question on whole hops in the fermenter
 

Do they settle out or do they float?

I have 5 gallons of an Amarillo Rye I brewed with a friend. He got the first 5 gallons before the valve clogged. I got my via an autosiphon and a sanitized measuring cup scooping out 12 ounces at a time.

Needless to say, I have a bit of whole hops in my bucket fermenter and I'm concerned they will clog the spigot. I will rack this puppy to a 5 gallon better bottle, but I wonder if the whole hops will clog my autosiphon again.

Just check to see if anyone experienced this.

In my experience, some will settle and some will continue to float. My normal course of action is to wrap the autosiphon with a strainer bag and rack from the middle of the carboy. Keeps those pesky hops from clogging up the flow.

Main reason I don't dry hop in the fermenter is the spigot clogging. If I do, I always use a bag. Mostly I dry hop in the keg and use a bag there as well.

They've always pretty much stayed floating for me, but I've never left them longer than 10 days. So far they haven't clogged the autosiphon, I sometimes get a few bits when racking but generally they're too big to come through.

Hop bags. Hop bags. Hop bags. A racking cane's best friend.

Thanks for the feedback. I remember someone mentioning they used a sink screen to help keep the paint strainer away from the siphon input so I am putting that to good use today.

Here's what I have from Lowe's: Sink strainer @$2.67 and 1 gallon paint strainer @$0.98 plus a couple rubber bands.

http://www.krach.org/Homebrew/AutoSiphonScreen1.jpg



Just put the tip of the auto siphon in the indented sink strainer and put the paint strainer over it and secure with a rubber band. This will go in my bucket of starsan and I will spray the upper end with starsan. It looks pretty stable and I believe it will keep the hops out of my secondary. Whoo Hoo!

http://www.krach.org/Homebrew/AutoSiphonScreen2.jpg

That puppy worked like a charm!

http://www.krach.org/Homebrew/AutoSiphonScreen3.jpg

Ed - I've used cheese cloth and a rubberband with good success as well.

That is clever.

Thanks. It's not my idea, but I remember reading it somewhere here on HBT.

Gotta love HBT! :mug: