Dry hop equipment

[Josh Wheatley]

Hey guys! Any opinions appreciated. I want to dry hop my next batch but I am unsure as to what to use for it. I've seen teabag looking options as well as stainless steel/mesh tube pieces. Who has used either and what is your preference? And why? Thank you for any info you guys have! Hoppy brewing!

[Captain 3 Droids]

5 minutes ago, Josh Wheatley said:

Hey guys! Any opinions appreciated. I want to dry hop my next batch but I am unsure as to what to use for it. I've seen teabag looking options as well as stainless steel/mesh tube pieces. Who has used either and what is your preference? And why? Thank you for any info you guys have! Hoppy brewing!

Hi Josh. I use either the hop bomb like this 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Stainless-Hop-Bomb-/154362253257?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

or a hop bag like these

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5pcs-Nylon-Straining-Bag-Fine-Mesh-Homebrew-Beer-Wine-Cider-Dry-Hop-6-Sizes-/113778796931?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Now I don’t suggest you buy these sellers in particular, go to your local brew shop or search about. Both need to be sanitised before adding the hops and putting in the droid. Soak the bag and ring out. 
 

The hop bomb I use for up to 30g of pellets and if requiring more I use a hop bag.

 

[Josh Wheatley]

Hey Cap, thank you for the tips. I also already have the dry hop filter coming in from brewart. Should I use that in tandem with the bag/bomb?

Edited March 27, 2021 by Josh Wheatley

[Captain 3 Droids]

12 minutes ago, Josh Wheatley said:

Hey Cap, thank you for the tips. I also already have the dry hop filter coming in from brewart. Should I use that in tandem with the bag/bomb?

Won’t hurt Josh, will give less sediment in your bottles/kegs.

Ps where about are you? 

[Josh Wheatley]

California

[Thagomizer]

I bottled my first BeerDroid dry-hop batch yesterday.  It was a Big Bear Imperial Brown Ale.  The dry hop bottling adapter leaked so I lost a little spillage.  I called in the problem and they are sending me a replacement adapter.  This will not be a factor for kegging.

I have dry hopped before using conical fermenters with the hops in a muslin bag.  This often clogged the bottom outlet.  I have not tried the stainless steel fine-mesh cage to enclose the hops.  That may have promise if it can avoid clogging the drain.  I hope someone will post results of this - with details on which mesh container was used.

[Captain 3 Droids]

7 minutes ago, Thagomizer said:

I bottled my first BeerDroid dry-hop batch yesterday.  It was a Big Bear Imperial Brown Ale.  The dry hop bottling adapter leaked so I lost a little spillage.  I called in the problem and they are sending me a replacement adapter.  This will not be a factor for kegging.

I have dry hopped before using conical fermenters with the hops in a muslin bag.  This often clogged the bottom outlet.  I have not tried the stainless steel fine-mesh cage to enclose the hops.  That may have promise if it can avoid clogging the drain.  I hope someone will post results of this - with details on which mesh container was used.

I use these, goog for 30g:- https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/265031537666.  ( note there are different sizes) With the Droid I’ve used both the ss ball and hop bags and never had the tap inlet block. I always drop to the back.

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Captain 3 Droids

[Thagomizer]

Thanks to Captain 3 Droids,

I see how this can work.  I will obtain some of these meshes for future dry hopping.

[J P]

How do you sanitatize the mesh bags?

[Captain 3 Droids]

2 minutes ago, J P said:

How do you sanitatize the mesh bags?

Put in a jar with star san sanitiser for a few minutes, wring out with sanitised hands, put pellets in and away you go. 

[J P]

Thank you for the advice Captain, since using these “sock hops” (mesh bags) i’ve been able to get away with not using the DH filter at all, as they catch all the sediment.   

I do “wring out” the bag before kegging to get those last bits of hoppy goodness to infuse into the droid…

major game changer.  I bought the hops balls and haven’t used them yet, because these socks really work well….

[Eltham Brauhaus]

21 hours ago, J P said:

Thank you for the advice Captain, since using these “sock hops” (mesh bags) i’ve been able to get away with not using the DH filter at all, as they catch all the sediment.   

