Homemade hop back

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

worldzfree

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2010
Messages
98
Reaction score
1
Location
seattle
Thought I would post up a few pics of my homemade hop back that I just finished. Basically it's a 2qt Polarware bain marie with some fittings welded onto it. I haven't done a brew on it. Plan to use it next brew session in place of 0 minute/whirlpool additions.

IMG_0580 (Large).jpg


IMG_0582 (Large).jpg


IMG_0576 (Large).jpg
 
I am planning in hunting at the depot to try and build a hop back. I believe my best shot for how I want to do this is with PVC. For this reason I will be using this after the chiller. Anybody run a hop back after their chiller? I want to make this open easily for hops and also be able to insert a coffee filter around a cross drilled inner tube. Hard to explain but main question is any experience on hop back after chill.
 
steadfasthops said:
Looks sweet!! are you going to put a lid on it or is it gravity feed?

While I have a lid I don't plan on using it. I will just gravity feed into the pump and over to the plate chiller. Being before the chiller I think I will get an advantage of also filtering out any break.
 
bigdongsr94 said:
I am planning in hunting at the depot to try and build a hop back. I believe my best shot for how I want to do this is with PVC. For this reason I will be using this after the chiller. Anybody run a hop back after their chiller? I want to make this open easily for hops and also be able to insert a coffee filter around a cross drilled inner tube. Hard to explain but main question is any experience on hop back after chill.

I have not heard of a hop back after the chiller (Doesn't mean it hasn't been done). My only thought would be not running near boiling wort through the hop back would sort of defeat the purpose of extracting all those delicate flavors. Any aroma you got from the after chill method could potentially be driven off via a vigorous ferment. Just my thoughts.
 
Re: chilled hopback... I think the intent when using is to run the HOT wort thru the hops to allow the aroma+flavor to pick up from the hops. Then IMMEDIATELY chill on the outlet to lock this into the wort.
It would work better hotter than cold. If you intend to run it thru cold, you could just dry hop.
So i'm not sure you're going to get your intended utilization. you would loose some during ferment anyway so you want as much as possible in there.
 
Back
Top