KegLand Hop Bong - Rundown & First Impressions

No, it's not an apparatus for smoking hops - though it is clear where the newly designed Hop Bong from KegLand got it's name from.

KegLand Hop Bong - Image Copyright of KegLand.com.au

The Hop Bong is essentially a sight glass - made from special engineering grade plastic, that can be used to perform completely oxygen free dry hopping in your FermZilla (all rounder, tri-conical or conical models). You read that correctly, there is finally a good option for dry hopping in your All Rounder fermenter!

There are a couple of caveats though - the first being that you will also need to purchase a new tri-clover lid for your FermZilla for the Hop Bong to attach to.

These new lids look great - featuring the 2 x PCO1881 male threads that exist on the 'standard' lids that allow carbonation caps (or regular soda bottle caps) to be screwed onto them. There is also a pressure release valve (PRV), but we also now have a large 2" tri-clover opening on the lid as well - and this is what the Hop Bong will attach to.

A 2" tri clover connection is perfect for this application. Tri clover clamps are the general standard for brewing equipment (used more commonly in stainless steel applications), and allow for quick, easy, and reliably sealed connections. A 2" opening will also be plenty big enough for hop pellets to easily fall through.

New Tri-Clover Lid for Fermzilla
Image Copyright of Kegland.com.au

So the Hop Bong attaches to the 2" tri clover opening on the new lid. You'll also need an additional 2" tri clover clamp to attach either a blanking plate or the PCO1881 male threaded 2" tri clover module (it basically looks like someone cut the top off a soda bottle - as pictured above) to the top of the Hop Bong. This is required to completely seal the hop bong to allow the oxygen within it to be purged.

A butterfly valve will also be required so to sit between the lid and the Hop Bong to control when the contents of the Hop Bong are delivered into the main fermenter body. The butterfly valve will have a 2" tri clover opening on both ends to allow easy connections.

You'll also need an additional carbonation cap to attach to the small arm coming off the main body of the Hop Bong. This is what you can attach your gas source to in order to pressurise the Hop Bong with carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. To save on gas, you could even pressurise the hop bong using the CO2 from the fermentation itself by attaching a gas line from a carbonation cap on the lid.

Once the Hop Bong is pressurised, if you use the PCO1881 male threaded module, you can attach a new specially designed PRV to this which you can use to purge air. Or alternatively, you can simply loosen the carbonation cap to purge the air this way. The PRV would definitely be the preferred option.

As you can see, there's a few bits and pieces required to get this going - but the results will be well worth it we expect. Hopefully KegLand will release a 'kit' containing all the required parts to get this dry hopping system going.

According to the KegLand website, the Hop Bong will be available for purchase from 10 April 2022.