I do “wring out” the bag before kegging to get those last bits of hoppy goodness to infuse into the droid…

major game changer.  I bought the hops balls and haven’t used them yet, because these socks really work well….

I gave away the use of the hop filter due to leaks and switched to s/s mesh balls. I have two in case I need extra dry hops capacity. Pro’s: cheap to purchase, easy to clean and sanitise. Con’s: none

[Dustin Frothman]

On 02/08/2021 at 10:43 AM, Eltham Brewing House said:

I gave away the use of the hop filter due to leaks and switched to s/s mesh balls. I have two in case I need extra dry hops capacity. Pro’s: cheap to purchase, easy to clean and sanitise. Con’s: none

Cons: if you want to use large amounts of hops then you need either more balls (sounds uncomfortable) or a hop sock (slightly messy) or a hop tube (perhaps a tight fight) ... and the extra displacement of the brew in the Droid throws out the volume index markings for kegging.

I use either the "dump the hops in the fermenter" and hop ball approach depending on the quantities.

[Eltham Brauhaus]

1 hour ago, Dustin Frothman said:

Cons: if you want to use large amounts of hops then you need either more balls (sounds uncomfortable) or a hop sock (slightly messy) or a hop tube (perhaps a tight fight) ... and the extra displacement of the brew in the Droid throws out the volume index markings for kegging.

I use either the "dump the hops in the fermenter" and hop ball approach depending on the quantities.

With respect, using two hop balls or more isn’t a con. They are cheap enough, easy and clean to use and they don’t cause any extra displacement of the brew, the hops do but not not the open mesh balls.

[Dustin Frothman]

2 hours ago, Eltham Brewing House said:

With respect, using two hop balls or more isn’t a con. They are cheap enough, easy and clean to use and they don’t cause any extra displacement of the brew, the hops do but not not the open mesh balls.

2 hop balls, sure, that’ll cover up to 80 grams of pellets.

Have you brewed anything with 100+ grams yet? You’ll need 3 or perhaps 4 hop balls for that as they’re good for approx 40 grams each.

I brewed an IPA with 150 grams of pellet hops last year. I wouldn’t bother trying that with hop balls as I’d need 5 in the fermenter. As an alternative the hop sock would work but can be a bit messy. The large hop tubes as sold by Kegland could also work but they’re of significant size.

You have to clean and sanitise all this stuff too. Dropping the pellets directly into the brew eliminates that requirement.

I appreciate that yourself and other users have had issues with the Brewart filter. I haven’t so perhaps I’m just lucky.

My only wish would be some additional mesh filter inserts of varying gauges. I’ve seen a similar product at the local brew shop that offers three or four gauges, I’m just not sure of the dimensions of the cyclinder. I’ll have to take my filter in to compare one day.

FWIW I just put the Revolution Dark Lager on and will use a hop ball when I add the pellets as I’ll only be using 20 grams.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Dustin Frothman

[Eltham Brauhaus]

31 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

2 hop balls, sure, that’ll cover up to 80 grams of pellets.

Have you brewed anything with 100+ grams yet? You’ll need 3 or perhaps 4 hop balls for that as they’re good for approx 40 grams each.

I brewed an IPA with 150 grams of pellet hops last year. I wouldn’t bother trying that with hop balls as I’d need 5 in the fermenter. As an alternative the hop sock would work but can be a bit messy. The large hop tubes as sold by Kegland could also work but they’re of significant size.

You have to clean and sanitise all this stuff too. Dropping the pellets directly into the brew eliminates that requirement.

I appreciate that yourself and other users have had issues with the Brewart filter. I haven’t so perhaps I’m just lucky.

My only wish would be some additional mesh filter inserts of varying gauges. I’ve seen a similar product at the local brew shop that offers three or four gauges, I’m just not sure of the dimensions of the cyclinder. I’ll have to take my filter in to compare one day.

FWIW I just put the Revolution Dark Lager on and will use a hop ball when I add the pellets as I’ll only be using 20 grams.

