Hop Pellets and Absorbtion

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.

DuPuma

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
68
Reaction score
0
Location
Bloomington, Indiana... for now
I brew partial extract boils. I don't have the capacity or funds to upgrade significantly...yet. I am somewhat new and use pellets and boil them with the partial. I have noticed that the pellets absorb a lot of the wort. Obviously, I don't want all those hops in the fermenter, so I filter with a strainer. No real problems, except I never can get the full amount of liquid from the boil kettle and usually end up 1/2-3/4 gallon short of what I would have because there is so much loss absorbed in the hops.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this? What about hop bags, anyone have success with those? Will one of those really help get the best utilization?

I would like to use whole hops, but the local store just doesn't have a great selection. If I did would that help solve the problem? Is ordering hops online a good idea?

Thank you for the help!
 
Whole hops won't help--actually, they absorb far more wort than pellets do.

You could try bags: I always use bags for styles like IPAs where you're addding a ton of hops. Using bags will slightly lower your hop utilization

Otherwise, try whirpooling before you siphon out of your pot. There is a great instructional thread on that here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=7682&highlight=whirlpool

I have generally whirpooled and then strained only the last pint or so of trubby wort. Straining the whole thing seems like too big a PITA and too large a sanitation risk.
 
cweston said:
Otherwise, try whirpooling before you siphon out of your pot. There is a great instructional thread on that here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=7682&highlight=whirlpool

I have generally whirpooled and then strained only the last pint or so of trubby wort. Straining the whole thing seems like too big a PITA and too large a sanitation risk.

Whirl pooling will make the transfer easier, but will not fix your problem. As cweston said, straining the trub is the only way to get the remainder. But there will always be wort left in the trub/hops and straining can become a sanitation risk.

at the end of the whirlpool thread I show how I get the last oz of wort out of the trub, but I don't put this into the fermenter because it was not collected with a sanitary method.

Kai
 
except I never can get the full amount of liquid from the boil kettle and usually end up 1/2-3/4 gallon short of what I would have because there is so much loss absorbed in the hops.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this? What about hop bags, anyone have success with those? Will one of those really help get the best utilization?

I do partial Boils (usually 3 gallons) also. Are you adding water? Pellet hops in my experience actually absorb only a cup or so max (this estimate based on the hop/trub sludge I get after straining.)

I use leaf hops in bags most of the time. To reduce the boil off and get better hop utilization, at every "event" I top off the water to 3 gallons, after the hot break I top off, at the 30min hopping I top off and at 15 min add and at flameout. This way I am cooling the full 3 gallons.

If you are using a strainer just use a sanitized spoon and press down on the trub to drain more liquid. I usually pull the hop bags out and use them as a filter to pour the wort thru to the strainer, then crush em with the spoon to wring out as much as possible.

If you are losing 1/2 - 3/4 gallon sounds like it is evaporation/boil off, not absorption by the hops.. even using leaf, I never get more than a cup or two of loss from absorption.

PS when using leaf hops in the bag I found using 2.5 gallon hop schedule for pellets gets me the same result with 3 gallons and leaf that I would with 2.5 gal and pellets.
 
i also tried whirlpooling, and it worked great. then with the sludge at the bottom, i took a little time, and filtered it , and got a little more than half a liter of pretty clean wort out. but of course i was worried about contamination, so i just boiled it for 10 minutes or so, and put it in the fridge. then i thought i'd use it for a starter, or speise or something. (of course i would have been concerned about a hopped starter, or whether as speise the hops would have enough time to mellow, and i would have been right here asking the pros). so the next day, while my fermentation was going, i dumped my small amound of wort right back in the big batch.

anyone see any dangers in doing this?
 
Back
Top