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Can anyone recomend equipment and techniques for dry-hopping 30 BBl batches? We'll be dry-hopping with pellet hops...approximately 22# per 30 BBL's. On our 1 BBL pilot system, we have had success with dry-hopping directly into the fermenter post-fermentation. We're not sure how the bigger boys do it. Hop backs, adding direct to the fermenters or BBT's, there's more ways then one to skin this cat. What is everybody doing these days?
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Dry Hopping
I'm a brewer at a large, regional brewery. When dry hopping in batches up to 400bbl we just pour our hops into the top of the tanks from the roof. In the larger tanks we have a recirc system from Krones that uses an impeller with teeth on it to grind up the pellets. There are some other cool tools like Rolec DH and the Braukon hop gun but on your scale I'd recommend just sticking to the old fashioned way.
Relieve any head pressure on your tank beforehand, then open the manway and pour in a small amount of your hops. For us this is a 10kg bag, but yeah, scale. It is imperative that you immediately seal your tank after tossing in your first bit of hops. The hops will create nucleation sites and depending on how full the tank is you risk a beer geyser causing losses, poor extraction, and possibly a safety risk.
We wait ~10 minutes for things to calm down after tossing in the first bit then open up the tank, make sure the coast is clear and then proceed with the rest of them. Always be mindful that you could be creating nucleation sites but things should be calm enough for you to finish the job. Once you're done, sani your gaket and cap, or whatever your tank may have and seal it up.
We've found that dry hopping at the end of primary, but when yeast is still active provides better extraction (as determined by GC), but everyone is different.
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