Fool’s Gold Follow-Up
So I guess this is the follow up of what’s happening with the Fool’s Gold, the first chosen beer to be on tap.
So the Fool’s Gold was the first beer I put on tap, I thought it appropriate with my name in it (Fool) and some positive affirmation action (Gold) – – or something like that. Anyway, to no big surprise to me, I was having constant trouble with this beer on tap. It was a slow pour, it was foamy, the faucet was having some trouble, it wouldn’t pour at all, you know all sorts of newbie issues. Sure I was a little pissy and a little disappointed thinking there was something wrong with the kegerator, but I was willing to accept there would be a learning curve. One thing I really wanted to do but never got the opportunity was to play with my new Beer Gun and pull off a few bottles, partially just to do it, and partially to put a few aside for the 6th Fool Circle beer tasting (whenever that finally happens).
Well, I put a second keg in the kegerator last night to put on tap today to see if the pour problem was an obvious kegerator or keg issue, or obvious at all. I cleaned out the line and put keg number two on tap, the RYPA. It poured, period. It was foamy, and a little wild also, so I may have both kegerator (balancing) and keg issues, we’ll have to see. So I pulled the keg of Fool’s Gold into the kitchen and basically said “F-it” and decided I was going to bottle what was in the keg the “normal” way or at the least dump out the contents and see if I could tell what was happening.
The beer poured out with mad sediment, I was actually quite surprised. I guess I transfer more hop debris than I realize after dry hopping, yikes! I know I probably oxidized the hell out of the beer and knocked out most of the carbonation, but screw it, I’ve got five bottles out of it – waste not want not – if it tastes like ass I’ll dump it. After seeing how much debris was still in the beer I was guessing that I may have clogged the out-spout, which I actually had guessed since the beginning that it could have been a partially clogged spout causing some of the foam and the slow pour.
So I took the keg down stairs and began cleaning it and taking it apart. What I found was one clogged-as-shit out spout. There goes my ideas about keg hopping, well except maybe with whole hops. Speaking of which I may need to switch to whole hops for dry hopping too. So the good news is that I definitely had a clogged keg which I will say was why the pour stopped on the kegerator. The other problems (foamy, slow pour) I’m not sure if they were directly related. But the bad news is that I just discovered that you really need to be careful with transfers, and I have five other kegs awaiting to be drank before I realized this, ugh. Off the top of my head I know three of them were dry hopped, which may be my down fall. We’ll have to see how this all pans out. More news at eleven 😆 .
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Wow. That’s some serious blockage. Definitely worth refining the secondary-to-keg racking technique a little, at least for batches where you’re doing dry-hopping. I have not had problems with whole hops, and I think if you ever keg hop, you’ll want to use one of those stainless-steel teaball type deals.
Another lesson is not to move the keg if this sort of situation starts to develop – That will just shake all the other debris that didn’t clear out initially down into the keg’s well at the bottom and pack into the dip tube. You might be OK so long as the liquid is still flowing…
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
“Definitely worth refining the secondary-to-keg racking technique a little, at least for batches where you’re doing dry-hopping.”
Truth.
With bottle-conditioned beers I really never worried too much. Anything that really got pulled through would settle below the spigot on the bottling bucket, and if I ever got desparate to get every last drop out of the bucket it was really only one or two bottles that were “chuncky”.
Oh well, this is the way we learn things I suppose.
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
The best-learned lessons are often the most painful ones…. I don’t think you’re necessarily doomed to more of the same for your other 3 kegs of dry-hopped brews, though.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I think your luck must be just the same as mine.
I try to use all leaf hops to dry hop with now, but when I use pellets, I put a fine mesh nylon bag over the autosiphon. It’s a longer one from the homebrew shop, I think they use it for steeping grains. It sticks all the way out of the carboy, so I don’t have to worry about it getting stuck or anything.
Most people say that pellet particles sink to the bottom, but I’ve never had them all do that. Normally less than half fall, and the rest is a mess.
I just did a Gumball-ish clone that calls for warm (68-70 for a week) dry hopping in the keg, and leaving them in there during serving. I threw 2oz of Amarillo in a nylon hop bag with a bunch of marbles, and it still didn’t sink. At least it won’t clog up the tube, but we’ll see as it gets almost empty. I’m askin for trouble, but worse case I can pull out the bag. I was gonna use the hop balls, and have before, but they only hold about half an ounce of leaf hops.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I bet you could fit 2 of those hop plugs (1 full ounce) in the tea ball … at least initially. I would worry of two possibilities – (1) the hops swelling so much they burst the hop ball, or (2) the inner part of the hops would never get wetted, and therefore never contribute aroma or flavor to the brew – basically it’d be a huge waste.
As far as keg hopping goes, I bet 1/2 oz is probably enough for most beers anyways…
I’ve been meaning to try that hop ball out for almost a year now. I need to just do it!
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Dude – do the hop ball – NOW! 🙂
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
Just make sure you keep it clean. I heard on “the brewing network” that morebeer stopped selling them because the latch wasn’t stainless and would rust and break off. Mine seems to be alright, but I clean it and keep it dry. Just a heads up, for the price you can’t go wrong.
I did stuff it with loose leafs once and 1/2 oz was pushing it. Those hop plugs probably would fit, but I’d be scared!
August 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
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