Fair enough mate but I just use the BrewArt recipes and I don’t think any of the brews call for more than 80gms although I stand to be corrected. So two balls are sufficient for what I want.😀

[Dustin Frothman]

58 minutes ago, Eltham Brewing House said:

Fair enough mate but I just use the BrewArt recipes and I don’t think any of the brews call for more than 80gms although I stand to be corrected. So two balls are sufficient for what I want.😀

You’re absolutely correct. None of the standard Brewprints call for more than 75g of hop pellets. If that’s all you wish to brew then that’s just fine.

 

[Dustin Frothman]

21 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

My only wish would be some additional mesh filter inserts of varying gauges. I’ve seen a similar product at the local brew shop that offers three or four gauges, I’m just not sure of the dimensions of the cyclinder. I’ll have to take my filter in to compare one day.

I picked up some of the filters today. They fit the Brewart Dry Hop Filter perfectly.

Perhaps we'll see these available as an option in future. Early on I read on Facebook of a few users keen for different gauge mesh so it'll be interesting to see how they perform.

[Captain 3 Droids]

1 minute ago, Dustin Frothman said:

I picked up some of the filters today. They fit the Brewart Dry Hop Filter perfectly.

Perhaps we'll see these available as an option in future. Early on I read on Facebook of a few users keen for different gauge mesh so it'll be interesting to see how they perform.

Great find. Will certainly be interest in your findings. Are they easily sourced?

[Dustin Frothman]

Just now, Captain 3 Droids said:

Great find. Will certainly be interest in your findings. Are they easily sourced?

Stocked at the local brew shop in Torrensville for me. Otherwise I guess online via them or the manufacturer's Facebook address or website listed there on the packaging.

I'd been looking at them for a while but finally got organised and took the supplied Brewart filter in for a comparison today.

I'm sure the Brewart R&D team tested different gauge mesh and not that I've really had any issues or excessive hop debris with the supplied filter screen, but I'm keen to experiment a little.

[Dustin Frothman]

@Eltham Brewing House and other hop ball users - I found this behemoth when I was at the local brewing supplies store last week and decided to pick one up today as both my other hop balls went into the Coopers Pale Ale this morning.

It's difficult to tell from the photo without a direct comparison but this is about the size of a softball or 6.5 cm in diameter so it's probably 150% of the size of the others.

If the others I have are good for 30 to 40g of hops then theoretically this should be good for up to 60g.

 

[Eltham Brauhaus]

3 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

@Eltham Brewing House and other hop ball users - I found this behemoth when I was at the local brewing supplies store last week and decided to pick one up today as both my other hop balls went into the Coopers Pale Ale this morning.

It's difficult to tell from the photo without a direct comparison but this is about the size of a softball or 6.5 cm in diameter so it's probably 150% of the size of the others.

If the others I have are good for 30 to 40g of hops then theoretically this should be good for up to 60g.

 

Very interesting. It will do the same job as 2 standard hop balls but I have the feeling that if the 60gm was split into 2x standard hop balls (with a bigger surface area) then my gut feeling says the dry hops would diffuse better with the 2 standard balls. I stand to be corrected.

[Eltham Brauhaus]

On 06/08/2021 at 4:29 PM, Dustin Frothman said:

Stocked at the local brew shop in Torrensville for me. Otherwise I guess online via them or the manufacturer's Facebook address or website listed there on the packaging.

I'd been looking at them for a while but finally got organised and took the supplied Brewart filter in for a comparison today.

I'm sure the Brewart R&D team tested different gauge mesh and not that I've really had any issues or excessive hop debris with the supplied filter screen, but I'm keen to experiment a little.

I ordered one pack today just to see how they go in the hop filter. Cost $30 delivered.

 

[Dustin Frothman]

9 hours ago, Eltham Brewing House said:

Very interesting. It will do the same job as 2 standard hop balls but I have the feeling that if the 60gm was split into 2x standard hop balls (with a bigger surface area) then my gut feeling says the dry hops would diffuse better with the 2 standard balls. I stand to be corrected.

I don't know either but suspect you're correct.

Another way to look at it could be that if you use a small amount of pellets in a large hop ball like that one you may mimic the benefits of dry hopping with a hop sock.

I'll be using 25g in it for my Revolution Dark Lager so it'll be interesting to see what it looks like when I fish it out of the Droid.