I am going to brew later today and this kit has a lot of hops. The last time I did this, it was a nightmare filtering while transferring to fermentor. I was thinking instead of putting hops straight in, to bag them instead and then put in the boil so that when time to transfer to fermentor I am not having such hard time filtering. Is this a normal practice?
thx
Some people use a paint stainer bag clipped to the side of the BK. Then add hops to the bag as the boil progresses.
I just use some 10"x12" fine mesh bags with a draw string, 2-3 oz/bag. Obviously, I use multiple bags for some beers.
I’ve experienced a small loss of utilization with bags but I just add a bit more hops to the process.
Ok, so okay to pull hops after boil is done, they dont need to stay in wort during ferm?
The hops added to the boil kettle do not need to be in the fermentor. The only hops that would be added to the fermentor would be for dry hopping if part of the recipe.
Totally normal practice; I do it all the time! Loose hop pellets are indeed a pain (even if you whirlpool, for many people). If you plan to brew a lot of hoppy beers, and are feeling in a DIY mood, you might even build a hop spider. It is convenient for brews with multiple additions of hops, and then you can just pull one item out of the pot, rather than having a handful of wet and squishy hop bags floating around in the kettle.
I recently got a Grainfather connect, and I do hop additions using bags. I found out the hard way that loose hops plugs up the Grainfather very badly.
I used to use a hop spider but got tired of cleaning it. I let them free in the boil. Whirlpool is much easier for me.
For whatever reason I’ve never had much success with whirlpooling in my kettle. About once a year I think, “Hey, why don’t I just whirlpool instead of bagging the hop pellets?” and then regret it an hour or two later! Ah well…
Well I went with the 5 gallon paint strainer. Worked well but even with that, filtering when into the primary was frustrating, but certainly less than if I hadn’t. I think next time will do same thing but not filter when moving to primary and by time for secondary most will had settled and easily avoidable when siphoning over.
thx again
No kidding. Even with bags I get a clogged pump filter more often than not.
On my “normal” system, I bag whole hops but not pellets. Whole hops will clog the pickup tube in the kettle. Pellets go through the pump and into the fermenter.
Andy, is your kettle flat bottomed? I recently heard from a couple people that they had no trouble whirlpooling in a flat bottomed kettle, but using a converted keg with a rounded bottom made whirlpooling difficult to impossible. Since that’s what I use, I’m blamimg my whirlpool difficultis on it!
FWIW, many (maybe most) people no longer use secondary. If you just leave it in primary longer it will clear.
Bad choice of words on my part, when I said “loose”, I just meant pellets loose in the boil. It definitely plugged up the pump right quick. I originally had the problem because I had a lapse in judgment, and accidentally tied the bag too tightly and the hop pellets had no room to swell. I was forced to cut the bag open and let them free in the wort (emergency decision, I didn’t have another brew bag to transfer to).
Mine is flat bottomed…maybe there is just something wrong in my technique? Do I need to use a pump to get optimum whirlpool cone-age? I just stir it up nice and swirly with a spoon…is it a speed of draining the kettle thing? I usually open it up and let the wort fly. Should I try it with a slower outflow? Is it something that works better in larger kettles? I have a 10 gallon kettle and am making 5 gallon batches.
I think it is a flow rate thing. When I hand whirlpool and drain slower than fully open valve, I do see the residual cone type pile of stuff in the center of my flat bottom kettle. If in a hurry, and I fully open my valve, I usually get a thick, murky layer of trub laden liquid for the last half gallon or so at the bottom of kettle and wind up leaving it behind
1 - use a pickup that is far from the center
2 - swirl for about a min
3 - let rest for 30 min
4 - open the valve enough to fill the tubing
5 - close the valve to as slow as you can stand
Pumps help, but not needed.
I actually use 2 paint strainer bags (5gal bags) for hop pellets and a metal strainer mesh in the “funnel” used to catch the wort I pour into my carboy… Someday I will have valves and pumps but for now this has worked for 8yrs…
You haven’t experienced any issues with excess vegetal notes from too much hop debris mixed with the fermentation on heavily hopped beers?
