Hello everyone. I work as a brewer in a small development lab. I have a 50 liter brewhouse and the same fermenters. Please tell me where I can buy a small HopGun for dry hopping. (Our big brewery used BrauKon HopGun and I look same equipment, but in small scale). Thank you in advance, Rafael
I have never seen anything like that personally. It looks to be something that the beer is passed through to dry hop a beer without actually opening the fermentor. Is that correct? Kind of sound like Sierra Nevada's hop torpedo. I would wonder if it could not be made using some pumps and a separate fermentor or other tank, and just purge the whole system with CO2 after hops were added. Otherwise, I have never seen something similar on a homebrew scale out there.
I am not aware of a hop gun product for the homebrew scale. I would guess a 'trick' to implementing something like this (e.g., per suggestion above by @Granitebeard) is that you would need an implementation that can operate under pressure plus have the needed ports from the fermenter. Maybe some BA who has mechanical engineering skills can further postulate here. Cheers!
Kind of what I was thinking was getting something like the SS Brewtech Unitank or Brite tank and putting hops in one then transferring between the two vessels with a pump. Not sure if that is what he is looking to do really, but would run around $2.5K US which is probably out of most of our price ranges, but where he is working for a brewery, maybe they can swing it.
A more economical solution would be to implement a smaller 'tank' (i.e., just big enough to contain the intended dry hop amount like perhaps less than 16 ounces for a 50 liter batch) and then via a pump circulate the beer through this dry hop 'tank'. Unless there is a vendor who produces a hop gun of this size this is something that an intrepid brewer with mechanical skills would need to jury rig up. Cheers!
Like @Granitebeard says put them in the bride tanks or a secondary fermenter, flush with co2 and done. Money saved.
That's what I was thinking; isn't this exactly what the HopRocket's purpose is? That said... I'm not in love with my HopRocket. I use a dedicated corny keg with a steel mesh screen filter around the dip tube (as others have previously suggested).
The Blichmann HopRocket came to mind for me as well. Since it only holds 3 - 4 oz pellet hops, they'd need to be installed in series to accommodate a 50L system. Might be a pain to clean and purge, not to mention costly @ $135 per Rocket. What is it about the HopRocket that you don't like?
I did a quick web search and discovered that there is another product similar to the HopRocket called the Hop Missile. Below is an interesting video review of the Hop Missile: Cheers!
Thanks for the video, Jack. It pointed out an error in my previous post where I should have said the HopRocket holds "3 - 4 oz pellet leaf hops".
That would indeed be consistent with the Blichmann recommendations with this product. Maybe some intrepid homebrewer would be willing to conduct an exBEERiment akin to the video above as to whether a HopRocket would still 'work' with pellets? Cheers! P.S. Perhaps the 'trick' to using pellets in these sorts of devices is to layer the pellets with rice hulls?
