Too much hops!

Just brewed the Pliny kit from Morebeer. The whirl flock tab has kicked and and is taking all the sediment to the bottom, that's all good and great but so far I have about 2 gallons of hops in the bottom!! I'm wondering if I can rack into a secondary after fermentation stops and then top off with sanitized water to make up for the 2 gal of hop gunk?

Adding more water would just make your beer thin and watery.

Your choices: (bear in mind these are not your only choices, just my opinion)

1. Siphon off the hops and bottle what you have.

2. Get a sieve ( the wire mesh kind) and strain through it when racking to the secondary. This will aerate the beer but if you drink it fast enough it you will not notice.

FWIW, choice 2 is what I would do.

I always try to brew a slightly bigger batch, but you have to adjust grains. Did you strain the wort before you put it in primary? Obviously its too late now, but if you ever do it again try straining. Kills two birds with one stone as it helps aerate the wort

When you brew a Pliny clone, you've pretty much signed up for a lot of trub. Don't rack and add water - you are trying to make an extraordinary beer.

Yeah I started with 7 gal, 90 min boil, strained it all with my funnel w/ strainer, pulled out a few cups of hops and it damn near filled my 6 gal carboy to the top. I guess I should invest in a hop spider or something, looks like I'm going to end up with hopefully 4 gallons. Oh well

Better 4 gallons of great beer than 5 of watery, almost good beer though! Live and learn for next time - in the meantime RDWHAHB!

mcbaumannerb said:

Better 4 gallons of great beer than 5 of watery, almost good beer though! Live and learn for next time - in the meantime RDWHAHB!

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Well I'm about to crack a real Pliny, then I'll move to the homebrew! Thanks everyone!

Yeah heavy trub is just the name of the game. I also try tilting the carboy during fermentation. That way trub tends to settle to one side, then when you rack, tilt to the low side. You still lose some beer but it helps limit it.

I almost choked on my homebrew..."Too much hops" I was like >?!>?!>?! Then I read it was for a Pliny and I was really like >!?>!?>!?

steber said:

Yeah heavy trub is just the name of the game. I also try tilting the carboy during fermentation. That way trub tends to settle to one side, then when you rack, tilt to the low side. You still lose some beer but it helps limit it.

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I havent made anything this big but I also tilt the carboy, helps a bit.

Too much hops... is that even possible?!



Thats over half a pound of whole leaf my friend!!!

It's just part of the territory when you brew a big beer and don't strain/filter it good. Even then, you'll lose beer. Thats when you ramp the recipe up and anticipate loss from the kettle and the fermenter to make enough.

Its finally settled! I think my next investment will defiantly be a hop strainer of some sorts, really needed one for the 13 oz of hops this particular recipe called for! And Still have 3 oz for dry hop!

Looks good!

NorCalBrewin said:

Its finally settled! I think my next investment will defiantly be a hop strainer of some sorts, really needed one for the 13 oz of hops this particular recipe called for! And Still have 3 oz for dry hop!

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That's about what mine looks like. Gotta love ipas!!