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We first looked at KegLand's Hop Bong just prior to it's release way back in 2022. It may have taken us a while, but we finally got our hands on one, so here's our hands on review based on our experience with it so far.
Hop.. What?
First things first, what exactly is a "hop bong"? KegLand define it as ".. a versatile pressurizable tri-clover accessory, capable of not only dry hopping oxygen purged hops into fermenters. But also as an inline carbonation/oxygenation accessory."
The device itself is made from Nylon 12: an autoclavable, extremely robust, and chemical resistant engineering plastic. Although versatile, it's certainly not designed for smoking anything through, although you can see from it's shape where the name came from.
It was originally designed to be used in conjunction with one of KegLand's FermZilla fermenters, but thankfully were engineered using tri-clamp, the standard sanitary connection/coupling type within the brewing industry which means they can be integrated with any fermenter featuring a standard 1.5" or 2" tri-clamp port/ferrule.
Ultimately, it's a device that allows brewers to dry hop under pressure and without introducing oxygen into their beer. Oxygen ingress into finished beer can quickly lead to the staling effects of oxidation that will ruin a beer in just a matter of weeks or even days.
We've previously opted to keep things simple when dry hopping, and simply opened up our fermenter to drop the hops in. A couple of times we've tried running CO2 into the fermenter whilst doing so, which involves a bit of mucking around, but we've ultimately had pretty good results either way and can't recall the last time we had a batch go bad from oxidation. Other brewers have employed all manner of methods to dry hop without having to open their fermenters, like sticking their dry hops in cloth mesh bags to the roof of the fermenter using food grade magnets, then removing the magnet to let the hops drop in when required.
Although we like to keep things simple, we're also open to new ideas and methods, especially if they reduce risk, and are cost effective, so let's carry on and see how the Hop Bong stacks up.
Bong Basics
The hop bong is available in two different sizes, 1.5" or 2" which is the tri-clamp port diameter they are designed to connect to. Our review is based on the 2" version, but you can expect almost identical performance with the 1.5" version, with the only obvious difference being it's slightly smaller diameter and therefore capacity/volume.
Both versions are 170mm tall, with the 1.5" version holding up to 120g of hop pellets, and the 2" version up to 180g, though you can probably expect a little bit more if you include the space afforded by the butterfly valve you'll need to install the Hop Bong onto.
The engineering plastic construction makes the Hop Bong light weight and very strong. KegLand themselves state it can be sterilised in an autoclave, which from our research suggests subjects whatever is inside to temperatures of around 120°C. The usual acid based sanitisers and powdered brewery wash (PBW) used in commercial and home breweries alike would not pose a problem for this material either with it's strong chemical resistance.
Operation
The primary use of the Hop Bong is for oxygen-free dry-hopping, though it has other applications too. For this review, we'll concentrate on dry hopping, but we'll also touch on these additional uses later.
After attaching your hop bong to your fermenter using a butterfly valve, you fill the Hop Bong with hop pellets, and after sealing with a lid that also features a pressure relief valve, you're able to purge it with carbon dioxide (CO2) by connecting gas to the carbonation cap - located where the cone piece on a traditional bong would be. Fill the Hop Bong with CO2, disconnect CO2, then open the pressure relief valve to expel the gas (along with any oxygen) - repeat a couple of times and essentially all oxygen should be removed from within the Hop Bong where your dry hop charge is.
Once this is done, pressurise it one last time so the Hop Bong pressure is around the same as the pressure in the fermenter, then open the butterfly valve to introduce the dry hops into your fermenting (or fermented) beer.
An additional benefit here is that brewers can now dry hop under pressure. Previously, brewers would need to depressurise a fermenter before opening it to add the dry hops which presented two problems. Firstly, if depressurising too quickly, it could cause a "krausen volcano" where the krausen would rise rapidly as dissolved carbon dioxide quickly makes it's way out of suspension. As the CO2 escapes, it causes the krausen to foam up drastically, and in some cases can lead to an overflow of krausen out of the top of the fermenter, hence the term "volcano".
Secondly, when opening the lid of your fermenter you are significantly increasing your risk of introducing oxygen into your beer - which brewers well know is public enemy number one, especially with hop forward styles that require dry hops. As we previously mentioned, oxygen ingress will inevitably lead to oxidation, which will rapidly stale your beer and lead to significant off flavours. Needless to say, this is something all brewers tend to do everything in their power to avoid, and the primary motivation for the Hop Bong being created in the first place.
Historically, brewers have used other homemade contraptions to try and achieve the same thing - typically with sight glasses, and a variety of stainless parts like T-pieces so you can connect a gas source, and vent the gas out again. And while these contraptions may have worked, they certainly weren't cost effective (since stainless parts are expensive), so the hop bong is a welcome addition to the homebrewing scene, with it's engineering plastic construction making it within reach of just about every homebrewer.
Parts Needed
Now we know what the Hop Bong is, you'll also need a few additional parts to get it fully operational and integrated with your fermenter. Since the Hop Bong is available in two sizes, 1.5" and 2", you'll need to ensure any extra parts you get are the same size. Here's a detailed list of what you'll need;
- 1.5"/2" hop bong sight glass
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- 1.5"/2" butterfly valve
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- 1.5"/2" to PCO 1881 Male
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- 1 x carbonation cap
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- 1 x PCO1881 PRV Cap Combo
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- 2 x 1.5"/2" tri-clamp
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- 2 x 1.5"/2" beaded seals
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If you plan on using the Hop Bong with a FermZilla, you'll need to get the FermZilla TC Pressure Lid Kit ( KL28219) pictured below. Alternatively, if you're using a different brand of fermenter, all you need is a 1.5" or 2" tri-clamp opening on the lid somewhere that you can attach a butterfly valve to, and you're good to go.
