Are Hopbacks worth the hassle?

I'm about to build a DIY hopback and I see mixed reviews about even using them. I was going to use plastic and realize that's a bad idea. Next up would be to use a SS container from BB&B and have an inlet and outlet on it. Should I just bag it and use more dry hops?

Yes, if it is a sealed unit and the wort goes straight to the chiller.

Hi

The answer to these questions is always "that depends". One of the local breweries has a hopback the size of a small car and they use it a lot. They make great beer with it. For some beer types it's not going to do much good.

Bob

I like APA and IPAs. I'm leaning to using a whole house water filter housing rigging it to work in line before the chiller. I figure the aroma will be crazy insane and worth the tooling around Lowes and Home Depot

Hi

Sounds like the right sort of stuff to use a hopback on.

Do consider that sanitation is pretty important once you are past boil. Plastic is going to be "interesting" to keep clean and sanitized. Make sure that what ever you get is compatible with the cleaners and sanitizers you use.

Bob

THe BB&B containers wont seal airtight. I am using a small pressure cooker.

I have the morebeer one. I've only used it three times so far and the third one (an IPA) is almost ready to keg. I didn't notice much extra flavor/aroma the first time I used it but I don't think I even had it half full with hops. The second time was on a pale ale that I'd brewed a few times before. For the pale, I filled it to the brim with homegrown hops and the finished beer was awesome; much more hop flavor/aroma than the prior batches. I've been pretty happy with the results on mine and it actually does on awesome job of filtering out pellet hops before the wort hits my plate chiller. If you do some experimentation with lots of late additions (hop bursting) you can probably get similar results.