Hop sludge

Just for grins, I've place the sludge from the last batch in the fridge. I've wondered how much wort is being wasted. If it settles enough, I'll pour the wort off, boil it a bit and add it to the fermenter.

About 14 hours in the fridge:

I squeeze mine out in the strainer with a spatula for this very reason.

You probably can dillute it to 1035 OG and use it for starters after boiling it

Teacher said:

I squeeze mine out in the strainer with a spatula for this very reason.

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Seems like you'd end up extracting unwanted hop tannins, though maybe not

seanmichaleen said:

You probably can dillute it to 1035 OG and use it for starters after boiling it

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Might not be a bad idea, but hop oils aren't good for yeast. As long as there weren't too many hop in the boil I imagine after being diluted to 1.035ish (I do 1.040 usually), it wouldn't be much of a problem. As long as there's enough to do a starter with I may try with my next brew's sludge.

Kaiser just filters it through paper towels and saves it for future starters and kraeusening.

noblesquirrel said:

Seems like you'd end up extracting unwanted hop tannins, though maybe not

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Dunno. I should have stated that I only do this for my Imperial RyePA, in which I'm looking to maximize hop character (of course). I've never noticed anything particularly tannic about the character, though.

What I really need to do is get the new hop filter finished. The bazooka isn't doing the job with all pellet hop beers.

After five days, I decided it wasn't going to settle anymore. I siphoned off the clear wort (about a cup) and dumped the sludge into a measuring cup:



After tasting the wort I can draw the following conclusions:

1. Every ounce of hops you use will absorb seven times its weight in wort.
2. The difference between fresh sludge and compacted sludge is about 25%.
3. After five days on the sludge, the flavor of the wort is more or less identical to the fresh wort.
4. That means dumping the whole kettle into the fermenter will ultimately increase your beer yield less than one bottle per five gallons, but it won't adversely impact the flavor.

interesting experiment. Honestly i wouldnt have thought of that but im glad you still didn't lose too much liquid.

I was envisioning a compact wafer at the bottom of the jar. Interesting info though, no worries if my trub cone sucks that day and I get a lot of crap in the fermenter.