First time using whole hops quickly realized the need to keep my pick up tube from plugging.What do yous guys use and how does it effect hop utilization? Not concerned with trub and some hops in my fermenter adds to the beer in my opinion.Just curious for something that does the job and will last for many years.
Neither a screen or false bottom. I bag them in a reusable mesh bag. If I have multiple additions then I use a clothes pin to hold the top of the bag to the rim of the kettle. Super cheap and effective. Bags last forever it seems.
Same as bigchicken.
Same thing I do. Nice and low tech.
I’ve tried a bag. Didn’t like it. I don’t use whole hops though. I coughed up the money for a hop stopper from Hop Stopper - The Electric Brewery. I’ve used it 3 times now with big IPAs and am very pleased.
I only use a bag with whole hops. Pellets go in loose.
I have brewed almost exclusively with whole cones since shortly after Mark Garetz founded HopTech as a mail-order hop supplier. I prefer to use a false bottom. A false bottom combined with whole hop cones and an immersion chiller leads to clear cast-out wort. I modeled my latest kettle after my first commercially-built kettle, which was a St. Pat’s of Texas 38.5-quart kettle that I purchased new in 1994 (I was using a keg-based kettle before I purchased the St. Pat’s kettle). St. Pat’s used to build their kettles out of 38.5 and 60-quart Vollrath stock pots (if you ever have the opportunity to see an original St. Pat’s kettle with the false bottom installed, you will know whose design John Blichmann lifted for his line of kettles, complete with the drain centered below one of the handles). Unlike the original St. Pat’s design, I choose to center my ball valve between the handles on my current kettle. Like the original St. Pat’s design, I used the radius at the bottom of the pot as the stand for the false bottom. I used a 37-degree AN flare fitting for my pickup tube instead of a compression fitting. A flare fitting requires very little lateral travel to remove, which makes it possible to get away with drilling a hole in the false bottom that is not much larger in diameter than the pickup tube.
The original owner at Hoptech was great. May not of had the best selection, but he would open the store special when I called just to sell a few items. Anytime he did that I tried to spend big as a thank you.
I liked that Mark used to have all of his hops analyzed for oil content. It made getting consistent late hop results a snap. I also liked that he sold bulk whole hops in nitrogen-flushed mylar bags by the half pound.
I use a plate chiller to cool the wort and have to filter it prior to chilling or the chiller gets clogged. I run it through a mesh bag to do this and it’s not optimal. If you let your pellets loose, how do you filter them?
I don’t filter them. I use an immersion chiller and the pellets go into the fermenter.
Greetings all,
Important point:All my kettles have ball valves on them. I have an indoor 5 gal system, and a outdoor 15 gal system, both are All grain.
In almost 20 years of brewing I experienced clogging from time to time with PELLET hops, but never whole hops. After I had a 15 gal Pale ale batch clog a bazooka style screen about 2 gallons into the kettle drain I decided that method would never be used again on my systems. Since I cannot get some varieties of hops in whole cone I made a “mash manifold ring” and used it as a Kettle screen. After reading Palmer’s book and building a mash manifold ring out of a stainless steel dishwasher water line ( inside rubber tube removed ), for my smaller indoor all grain system, I decided to make one that fit right up against the walls of the inside edge of my brew kettles. There is one thing I did differently than I have see others do. I bought some smaller diameter soft copper piping and made it to fit inside the screen and act like a spring to hold the hose against the walls of the kettle. Works like a charm. It doesn’t get in the way of a immersion chiller, and screens out trub, hot break, cold break, whole hops, and pellets hops, so that it runs through my old narrow counterflow chiller if I am using that. I have put over 6 oz of pellet hops and whole hops too into my little brew kettle ( all loose ) and it NEVER clogs. Clearest worts I have ever gotten with any other method. Only costs about 25 bucks to make in an afternoon. I think it definitely helps with hop utilization to let the hops float around. If I ever get a flicker account maybe I’ll post some pictures. After seeing and trying other methods this is by far the best method I have found in my 2 systems. I get better hop utilization, no cumbersome hardware in the kettle, and they drain fast leaving everything messy behind no matter how I chill the wort.
Everyone’s investment in brewing equipment is different, and everyone’s system is different but …IMHO …IF you have a ball valve on your brew kettle this is best way to go that I have found so far. If you don’t have a ball valve on your brew kettle??..get one, and build a cheap modified manifold ring/kettle screen and save yourself a bunch of time and money.
Have fun brewin’ everybody,
Goldingsguy