Dogfish Head – Behind The Scenes With Me So Hoppy

While a good amount of hop flavor and aroma comes from additions in the brewhouse, no other method rivals dry-hopping in its ability to deliver high levels of fresh hoppiness.

Dry-hopping is adding hops to beer after it’s been fermented. This allows the very volatile essential oils of the hops to be absorbed into the beer without subjecting them to the violent environments of boiling wort or vigorous fermentation, both of which drive the most delicate and desirable compounds outta town.

But dry-hopping is not without risks. The most important thing is to keep oxygen and beer-spoiling organisms out of the beer. Enter another one of our proprietary hopping devices. The very buttoned-down, technical name for this one is “Oooh Me So Hoppy.”

Me So allows us to dry hop beer in a closed system using inert gas to blow the hops inside the tank. Great for the beer, even better for the beer drinker.

Listen in as our brewer Shane pulls back the curtain and dishes the nitty-gritty on Me So Hoppy:

“Me So Hoppy is a pressure-rated chamber that has a large opening with a lid on the top, a manual valve on the bottom, and a venturi nozzle to dose the hops inline. We load pellet hops though the opening on the top. We apply CO2 pressure to the venturi device and apply just enough positive pressure on the vessel to not cause a vacuum. When the valve on the bottom is opened the venturi device sucks the hops into the line and then blows them into the top of the fermentation vessel. The hops are left in the tank, and the CO2 is vented. Me So Hoppy is a modular system that we can move to the tank that needs to be dry-hopped. Our larger 300- and 600-barrel tanks have a dedicated pipe that we connect to Me So. On our 200-barrel tanks, we attach Me So to the blow-off arm."

Got it? Next time you’re digging one of our hoppy beers, give a silent thanks to that workhorse “Me So Hoppy.” And if you want to experience a whole night of Dogfish hoppiness, check out our AHopEclipseNow! celebrations going down now nationwide!

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