Hop Tea Keg Injection Tool

[iBooz2]

Here it is as I promised some months ago.  

My hop tea injection tool to put hops into a keg of beer without opening it.  Copyright and patents pending worldwide.

Have you ever forgotten to do a dry hop or wished you had done a dry hop as your kegged beer just needed something more?  Well, here is my simple tool to get a hop tea into your keg without having to open the lid and / or exposing your precious beer to the atmosphere.  Using this device keeps the CO2 in the keg albeit at zero pressure and it can be done quickly before much of the CO comes out of solution and foaming up when it’s done with the keg very cold.

You will need one of these marinade injectors from Bunnings $ 9.95 cost.  The larger hypodermic that comes with it is exactly 5 mm OD so it slides straight into some 5 mm beer line so that’s a bonus.
You will need a short length of 5 mm ID beer line and one SS hose or tube clamp $1.20 cost.
You will need a grey ball lock disconnect either with barb $ 3.20 cost or one with a MFL tread and if so, you will also need a Duo tight 8 mm to MFL adapter to connect the line to it.   So total cost between $14 - $18 all up and no risk to your beer unless you get the hops/amount wrong.

1. First you need to make yourself an appropriate hop tea in your coffee plunger and let it steep for the required amount of time and temperature.  Allow the hop tea to cool somewhat so you don't scold or burn your hands in the next stages.
2. Next sanitize the tool by connecting the red plastic carbonation cap to the grey gas connector then dunk the red plastic carbonation cap into a tub of sanitizer then suck the syringe full to the brim.  Leave the sanitizer in the syringe for a few minutes to do its good work.  Give all outside parts of this tool a good spray with sanitizer as well.
3. It is important that you disconnect any gas line to your chosen keg and make sure your keg is very cold.
4. When the hop tea has cooled down enough to handle, decant it into a sanitized jug for ease of access.
5. Burp your chosen keg and put the PRV keyring bit up into the up/open position temporarily.
6. Squirt all the sanitizer out of the syringe back into your sanitizer tub and then drop the red plastic carbonation cap into your jug of hop tea and suck the syringe full of hop juices.
7. Remove the red plastic carbonation cap from the grey ball lock disconnect and then connect the tools grey ball lock disconnect to the gas post on your keg and immediately squirt in the hop juices.   Then quickly close the PRV keyring bit by putting it back into the normal down position.
8. To inject more hop tea, reconnect the red plastic carbonation cap and suck more hop juices into the syringe and repeat the “burp and squirt” routine (5. - 7. )until all your hop tea has been injected.
9. Once complete double-check the PRV is back down in the normal closed position, rock the keg around a little bit to disperse the hop tea through the beer and leave for a couple of days.
10. Reconnect you gas line and bring it back up to your normal serving pressure.
11. Enjoy a glass or two of your freshly hopped keg beer.

Edited February 2, 2022 by iBooz2

[iBooz2]

[kmar92]

Nice workaround @iBooz2 but really what is the difference to just relieving the pressure in the keg and opening the lid and adding the hop tea? The beer will not be exposed to O2 as the CO2 will just sit on top of the beer like a blanket in the same way as when you dry hop in a fermenter.

[iBooz2]

9 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

Nice workaround @iBooz2 but really what is the difference to just relieving the pressure in the keg and opening the lid and adding the hop tea? The beer will not be exposed to O2 as the CO2 will just sit on top of the beer like a blanket in the same way as when you dry hop in a fermenter.

The whole idea is not to expose the beer to any Oxygen and if you open the lid and pour in your hop tea you are dragging/combining Oxygen with the hop tea mix somewhat and taking that into the beer as well.   This occurs just by the physics of pouring even when done from a low pour height.

Edited February 2, 2022 by iBooz2

[Liambeer]

Surely the benefits can’t outweigh the time or expense here

[kmar92]

4 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

The whole idea is not to expose the beer to any Oxygen and if you open the lid and pour in your hop tea you are dragging/combining Oxygen with the hop tea mix somewhat and taking that into the beer as well.   This occurs just by the physics of pouring even when done from a low pour height.

Yes I see that but exactly the same thing happens when you keg a beer, unless via closed transfer, and I haven't noticed any taste problems with oxidation filling a keg that way. I do prefer closed transfers I guess and I always do that when I pressure ferment, however even with my preference I haven't noticed any oxidation taste problems with open transfers. Anyway I see where you are coming from with your workaround on adding the hop tea.

[iBooz2]

47 minutes ago, Liambeer said:

Surely the benefits can’t outweigh the time or expense here

I hear you @Liambeer , but I don't consider sub $20 an expense here, that is very insignificant to a person like me.  Some people spend more than double that a day to inject smoke into their lungs so go figure?

Plus side is I get to be able to inject hop teas into both my pressure fermenters just before cold crash rather than dry hop and without having to open them or worry about any issues that may come with dry hopping so its a win, win as far I am concerned.

