Keg Hopping Sanitation Issues

I immerse my bag in boiling water to sanitize. Because it is sort of porous, I figure heat may be more effective than chemicals, but others do chemicals and probably do fine. I drain the water and add hops to my bag. I like the 5 gal bag because hops tend to expand. I throw some chemically sanitized marbles in the bag to help keep one end anchored on the bottom of the keg. I lower it into the keg. I purge the keg with CO2, than I rack. I handle the bags with my ungloved hands, which may or may not have been dipped in sanitizer. Probably not.

I don't worry much about infection at this stage because of the beer is much more hostile to infections with its low sugar, low pH, and high alcohol, and because the keg is going to be dropped to near freezing temps pretty soon.

 

I starsan a small hop bag, fill with hops and tie it fairly tightly to the liquid dip tube then slide it down towards the bottom of the keg. I don't put it all the way down as I don't want anything clogging it. Then rack to the keg and just leave it alone until it kicks. I'm still working on a C02 transfer to eliminate oxygen but that's a story for another thread...

 

I use a 5 gallon paint bag and boil it for a few min in a small saucepan with lid. The bag is not completely immersed and I stir it around. Dump water but keep bag in saucepan.

Move to kegging area.

Put hops in bag, tie off bag, throw in keg. No floss no marbles no shit.

Now rack the beer to the keg. Once the hops start floating I put the tubing on top of the hops and hold them down a bit to get beer all through there with the idea of purging oxygen.

Proceed as usual.

I do carb by the shake method. I believe that all the shaking extracts much of the oil right away, thus no inert object to hold hops down (not that I think it is needed anyway). I leave the hops in there for the duration, thus no floss.

I think 5 oz was the most i ever put in the 5 gallon bag.

 

This made me laugh.

Yep. I use a weighted bag, already suspended mid-keg before racking. This applies to dry-hopping and dry-beaning.

 

RE: Wet socks, my girlfriend noticed that I had a nasty habit of spilling beer on the floor when bottling, so she got me a plastic bin that's about 12x16" at the dollar store that I now use to catch drips and overflows. That said, last time I filled my keg was only the second time I had done so and it didn't occur to me that I might have more beer in my carboy than the keg could hold. I had a major overflow, and the only reason my socks didn't get wet is because I wasn't wearing any. After a very thorough cleaning of my basement floor, I have decided that I would put my keg in that little bin the next time I fill it. 10 seconds of preparation can save you 30 minutes of mopping!

 

I boil a paint strainer bag w/ section of SS chain along w/ floss and zip tie. Drain water. Place hops in bag while still in the pot. Zip tie off with floss looped in the zip tie, attach to lid w/ SS hose clamp. Seal up keg and purge. Rack beer into sealed keg via CO2 through liquid out until it starts coming out the PRV.

 

I boil the hop bag, attach it to the PRV valve on the underside of the lid, and place it inside the keg before racking. Before I started transferring under Co2, I just left the lid open enough to put the tube inside the keg.

 

I have one of these and am pretty much in love with it. Easy to sanitize, just tie some string to the lid. Before I got one of these I considered using a fishing bobber to hold the other end of the string, which I still may do. I am also now doing pressurized transfers from the conical to the keg, which was sanitized and sanitizer flushed out with CO2, so it is full of CO2 when you get the hops and beer in there.

 

As others have suggested...rack beer AFTER hops are placed in purged keg.

cheers