Does anyone have a Blichmann Hop Rocket? If so, are you happy with it, and do I need a pump to use it or can you use it inline from kettle to fermentor with gravity? I wrote Blichmann but haven’t heard back yet and there isn’t much information on the website. Thanks
I have one. I’m pretty sure you could gravity feed through it, although the outlet is on the top so the beer can be pushed through to help reduce foaming. I don’t know if turning it upside down to gravity feed it would affect the filters in there or cause excessive foaming.
I did some more checking and it does say it can be used w/ gravity but you need 4’ elevation. Anyway, are you getting a lot of hop flavor and aroma with it? As opposed to whirlpool/hot stand hopping, any difference?
More so of an aroma thing than flavor. I did a side by side of an IPA where I ran the first 5 gallons of wort through the rocket and the second 5 gallons I just whirlpooled and hot stand hopped as normal. I did get more aroma from the rocket, flavor impact I found to be minimal. It definitely gave that big whiff of hops, but honestly I don’t use it in very often, only in big IPA’s where I want a ton of hop aroma, and I dont brew those all that often. If you’re the kind of guy who likes a lot of hop aromatics in several styles of beer and do those styles often I’d recommend it. Otherwise you can get very similar results with cold steep, hot stand, whirlpooling.
The other thing to consider for that I like more than using on brew day is using it as a randall. I actually prefer it for that use. Ive been searching for ways to use it and another thing im considering is whirlpooling cooled wort through it with some whole coffee beans or wood chips in there.
Great info, thanks Jason
anytime!
I have used it as a way to get more hops in late, and as a Randall.
With some more fitings and orienting my pump right, I will use it as a Torpedo.
A shiny toy, but I like shiny toys.
Shiny toys are good. And this is a great hobby for shiny toys
Also I have had no issues using gravity feeds from the kettle at 2 feet and it is an awesome filter too.
I use it for finishing hops and filtering. I put it between the kettle and the chiller. It will also act as a filter. It should only be used with whole hops. There’s a good youtube video by John Blichmann himself.
Care to share how you are doing this? I’m interested!
Blues, you have a Brutus system similar to mine if I recall. Do you gravity feed from the kettle to the rocket to the chiller to the pump then the pump returns to the kettle? I ended up putting the rocket after the pump as I couldnt seem to figure out how to efficiently get a decent flow rate the way you mentioned. Maybe a pic?
I take that to be a question on using it as a Torpedo? I will put the Hop Rocket on the floor, and connect the bottom valve from the conical to the in of the Hop Rocket. Short connection to the in of the March Pump just above the Hop Rocket. Pump mounted so he output points straight up. Output of pump to the racking arm, and have the racking arm pointing up, or at least at a 45 angle from horizontal to pump the hoppy goodness around the conical (don’t want it pointing down at the out valve).
I tried this before with out thinking and probably got bubbles in the pump. Correct orientation will help those go to the conical. You are pumping beer that has CO2. Will also throttle the pump so it does not have all of the hops up tight against the screen.
Yes. I have a Brutus system.
I have it in line after the pump just before the chiller as you have described. I haven’t tried it by gravity feed alone because I don’t think it would flow consistently, however it might be worth a try someday.
I use my Hop Rocket often. I use it as a Randall when the guys are around; a reasonable consumption rate. It’s primary function is a filter. I load it with rice hulls when chilling with the plate chiller and add rice hulls to the hops when hop backing during the whirlpool. After a lot of experimenting with the Hop Rocket; I agree with Gordon Strong’s statement, that each method will produce a unique flavor/aroma profile. Is it needed; no. But, it is a shinny gadget that inspires interest and conversation.
Hope you don’t mind if I tag in here.
Used my HopRocket for the first time yesterday with problems.
My set-up: kettle ->HopRocket->chiller->March Pump ->kettle/fermentor
Used two ounces hops with one-half ounce camomille flowers.
(Blichman recommends max of 4 ounces if I recall correctly.)
The HopRocket was full but not packed tight.
I have used this exact same set-up with the open glass top kettle style hopback many times successfully with the same amount of hops.
After 10 minutes the wort out of the HopRocket comes to a stop.
I did bypass the HopRocket and continue on.
When I opened the HopRocket the hops were a solid, hard, wet brick.
No wonder there was no wort flow thru this clog!
Little pissy at the moment as I thought this would be a good upgrade from the open kettle design.
Looks to me that this HopRocket can’t handle two ounces of whole hop flowers?
I prefer to use the HopRocket right out of the kettle as it also acts as a filter prior to the chiller and pump.
Ah ok, so unlike Lonnie you are running your kettle into your pump then into your chiller. I went the Lonnie Mac route, kettle-chiller-pump-rocket. I will try it the other way so it can filter prechiller.
I’ve been doing a ton of reading on how to utilize this thing more. I found a ton of great advice from Mike McDole. I’ve hard piped my hop rocket to the ball valve of my kettle UPSIDE DOWN, and removed the new high flow filter housing. The rocket is connected to my therminator, which is connected to my pump and that runs back to my kettle. I did a water run on this the other day and it worked great!
My plan is to use rice hulls in a hopsack for lagers to use a filter effect for trub, and whole hops for IPA’s. I am doing a lager this weekend with rice hulls and I will report back with results. Mike has reported no issues with extracting tanning from rice hulls in this thing. I normally re-circ the last 10 minutes of my boil anyhow and Mike has advised this will work for “sterilizing” the hulls.
Mike also recommended opening the valve on the boil kettle very slowly and restricting the output flow when starting circculation to reduce compaction. Can’t wait to try this bad boy out!
Why all the headspace before the pump? Seems like you either have a very, very powerful pump or you’re putting undue strain on your pump. What I’ve typically done is:
kettle → pump → chiller → rocket
The benefits of this as I see it are reduced strain on the pump, because it’s designed to PUSH liquid and not PULL it, which it would certainly be doing if you had to run it through a plate chiller.
I would also be concerned about running hot wort through the hop rocket - HSA from turbulence in the hops (unless you filled it with water first?)
You could flush it out with CO2.