[Stickers]

1 hour ago, kmar92 said:

Nice workaround @iBooz2 but really what is the difference to just relieving the pressure in the keg and opening the lid and adding the hop tea? The beer will not be exposed to O2 as the CO2 will just sit on top of the beer like a blanket in the same way as when you dry hop in a fermenter.

i've been filling my kegs using one of @iBooz2 previous suggestions (closed transfer via the FV tap and in through the keg liquid out post with a length of food grade hose and some marine Ssteel clamps holding it all together at either end) and what i really like is after adding sanitiser and pumping it out with co2 I can then fill the keg keeping the lid on. my kegs are really old (new seals, old kegs) so I can fully test how airtight they are before filling. the less time i have the lid off the better, i think. i did a hop tea this weekend and thought about this very issue. (i added the tea then purged with gas again, this would save me on gas if i do a hop tea again)

[Liambeer]

23 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

I hear you @Liambeer , but I don't consider sub $20 an expense here, that is very insignificant to a person like me.  Some people spend more than double that a day to inject smoke into their lungs so go figure?

Plus side is I get to be able to inject hop teas into both my pressure fermenters just before cold crash rather than dry hop and without having to open them or worry about any issues that may come with dry hopping so its a win, win as far I am concerned.

Yeah glad I gave that away when they hit $10 packet. 
 

when(or do they?) will they make a hop essence you can dribble in instead of a dry hop? 

[Liambeer]

11 hours ago, Liambeer said:

Yeah glad I gave that away when they hit $10 packet. 
 

when(or do they?) will they make a hop essence you can dribble in instead of a dry hop? 

And google has found the essence. I haven’t seen it in lhbs though. 

[Marty_G]

This is the way  I inject liquids into a keg.  Can also be used as a mini keg.  It is 2 x carbonation caps and a Tee piece.  The Tee piece fits on any size PET bottle.  One cap to pressurise the bottle the other for a transfer lead.  

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Marty_G said:

This is the way  I inject liquids into a keg.  Can also be used as a mini keg.  It is 2 x carbonation caps and a Tee piece.  The Tee piece fits on any size PET bottle.  One cap to pressurise the bottle the other for a transfer lead.  

I have started using the same set-up.  Especially to get liquids into my pressure fermenters with minimal oxygen interference.

Fill PET bottle with sanitiser.  Connect beer to beer line (that I will be doing the transfer with) with a carbonation cap on the other end.  Connect up some CO2.  Push out the sanitiser.  Bottle is then filled with CO2.

Now, in a not entirely oxygen free step, I open the cap and pour in whatever liquid I want to add to the fermenter (Isinglass, Polyclar, Gelatine, etc).  Close up again.  Connect beer to beer line again.  Connect up CO2 again.  Connect the other end of the beer line to the pressure fermenter beer out post.  Use the CO2 pressure to push the liquid into the pressure FV until the PET bottle is empty.

[Marty_G]

9 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I have started using the same set-up. 

It is a very handy way to do things.  I also use it to clean the beer lines. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, Marty_G said:

It is a very handy way to do things.  I also use it to clean the beer lines. 

I use one of those 5 litre garden pump sprayer thingies, with the sprayer replaced by a carbonation cap.  I run 3 litres of cleaner through.  Half a litre every 7 minutes until the 3 litres is gone.  Then I rinse with 3 litres of hot water.  I do use the T-piece on a bottle to run sanitiser through the line.  Maybe that's overkill.  What volume and regime do you use Marty? 

[iBooz2]

9 hours ago, Marty_G said:

It is a very handy way to do things.  I also use it to clean the beer lines. 

You don't need that tee piece bit and use you up any gas, just a carbonation cap on top of an old 1. 5 or 2.0 L soft drink bottle and squeeze the bottle is the way to go.  I have two big soft drink bottles, one is full of SP solution and the other is full of sanitiser.  Use that hand pump garden sprayer (pinched idea from @Journeyman ) and have just plain water in that.  First rinse the lines with garden sprayer then connect to SP bottle and squeeze to flush / fill lines and leave maybe overnight.  Then the next day rinse again with just water from garden sprayer then attach to sanitiser bottle and give it a squeeze to force sanitiser right through lines and connectors before use.  I quite often walk out onto the lawn or into the garden to clean and flush/clean my gear so portability is the key for me and the bonus is no gas used.

Speaking of @Journeyman , I have not noted you post of late matey, hope all is well in your camp and that you are OK, please let us know.

Edited February 5, 2022 by iBooz2

[Marty_G]

7 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I use one of those 5 litre garden pump sprayer thingies, with the sprayer replaced by a carbonation cap.  I run 3 litres of cleaner through.  Half a litre every 7 minutes until the 3 litres is gone.  Then I rinse with 3 litres of hot water.  I do use the T-piece on a bottle to run sanitiser through the line.  Maybe that's overkill.  What volume and regime do you use Marty? 

I fill the 750l bottle with PBW and then run into all my lines and let sit for a couple of hours.  Then I fill my 12 litre utility keg with water and push a couple of litres through each hose and tap. I then run Starsan through each hose allow to sit for a few minutes and put back on the keg and pull the beer through.  I also change my hoses every year or so. I know it is overkill but I get the stuff cheap 12 metres for $12.