I am in the process of reformulating our DIPA recipe. I plan to open ferment in a used 1000 gallon dairy tank. I want to dry hop with whole leaf hops, so I am thinking I will bag them and toss them into a conical, when the beer is nearly done fermenting, push the beer over into the conical with the hop bags, and spund the tank. Are there any issues I should be aware of with dry hopping this way? I've never used whole leaf at my brewery because our hop ports are so small.
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Originally posted by honkey View PostI am in the process of reformulating our DIPA recipe. I plan to open ferment in a used 1000 gallon dairy tank. I want to dry hop with whole leaf hops, so I am thinking I will bag them and toss them into a conical, when the beer is nearly done fermenting, push the beer over into the conical with the hop bags, and spund the tank. Are there any issues I should be aware of with dry hopping this way? I've never used whole leaf at my brewery because our hop ports are so small.
Also; an anecdote. Couple years ago we 'fresh-dry-hopped' a batch of our fresh hop ale. Took 20lbs of the wet hops, put them on a screen with a fan aimed at them for 10 days up in the office while the main fresh hop beer fermented. Then fed a long tubular mesh bag into the 4" dryhop port on another sanitized and purged fermenter, fed the hops into the sack, tied it off and dropped it in, then jumped the beer over much like you propose. Come time to rack, everything was going fine till the bag got stuck in the racking arm and the flow came to a crawl. Eventually we could tell the level was below the manway (no liquid came out the zwickle). So my assistant brewer sanitized his arm, popped the manway, took a big deep breath and reached in to free the bag.
Nope. Lesson learned, never doing that again.Russell Everett
Co-Founder / Head Brewer
Bainbridge Island Brewing
Bainbridge Island, WA
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Get a torpedo or similar vessel. We only use whole hops and the ease of use versus trying to weight down bags in the fermentor is well worth the cost. Also much safer than carrying bags of hops up a ladder (or making an assistant reach into a pure CO² environment).
Cheers.Last edited by Mike Elliott; 02-12-2016, 06:40 PM.Mike Elliott
Head Brewer
Philipsburg Brewing Co.
Montana
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Originally posted by Mike Elliott View PostGet a torpedo or similar vessel. We only use whole hops and the ease of use versus trying to weight down bags in the fermentor is well worth the cost. Also much safer than carrying bags of hops up a ladder (or making an assistant reach into a pure CO² environment).
Cheers.Head Brewer
Brazen Hall Kitchen & Brewery
Winnipeg, MB Canada
brazenhall.ca
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Also hate cleaning it. We have the vertical variety from GW Kent. The bottom wedge wire screen has lifting handles.
We lift the screen with the forklift and a sling to get the entire hop plug out at once. It helps to let it drain overnight if you have the time. Generally, though, hops go everywhere and we spend lots of time picking them up. I'll post a pic Monday when I'm doing it again.Mike Elliott
Head Brewer
Philipsburg Brewing Co.
Montana
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Hi Lance, I think it has ben awhile since you posted this, but where did you get the conical strainer you have in the picture on this post?
And, were/are you just throwing whole cones in the FV with this strainer in the bottom? Or are you still bagging the hops?
Cheers!
Originally posted by nohandslance View PostIs useful if you have a 4" t'c port on the bottom of the the fermenter with stand pipe and drain port.
Makes for a beautiful hop essence while racking.
Lance
Rebel Malting Co.
Reno, Nevada USA
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