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mvestel · 10-27-2011, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janzik

I would sanitize the hop rocket itself, after cleaning it, but there is no need to sanitize hops.

Thanks for the rapid response. I appreciate that its not necessary-and i believe you are right...but i'm curious, however, why. it goes against the principle of cleaning everything.

If the hops go into a hop back or torpedo, and then warm wort goes into them, then the wort is cooled, and on to the fermenter, any bugs in the hops will be alive.

do you mind explaining where i'm going wrong here. people do it as you said...so its no doubt done.

I'm just not sure why its not a problem.

thanks!

mvestel · 10-27-2011, 04:51 PM

Thanks for the rapid response. I appreciate that its not necessary-and i believe you are right...but i'm curious, however, why. it goes against the principle of cleaning everything.

If the hops go into a hop back or torpedo, and then warm wort goes into them, then the wort is cooled, and on to the fermenter, any bugs in the hops will be alive.

do you mind explaining where i'm going wrong here. people do it as you said...so its no doubt done.

I'm just not sure why its not a problem.

thanks!

samc · 10-27-2011, 05:22 PM

Generally you are pumping hot wort through the hops, this seems to kill off potential issues. I supposed if one were worried they could soak the hops in some StarSan for a minute before putting them in the hop back. When I do a flame out hop addition the wort is still 180F or so which does the trick.

hatfieldenator · 10-27-2011, 05:28 PM

The wort is hot enough to sanitize any thing in the hops when you pump it through one of these.
I have one and have only used it once so far, but the results were excellent. I used it just like pictured above. I plumbed it in line between my boil kettle and chiller. Used 2 or 3 oz of whole hops and got a very nice aroma/flavor profile of those hops in the finished beer.

I'd also like to use it as a randall as well by hooking it up to a keg and doing a keg to keg transfer of bright beer to get the freshest hop aroma possible. I plan on doing this with my next batch of IPA which might be this weekend

lamarguy · 10-27-2011, 05:36 PM

As other said, 200+F wort will sanitize the hopback and plate chiller in < 2min.

I do recommend you recirculate hot wort for 1 - 2 min to ensure proper sanitization.

**MyNameIsPaul** · 04-12-2012, 02:18 PM

Is anyone still using this thing? I've had one, brand new in the box, for over a year now. Does it make a worthwhile difference or is it mere novelty?

**RiverCityBrewer** · 04-12-2012, 02:50 PM

Yep I've used mine for a few beers now (I got mine in December)... it definitely makes a difference in hop aroma making it to the finished beer.

hatfieldenator · 04-13-2012, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MyNameIsPaul

Is anyone still using this thing? I've had one, brand new in the box, for over a year now. Does it make a worthwhile difference or is it mere novelty?

Definitely worthwhile to use! I've used mine a couple of times so far for IPAs and it was the most fantastic fresh hop character I've had in any beer yet. I used it first for transfering from the boil kettle to the fermenter, then after the beer was finished fermenting I used it to transfer beer from one keg to another before finaling carbonating it. That batch turned out insanely awesome. Its a bit of extra work doing all that and you have to be careful with your sanitary skills, but its WELL worth the extra effort IMO. You can't get this kind of fresh hop character from just dry hopping alone.

**paulster2626** · 06-14-2012, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hatfieldenator

Definitely worthwhile to use! I've used mine a couple of times so far for IPAs and it was the most fantastic fresh hop character I've had in any beer yet. I used it first for transfering from the boil kettle to the fermenter, then after the beer was finished fermenting I used it to transfer beer from one keg to another before finaling carbonating it. That batch turned out insanely awesome. Its a bit of extra work doing all that and you have to be careful with your sanitary skills, but its WELL worth the extra effort IMO. You can't get this kind of fresh hop character from just dry hopping alone.

So with one of these bad-boys, would I be able to put it in-line when transferring my fermented beer from the fermenter to the keg/bottling bucket?

I figure I would use this for IIPAs, and add 2-4oz of hops to it in addition to a generous hop schedule when brewing, as well as a dry-hop. I could say it's "triple-hopped" I guess.

Would this be worth it, or should I just double my dry hopping? I'm looking for a slap in the face of hop aroma when you have a beer - similar to Heady Topper.

**Ailstock** · 01-07-2013, 04:57 AM

I just got a HopRocket for Christmas, and I was wondering since you aren't necessarily able to use pellet hops; has anyone used a hop sock attached to the end of the hose coming out the HR into your chiller so you could use pellets as well?
I'm just wondering cause I would like to be able to use a combination of both whole cone and pellets.