Obviously it works that way for beers that I want to infuse more hop flavor by using whole-cone hops, but I’m thinking of all the others. I’d love to filter out a bunch of trub so it doesn’t get into my plate chiller or fermenter.
So I’m wondering about using rice hulls or some other filter material. Anybody do this? Thoughts?
Ah nevermind. I finally found it on Blichmann’s website: (Imagine that doh!)
How do I use the HopRocket™ as a filter? While the included screen will filter out large particles, you can fill the unit with rice hulls, which will aid in trapping smaller particles. Flow / capacity will depend a lot on what you’re filtering, so some experimentation is to be expected.
steve
did you have luck with this? I have a hop rocket, but have yet to actually use it :o
how are you sanitizing the rice hulls?
any tips/thoughts?
I use my HR for all of my hoppy beers. It filters out quite a bit of trub and hop particulate. Additionally, the HR also mitigates the volatilization of hop aromatics. It renders my hoppy beers much more aromatic.
Cool! But am interested in experiences using it only as a filter (no hops) 
Haven’t done this personally, but try heating (oven) the rice hulls for 30min to sanitize. The heat should kill any suspect bacteria.
I have heard of people packing stainless scrubbies in there. Can’t find anything using google?
Yike. I have yet to use it too. Honestly, the biggest reason is that I don’t think of it until I’m all set to brew, and I don’t want to go back and adjust my recipe to account for the wort losses I assume will be associated with using the hop rocket. I’m guessing that I’ll have to increase my overall wort volume by about a gallon.
yeah, but i like the advice here a lot better - when I did a search I discovered yso191’s thread and thought I’d follow up.
i’m contemplating the muslin sack/rice hulls method, but am just trying to figure how to sanitize the rice hulls (though Ron’s idea sounds okay). I figure I can’t really recirc the boiling wort to sanitize like I do the rest of my chilling path since it will start filtering the wort at that point which I don’t want.
I think the main reason I’ve had the rocket but not used it other than as a hopback is it just seems easier (for me) to do a conical bottom dump to remove the particulate and break during high krausen. lots of extra work for maybe not much benefit.
Good idea! I don’t think recirculating will hurt the final product. You could just steep the rice in boiled water then pour into the hop rocket.
that’s a good idea! didn’t think of briefly boiling.
again, not sure I’m married to this yet as it does seem like a lot of extra work, but I do want to try it once at least to see for sure.
Why the need to sanitize? Hot wort should do the trick…
I used my HR as a filter last time I brewed; worked OK until it clogged. I stuffed a 5-gallon paint-strainer bag in the HR (used to use these for partial-mash) and as soon as the hop-sludge (pellet hops) built up a little, it forced the strainer bag to the top of the HR and plugged it solid!
Next time I’m going to use 3 or 4 stainless scrubbies in the strainer bag so it’ll hold its form and not get compacted, and I’ll also throttle back a little on the valve at the boil kettle to limit the flow through the HR.
Also; no matter what you use as a filter media in the HR, as soon as the boiling wort hits it, it’s getting sanitized. IMO, there’s no need to worry about pre-sanitizing - just be sure all is nice and clean before putting to use.
This was my first thought as well, but just thought to better be safe than sorry. Now on second thought, the hot wort should kill anything in the hulls prior to entering the chiller. Depends on the specific setup…chilled wort or hot wort to chiller.
Not sure why you would want to filter pre-chiller. id rather keep all that gunk out of my chiller then my fermenter. one is a 15 dollar bucket and the other is a 200$ therminator;)
I’m about to buy one of these. My plan is to take a stainless splatter screen I have and cut a circle the size of the ‘fine’ blichmann filter and just lay it on top of the ‘fine’ filter and squeeze it into the seal. I don’t know how small the splatter screen is, but I know it’s less than 1mm and I think this will work well.