How do Hop Cannons Work? What Is a Hop Cannon?

Brewers dry hop beer to add aroma to beer. Adding hops on the cold side (after the wort has been chilled) prevents hops from volatizing and the essential oils from evaporating out. The net result of dry hopping is added aroma without any additional bitterness.

The traditional dry hoping method is to open a port or manway of the fermentation vessel and literally dump the hops in to the wort. Brewers have different processes and thoughts about when to add the hops, but the actions are still the same.

This method is the simplest way to dry hop, but it presents two major issues which are oxygenation and safety. Dumping the hops in like this, can cause the dreaded “hop volcano”.

The other issue is oxygen pick-up. If you're adding hops after the end of primary fermentation, opening the FV up can allow oxygen pick up.

How do Hop Cannons Work? What Is a Hop Cannon?

Before we look into how hop cannons work, I think a little explainer of what they are is advisable. A hop cannon is a piece of brewing equipment to effectively dry hop your beer in a closed-circuit environment.

The hops are placed inside the cannon, they are on the outside of a stainless-steel candle which act as a filter. So, when the beer is introduced and recirculated it then flows back to the FV, with the hop matter is contained in the cannon.

You run the cannon recirculating the wort, for a minimum of four hours, testing the beer throughout for sensory analysis. When you have the desired aroma, you can stop the recirculation of the beer through the hops and push all the beer back to the FV with CO2.

It means the desired hop aroma is added in one day rather than 4 days with traditional methods. Plus, as this process takes place in a closed CO2 circuit, there’s much less oxygen pick up than with traditional dry hopping methods.

You can push the beer back to tank with CO2 added to the top of the cannon.

Hop cannon/hop gun