Hops Stuck in Keg Dip Tube

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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djphillies
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Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:06 pm

Hops Stuck in Keg Dip Tube

Post by djphillies »

I recently transferred my Sierra Nevada clone from my glass carboy to my keg. I dry hopped, with pellets, in the glass carboy. I have a problem now, when trying to draw off beer from the keg, I think the dip tube is getting clogged with remanents of hops that slipped through on my transfer from the secondary to the keg. I did pull the dip tube out of the keg, and found small pieces of hops that are clogging the popet value area and top of the dip tube near the body connections. Not much , but enought to slow the flow out of the tap to a drizzle with foam. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what would you recommend? I've heard of shortening the dip tube, but I was thinking the hops were suspensed in the liquid and this would not work.
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brewmeisterintng
Strong Ale
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Chill

Post by brewmeisterintng »

As part of my kegging process now regardless if I dry hop or not, I chill the secondary for 24-48 hours prior at around 50 degrees. This will help drop out anything left in suspension. I have reciently going to kegging and have read the same thing about shorting the tube but haven't found a reason to do it yet. My first pint has some yeast in it but after that its clear beer.
djphillies
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Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:06 pm

Hops Stuck in Keg Dip Tube

Post by djphillies »

Thanks for the advice James! I will give this a try next time. For now, I shorten the dip tube by about an 1" and so far I am having sucess.
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apd1004
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Location: Akron, OH

Post by apd1004 »

I dry hopped once and the recipe I used said to use a small nylon hop bag to put the hops in. Boil the bag for 10-15 min to sanitize it, then put the hops in it, pull & tie off the string, and drop it in. You could also use a nylon stocking and just tie a knot in it. I had no problems with hop remnants using this method. If you use pellet hops you could still get some residue that slips through the bag, but it won't be anything that can clog the tube.

I also use a plate filter between 2 kegs when I put the beer into its final resting keg for carbonation, aging, and serving. Push or rack the beer from the carboy into a keg, then push it again through the filter and into another keg. You get some real nice clear beer that way.

Hope this helps!
brewrat
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Post by brewrat »

Too late for this batch maybe, but you can use a Surescreen on the keg liquid out tube if you don't fill through that tube.
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