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In addition to the listed items above, you'll also need an extra tri clamp and beaded seal to attach the butterfly valve to your fermenter, so make sure you add this to your shopping list if you don't already have some of these spare lying around.
Some Assembly Required
Once you've got all the correct parts for your Hop Bong, it's time to put it together. If you're familiar with tri-clamp connections, this should be a fairly straight forward process. For those new to the tri-clamp world, simply put a gasket between the ports of the two components you're joining then close and tighten the clamp using the screw mechanism.
Starting at the bottom of the assembly, attach the butterfly valve to your fermenter and fasten with a tri-clamp. Ensure the valve is in the closed position, and make sure you have it oriented correctly and with enough space to open/close the valve using the handle.
Next, attach the Hop Bong to the top of the butterfly valve and secure with a tri-clamp. It probably doesn't really matter, but the hop bong is typically oriented so the carbonation cap is located towards the bottom, angling upwards.
Screw the carbonation cap into place - do it up firmly - no need to overtighten.
Attach the PCO 1881 male adapter to the top of the hop bong and secure with a tri clamp.
Pro tip - do up this clamp as tight as it will go. We're always wary of overtightening, especially when dealing with plastic components but we found until we had this clamp tightened up all the way it didn't seal properly and leaked gas.
Screw the PCO1881 PRV cap onto the PCO 1881 male adapter, then screw the PRV into the PRV cap (if it's not already fitted).
And there you have it - a fully assembled hop bong ready to rip.
Is Bigger Better?
The Hop Bong is available in 2" and 1.5" versions, and we'd recommend going for the 2" version if you can. You may initially think that you're restricted to the 1.5" version if you're fermenter or lid only has a 1.5" opening, however you can get 2" to 1.5" reducers to allow you to connect a 2" hop bong onto a 1.5" ferrule. Keep in mind that this will add a bit of height to your Hop Bong solution, so make sure you have adequate vertical space if you need to keep your fermenter in a fridge for example.
Why is bigger better? Two reasons in our opinion. Firstly, the larger diameter hop bong will hold more hops allowing for larger dosage without having to 'reload'. Secondly, when connected to a 2" butterfly valve, it's less likely to become blocked/clogged when opening, as we've occasionally seen with some other users with the 1.5" version. Although not a particularly big deal, as simply opening/closing the valve a few times is enough to loosen things up and get the hops dropping.
Other Use Cases
Adding Other Finings/Ingredients
Fining agents like gelatin can be added in much the same way as you would with dry hopping. Attach your hop bong, add your ingredients or fining agent into the hop bong itself, purge with CO2, then open the butterfly valve to drop it into the fermenter. As with dry hopping, you gain the benefits of being able to add these things into your fermenter in an oxygen free environment, and without having to de-pressurise your fermenter if you're pressure fermenting.
The skies the limit in terms of what you could add - gelatin, fruit, spices, wood chips or other tintures you've concocted.
Hop Randall
A hop randall can be used to impart additional flavours into your finished beer between the serving vessel (keg) and the tap. It would most commonly be used with hop pellets or whole hop flowers/cones to give an additional hop flavour hit just prior to serving, but you could add just about anything you like to inject some additional flavour(s) just prior to serving.
You can see from the photo below how you would configure this, but you'll also need to ensure you replace one of the tri-clamp seals with a special seal containing a mesh filter to prevent the poppet on the ball lock post from becoming blocked/clogged with debris from whatever you've got in your Hop Bong.
Inline Carbonator/Oxygenator
Another popular use case would be using the Hop Bong as an inline carbonation or oxygenation system. This will allow you to infuse carbon dioxide or oxygen into your beer during transfer - oxygenating when transferring from your kettle to your fermenter, or carbonation when transferring from your fermenter into your serving vessel.
As you can see from the picture above, you'll need a couple of extra parts to get this setup, but most importantly you'll need a diffusion stone attached to the carbonation cap on the angled part of the HOp Bong (which your oxygen/CO2 gas source will be connected to).
Although we haven't attempted using the hop bong for anything other than dry hopping (yet), these alternative uses are suggested by KegLand and certainly highlight the versatility of the product. Of course you'll need a couple of extra components to get these setups working, but since most of the parts are plastic, they're cheap, and you may already have some of them lying around (like carbonation caps for example). We are a little wary of how easily ball lock posts can be clogged, so if using the Hop Bong as a hop randall, small bits of hop debris could well make their way through the mesh and clog the poppets - perhaps a finer mesh filter may be a good idea?
How Much Is It?
Being made of plastic, the price of the Hop Bong itself is pretty reasonable at AU$16.95 for the 2" version and AU$14.95 for the 1.5". As we've previously mentioned, you'll need a few other parts like a butterfly valve, clamps, seals and adapter(s) to get PRV and/or cabonation caps installed. Your total lay out is ultimately going to depend on what you've already got lying around in your homebrewery, but as a guide, current pricing comes to around AU$80 for everything listed above, but doesn't not include the tri-clamp capable FermZilla lid.
Final Thoughts
KegLand's Hop Bong is a versatile and innovative tool for homebrewers looking to enhance their brewing process. Its ability to facilitate oxygen-free dry hopping, along with additional uses like inline carbonation and oxygenation, makes it a valuable addition to any brewing setup. The robust construction and compatibility with standard tri-clamp fittings ensure it integrates seamlessly with various fermenters. While it may require some additional parts and assembly, the benefits of reduced oxidation risk and ease of use make it a worthwhile investment. Whether you’re a seasoned brewer or just starting out, the Hop Bong offers a practical solution to improve the quality and consistency of your brews.
The Hop Bong is available from kegland.com.au, as well as KegLand distributors worldwide.
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