Stocktonbrew

Recipes 

I have a three tier gravity brew stand. My boil kettle has a false bottom with a pickup tube. I have always used leaf hops but my LHBS for the most part sells pellets. Question is, can I use pellet hops and drain from my boil kettle to carboy as I usually do, or will the pellets clog the pickup tube?

Dr_Beersgood_Quaffenstein

Recipes 

The short answer is yes. I do this all the time and simply use a funnel with a strainer to catch any hop debris I do not want in my fermenter. I guess it would be theoretically possible for hop debris to plug up your dip tube, but I think its far more likely that you will suck unwanted hop debris into your fermenter.

Stocktonbrew

Recipes 

Do you drain from a valve in your brew kettle?

Dr_Beersgood_Quaffenstein

Recipes 

Yes. I cool to pitching temperature and then drain into a funnel with a mesh screen in it as I fill my carboys. Occasionally if I am making IPA or beers with lots of hops it will clog up a bit and I will just stir it a bit and empty the hop debris using a large spoon to increase the flow rate again.

Stocktonbrew

Recipes 

I have a 1/2 pickup tube, 1/2 ball valve going into a 1/2 id hose barb. I was hoping the hop pellet muck would flow through and straight into the carboy. I dont reuse my yeast and have read others say its not a big deal to leave the hops in the primary.

Stocktonbrew

Recipes 

So you just throw the hop pellets in the boil kettle and they drain through ok? You don't use hop bags?

stratslinger

Recipes 

Stocktonbrew: what you describe is exactly what I do - except I add the step that I then pump that wort through a counterflow chiller that's only 3/8", and I have no problems. You'll be fine.

Stocktonbrew

Recipes 

Stratslinger: do you gravity feed from your boil kettle? Or does the pump pull it out?

stratslinger

Recipes 

Doesn't matter. Strictly speaking, the pump doesn't "pull" anything. The pumps we use in homebrewing aren't self priming pumps and aren't rally capable of pulling. I gravity feed to my pump, and my pump then pushes the wort through the chiller and into my fermenter.

AussieBrewerInColorado

Recipes 

I built a hop-spider type device, works a charm and haven't had a clogged brew since I made it. Used to have issues with the hops in the hop bag clogging up the tube, if it wasn't that it was other muck. Highly recommended and cheap to build.

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The Keg Ran Out Club (KROC)
Broomfield, Colorado
http://www.kroc.org/