Capping the fermenter when dry hoping

[breyton]

On one of the recent Brewing Network Sunday shows, Shaun O'Sullivan from the 21A (had to put in another shameless plug for the 21A.. ShaunO would not have it anyother way) said that to get the most out of dry hoping, you should cap or close off the blow off tube or bubbler to prevent the CO2 from scrubing out the hop aroma.

My questions is, assuming you would be dry hoping toward the end of secondary fermentation, let say day 8 of a fermentation cycle, would preventing CO2 from escaping build a sufficient amount of pressure to kill off the yeast or stop them from ferementing?

I remember hearing or reading that yeast do not like being kept under pressure and will die if the pressure gets high enough.

What's the general concenses on this?

[Thirsty Mallard]

I would like to add to this question by asking how you would sufficiently cap a carboy. It seems that if I just use a solid stopper that the pressure will eventually pop it out anyways.

[Bugeater]

I dry hop in the keg. I stuff the hops into a knee high stocking (2 pr for a buck at Walmart) along with a handfull of sanitized marbles. I tie on a piece of dental floss and lower it into the keg, replace the lid and pressurize. The nylons and floss make it easy to get the hops back out. I usually leave them in until the keg is empty. The hop bag also keeps the hops from clogging up the dip tube.

Even if I dry hopped in a bucket or carboy, I would keep the lid sealed, partly to keep the aroma in, but more importantly, to keep unwanted crap out of it.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Monster Mash]

I would like to add to this question by asking how you would sufficiently cap a carboy. It seems that if I just use a solid stopper that the pressure will eventually pop it out anyways.

I wouldn't cap a carboy, they do explode.

I close my fermenter when I transfer to secondary and just burp it every couple days.

[beersnob]

I dry hop in the keg. I stuff the hops into a knee high stocking (2 pr for a buck at Walmart) along with a handfull of sanitized marbles. I tie on a piece of dental floss and lower it into the keg, replace the lid and pressurize. The nylons and floss make it easy to get the hops back out. I usually leave them in until the keg is empty. The hop bag also keeps the hops from clogging up the dip tube.

I do both dry hop in the carboy, dry hop in the keg (when they dont come out so good). So in the carboy I will airlock it, the amount of aroma loss I would think is minimal to the danger of an explosion. When i dry hop the keg I too sock it and marble, but i just drop the hop sack in. no strings attached. it stays in there for the length of the beer in the keg. to retreive just turn keg over with lid off and plop it comes.

Paul