Does dropping the temp cause hops to settle to the bottom of the fermentation chamber? Obviously yeast floculate when cooled, but why would hop debris fall? I noticed a couple of threads relating to crash cooling to clear a heavily dry hopped beer. As I clean out my dip tube and beer post for the 5th time during this keg I am looking for some technique changes. I dry hop 6 oz of hop pellets for a 10 gallon batch of very aromatic IPA. Most of the time I don't have a problem, but maybe 10% of the time it seems to clog the S*&t out of the system. I know, I know... I could bag the hops. But that is a lot more work than simply dropping in 2 oz bags of hops every other day a week prior to kegging. Maybe try strainer cloth over the racking arm on the fermenter when transferring to keg?
As you noted, cold temps help yeast settle faster, but it's a biological thing, i.e. it encourages flocculation. Other particulate matter is not affected the same way. For stuff other than yeast, settling should happen slightly faster at warmer temps. Edit: I should have quailified that statement...I'm talking about stuff that's heavy enough where gravity is more important than the effect of being bounced around by molecular motion of the liquid.
My non-bagged pellet hops that I dry hop with always seem to settle out after 2-3 days of crash cooling. I don't know if it's causation or just correlation though. I've had dry hops settle w/o the crash cooling too. I just never really paid attention and compared the amount of time it took for one scenario vs. the other. Vikeman's reply makes sense though. Yeast settling due to cold is biological. Can't say the same for hops.
Get you one of these..... SS and easy to install, and at 5.99 you can't beat it. You do have to short'en the dip tube by about a 1/2'', but I get good clear beer all the way through the keg.
Why would you not bag and dryhop in the keg? Whole cone or pellets...it doesn't really matter...if the keg's in a keezer/frig/out in the garage in winter...it is being cold crashed automatically. The $5.99 SS sounds good...but for a lot of kegs is a little pricey. As many IPAs as I brew, I should probably consider it
I can't tell from the picture, does this clip on to the end of the dip tube? I already shortened the dip tubes on all my kegs to stop from pulling from the very bottom where the hops have settled. BTW, this is the first batch that I've tried carb'ing with a 0.5 micron stone on the end of 2' of tubing. I think maybe adding the CO2 to the bottom of the keg may be stirring the hop debris more than standard carb'ing.
One comment about crash cooling heavily hopped beers in the fermenter that I recently thought of. When you cool the fermenter, you will form a vacuum due to the temperature in the headspace dropping. If you've used a blowoff before, you will notice sanitizer sucked into your fermenter. You definitely don't want that. If you use an airlock forever, you'll begin sucking ambient fridge air through the airlock into the fermenter. It won't be a bacterial problem per se, but it could result in oxidation of your hoppy beer, which is not what you want. Unless you have a way to maintain a CO2 blanket in your fermenter, I wouldn't advise crash cooling an IPA. I've had one negative experience with this in the past, anyone else experience this?
Very good point. I've thought about this issue a lot. How about these 2 solutions? 1) bung the fermenter prior to crashing. (easiest) 2) keep blow-off bucket in fridge with the fermenter so there is not a pressure difference. This would require a small hole / conduit in fridge door to allow C02 to exit fridge during active fermentation.
This is one reason I never dryhop/coldcrash in the primary. So much easier to drain to purged keg with hops waiting and then lager. Never been a big believer in dryhopping in primary anyway.
I agree that dry hopping in the primary may not be the best, but technically, i'm dry hopping in the secondary as i dump the yeast after 10 days (or when gravity is stable). I think it is more of an issue of bagging the hops or not. I like to add the dry hops in 2 or 3 separate charges which isn't possible in the keg. (GreenKrusty101, this is what I do for less hop heavy beers though and I think it works great. I hang an ounce of pellets in a 3" SS tea ball from the underside of the keg lid.) I'd love some sort of hop spider type device for the inside of my 10g fermenter. That way I could pop the lid, dump in 2 oz. of pellets every 2 days and not have to worry about the debris when it is time to keg. Fast, simple, no need to sanitize bags, string, etc.
http://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php this website looks like they might have something that could work... very cool stuff
"I think it is more of an issue of bagging the hops or not." Bag, unless you like clogged fittings. As far as multiple additions, if they are relatively small (2 oz or less), you shouldn't have problem popping your lid and changing out hop bags, although from my experience it's not worth the time or chance of introducing oxygen and doesn't really allow you to easily use whole cones. I leave my bagged hops in purged, cold kegs for months sometimes and haven't experienced any negatives. YMMV Cheers
It does seem easier. For an IPA, I normally harvest the yeast around day 10, dry hop on 14, 16, 18 and then keg on day 24. 7-14 days on CO2 before tapping. Would you suggest kegging on day 14? Also, I've read that there may be more oil/aroma extraction w/ dry hopping at warmer temps. How about kegging onto bagged hops at day 14, let it condition warm for 7-10 days, then cool and carbonate? Essentially the keg would serve as a bunged secondary vessel.
I don't harvest yeast usually, so I can see why your timeline might be different...my primary is usually 2-3 weeks. With my 10 gal. batches, I will usually let the dryhopped keg that will be served first sit at room temp for a week before lagering...the other one goes immediately into cold storage. ps I don't make a big production when I sanitize my hop bags and floss...just dunk in Starsan and fill bags (using some of the Stasan solution that came out of the previously prepped keg).
No, both are dryhopped if it's an IPA usually, but the one that is not getting served first will go immediately into cold storage (the extra time makes up for no room temp extraction)
I don't think these would work. If you seal the fermenter - you are still forming a vacuum. As soon as you pop the bung, a rush of air will come in - if the air doesn't penetrate the bucket seal anyway. Even the second option won't prevent the vacuum, as soon as the fermenter is cooled the vacuum would form. One option could be to provide a very gentle flow of CO2 over the headspace during the cooling period to prevent this. Just thinking out loud here, I'm not completely sure how much of an issue this is or if this is a good idea.
