texture of a neipa without the massive hop additions. The beer turned out good in that respect, nice and soft with nice foamy head. It's lacking any hop flavour as I only had 100g of citra leaf and 100g of mosaic leaf. So my question is can I hop in the keg with some pellets just to make it drinkable as I don't want it going down the drain just yet. I have 10 litres left in a 12 litre keg.

 

[phildo79]

I seem to recall trying this and the beer poured extremely cloudy and a funny colour. I ended up racking to another keg to save the beer.

Has put me off trying keg hopping ever again. I wouldn't use pellets, that's for sure. Hop cones might be a better option?

 

[AnimatedGIF]

I have successfully keg-hopped by placing the hops in a fruit bag to prevent blocking the disconnects with no apparent issues

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

For hop flavour you might be better off with a big hopstand addition. Be aware of how much bitterness you’re adding though and adjust your bittering addition accordingly, you may find you need no bittering addition at all.

Keg hopping is more for aroma though it does affect taste too. I use leaf hops in the keg (within a hop spider) because there is less debris to make your beer murky and less debris to block the dip tube / poppet.

 

[phildo79]

Yeah, a blocked poppet is a right pain in the hole. If it happens, try blasting co2 down the liquid post. But obviously switch disconnects first or getting the grey one off the liquid post can be another pain.

 

[phildo79]

And if swapping disconnects, remember to flush the line first. Adding oxygen to a NEIPA would not be a good idea.

 

[Sadfield]

Hop extract might be a better option for a one off correction. Less messing about.

https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store/Hop-Extract-p241775576

 

[JockyBrewer]

I regularly keg hop. It works much better with pellets than leaf, but you can get something out of leaf.

You need to put the hops into a bag or mesh canister so that they don't block the dip tube or get stuck in the post or disconnect poppets. Ideally you want it on a string or fishing line so you can pull them out when things are hoppy enough for you.

 

[GhostDoggyWoofWoof]

Or use a floating dip tube?

 

[hoppyscotty]

I've keg hopped very successfully before for my main dry hopping process, but never served out of the keg that contained the hops. This is a known process that utilises a separate vessel for the hops called a Randal and the beer is pushed thought the hops as it is served. No reason why it wouldn't work in principle but as others have highlighted will probably affect the clarity of the beer.

One option might be to make a hop tea and use a syringe connected to a ball lock connector and push through the liquid post if you want an o2 free way of doing it, or just take the lid off and pour in and purge. Not sure if you could use a hop extract in this way but the hop extracts I've used, which are mainly intended to be used in the whirlpool, have been really thick and gloopy and not particularly easy or nice to handle. The extracts intended for use in the dry hop might be different and easier to use.

 

[JockyBrewer]

The extracts intended for use in the dry hop might be different and easier to use.

Spectrum is also gloopy and very concentrated - 20ml is the equivalent of 100g of hops - so you're not adding much and getting it mixed in is going to be tricky. Baarth Haas actually recommend adding it late in fermentation to help the fermentation action mix it in.

Perhaps it could be mixed with some sterile warm water and then injected into the keg.

The other option is hop oil extracts, which are a bit more one dimensional, they disperse a bit easier but you're still only putting 2-4ml in a 19 litre keg, so some mixing is required.