I'm going to try keg hopping an IPA I have been planning. I am new to kegging and want to take advantage of it for IPA's. I have read that some do and some don't keg hop. Some say they get no vegetal flavors from long exposure and others say they do. I was wondering what your experiences or recommendations are. I planning on actually doing a split batch in two kegs. Keg hop 2.5 gallons with 2 oz of whole leaf Amarillo and the other 2.5 gal with 2 oz of pellet Mosaic.
I hop in the keg, but I rack the beer to another keg after about two weeks. I'm one of those who gets grassy, vegetal flavors from the hops after long exposure. Others don't. Go figure!
I pull my keg hops after 7 days max. Otherwise the beer tends to pick up a grassy flavor. Whatever it is, it may be something with different thresholds for different people. Besides, in that short time frame, you're getting just about all the oils out anyway. i.e. diminishing returns the longer they steep.
I have done keg hopping and not had grassy flavors, but I only do it if the keg is going right into the kegerator. @mikehartigan and @VikeMan what temp are your kegs at when you keg hop?
I've done room temp (70-ish) and keezer temp (40). Temperature seems to affect how fast the oil extraction happens, but either way I got grassy if left too long. Who knows, this could also be dependent on hop variety or any number of other factors.
I typically keg hop for 4-5 days to avoid grassy flavors or 6 - 10 days if I want a little of them in the mix. Then I push the beer via co2 closed transfer into a serving keg.
My plan was to do the first addition in a purged keg at basement temps. Then transfer to 2 separate new kegs for serving with different hops in each. If its not recommended to leave the second dose in for too long (7-10 days max), then could I just pull them out of the serving keg. I guess I'm wondering if I risk oxidation if I de-pressurize and open it up to pull out the hops. I'll do the rest of my process with closed transfers. I'm just trying to avoid cleaning and prepping 5 kegs in total.
What I usually do these days is either a single dry hop in a keg and push to a serving keg via closed transfer, or a first dry hop in the primary fermenter / second in a keg / push to serving keg. You can listen to recommendations all you want, but until you actually experiment with various dry hopping techniques and times you won't know what is most or least agreeable to your own palate.
I get great results from using a paint strainer weighted with marbles for 5-7 days at cellar-room temp, then pull sack out, and carb, after a few days things have mostly cleared and the hop aroma is bright and explosive. Never had grassy notes. I'm a bit lazy and don't really find a need to push it into another keg but if you can avoid oxygen then I'm sure it only helps. Try to avoid venting the keg unnecessarily.
Speaking of keg hopping, I've done it for a while now. I'm a HUGE proponent of leaf hops in the keg, and if I need pellets, I try and find a leaf variety I have to go with it to help keep the debris down in the hop bag, or any small particulate from floating out. That said.. I would imagine with leaf you'd be putting in a little higher amount of oxygen into the beer with the leaf hops, no? In any case, I used to do it at keezer temps and carb it all while doing so. I've since stopped and resorted back to no more than 10 days in the keg at ambient temp, and pulling the dryhops.
I was wondering if hop variety mattered. Perhaps some hops are safer than others. One of the science types should do an experiment
I use a similar method. I use the muslin bags they sell at HB stores, fill them with my hops, and use a piece of plain dental floss as a "fishing line". I tie the line to the handle of my keg, insert the hops bag into the beer, close and carb the keg, and leave it in for up to two weeks. Using the floss allows easy extraction, and the ten seconds the keg is opened for this has NEVER caused any adverse affects for me. There should enough CO2 in suspension to ward off any Oxygen penetration.
Yes. It's cold, it's carbonated, it's done, it's BEER! About 20 mins after adding the hops to the keg, draw a glass. The hop hit is almost orgasmic! I'm speculating that there's some hop 'dust' settling around the dip tube and getting drawn up into that first glass. It fades to a more 'normal' level after that. This is with pellets, BTW. It may not work with cones.
