How I keep hops out my my plate chiller

I was doing some plate chiller related forum browsing tonight, and saw so many different threads on how people are keeping hops out of their plate chiller. I figured I'd add my method to the mix, though this may be old news.

I've brewed close to 15 batches with my plate chiller, and learned quickly that hops inside the chiller can not only decrease chiller performance, but can ruin a brewday if they cause a clog. That being said, I have always been a huge believer that hops should be floating freely in a boil.

Here's what I do:

1. only use hop pellets. let them float freely in the boil so not to compromise utilization.
2. When flameout time comes, place my hop spider over the pot (strainer bag empty of course).
3. pump wort out of kettle, thru pump, and into hop spider. Stirring throughout. Do this for 5-10 minutes.
4. Start draining hop spider by carefully twisting the bag around the PVC/lag bolts.
5. Whirlpool (still not using plate chiller at all). Whirlpool for 5-10 minutes.
6. Start using chiller as a component to the whirlpool. This is "batch chilling" as opposed to going from kettle, thru chiller, and directly into fermenter.
7. Once satisfied with the whirlpool, start draining into fermenter. Note: you can also "batch chill" all the way down to pitching temps. I do this sometimes unintentionally because I get distracted and it's already below 70.

When I first was given this idea from a friend, I was amazed at how much broken up hop material gets caught in the strainer bag.

I tried a few homemade filter provisions but never had any success. Of course my method requires a somewhat annoying amount of pump/tubing configuration changes, but to me it's worthwhile.

Your process sounds close to mine. Except that I'm using a hop spider in the kettle and want to let my hops run free. I'm thinking of using my wort grant (it has a false bottom) between the BK and the pump, and attempting to catch hops before chilling.

lud said:

Your process sounds close to mine. Except that I'm using a hop spider in the kettle and want to let my hops run free. I'm thinking of using my wort grant (it has a false bottom) between the BK and the pump, and attempting to catch hops before chilling.

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i do let my hops run free. only after the boil is over do i start pumping them into the hop spider.

hmm.. that sounds like an interesting idea.. i use a hop spider throughout the boil and a plate chiller, though i have been looking for different ways to try to try it with free floating hops.. let me just clarify.. you do your boil with the hops straight in the BK.. then you use a spider to collect the hops that are pumped out the bottom of your BK and into the top through the spider? one question, how much hop material is left after you strain it through a bunch to warrant whirlpooling?

krenshaw said:

hmm.. that sounds like an interesting idea.. i use a hop spider throughout the boil and a plate chiller, though i have been looking for different ways to try to try it with free floating hops.. let me just clarify.. you do your boil with the hops straight in the BK.. then you use a spider to collect the hops that are pumped out the bottom of your BK and into the top through the spider? one question, how much hop material is left after you strain it through a bunch to warrant whirlpooling?

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yes that's correct. the hops float around freely during the boil, then i vacuum them up into the hop filter at the end.

regarding the amount of material left after vacuuming - it ranges between none and very little. whether or not its warranted is questionable.

I would imagine this process also helps to aerate the wort a bit before pitching. I wouldn't rely on this as the only way to do it but more aeration can't hurt.

Thanks for yet another reason to get a pump and a plate chiller.

Aeration does hurt if the wort is hot. Ive read that and splashing around whe the wort is over 100 degrees can oxidize the wort because oxygen clings to it easier. (Clings isnt the right word, but i think it was in a palmer book)

I don't have much experience with my plate chiller.

However, I have the 2 weld 9 gallon pot from homebrewing.org, and all I do is whirlpool immediately after flameout. Let it sit for 7 - 10 minutes and then gravity feed the wort through plate chiller, with the wort throttled by a 1/2" ball valve. There's about an inch of trub left on the bottom, so I lose a bit of wort. No big deal to me though. I prefer to lose a little wort to ensure no trub will enter the PC.

There's not much you can do about the cold break, so I just back flush the chiller by connecting the water hose to the wort-out side for a minute. Then, I bake it out in the oven around 300F to dry it out. I guess time will tell how well this will work.

PondScum said:

I would imagine this process also helps to aerate the wort a bit before pitching. I wouldn't rely on this as the only way to do it but more aeration can't hurt.

Thanks for yet another reason to get a pump and a plate chiller.

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I would hope that there would be minimal aeration prior to chilling, right?

BullGator said:

I would hope that there would be minimal aeration prior to chilling, right?

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Ah! Yes! Excellent point!

I'm very interested in this as I am on the fence between a plate chiller and a 50ft 1/2" IC. I have gone back and forth twice. Currently, I'm leaning toward the IC due to a lot of people talking about the gunk plate chillers eventually get in them.

I was actually about to start a thread like this because avoiding the stuff going into the chiller will help reduce the chances of stuff building up in there.

I made a hop stopper from two 12" SS fry pan splatter screens and folded them around eachother and put a copper pipe coming from the bulkhead right through it

Why not use the Hop Spider DURING the boil?
How much less utilization will you get, assuming your bag is big, not some tiny 4 inch by 6 inch bag?
5%? 10%?

Isn't that worth it, so that you dont have to pump it, risk aerating it when hot, and spending the extra time and effort?

You want to make up for the lost 7.14436% hop utilization? Leave the bag in as you are cooling, you iwll get something.
Then at the end, squeeze the hops bag to reclaim some of the trapped liquid.

ArcLight said:

Why not use the Hop Spider DURING the boil?
How much less utilization will you get, assuming your bag is big, not some tiny 4 inch by 6 inch bag?
5%? 10%?

Isn't that worth it, so that you dont have to pump it, risk aerating it when hot, and spending the extra time and effort?

You want to make up for the lost 7.14436% hop utilization? Leave the bag in as you are cooling, you iwll get something.
Then at the end, squeeze the hops bag to reclaim some of the trapped liquid.

Click to expand...

It's my understanding that the rates are higher than 5-10%. I've reached that estimation emperically doing two batches, one with a 5 gal paint strainer bag, one without. The hop profile (bitterness, flavor, and aroma) was noticeably higher.

There are lots of threads on this argument. The issue is that the hops behave much differently in a strainer bag than they do floating freely. In the strainer bag they tend to clump together, leaving the hops at the inside of the clump unexposed to the boil. When flowing freely, they disperse.

>>It's my understanding that the rates are higher than 5-10%.

This is mainly dependent on the size of the bag.


>>In the strainer bag they tend to clump together, leaving the hops at the inside of the clump unexposed to the boil. When flowing freely, they disperse.

Its not that they clump, they are compressed, especially with a smaller bag
It's less of a problem with a larger bag like a 5 gallon paint strainer.

You will have less utilization, but is it really going to be noticeable?
You can try stirring inside the spider with a spoon every so often.
Or you can leave the bag in at flame out, as you are cooling for an extra 15 minutes.

Or - when you remove the Spider, squeeze it (gently so the fine particles dont come out), so you recover the iso-alpha acid saturated wort.

If bittering is your concern, you can boil a little longer.

I very much doubt using a Spider is going to cause anyone much concern.

bmbigda said:

It's my understanding that the rates are higher than 5-10%. I've reached that estimation emperically doing two batches, one with a 5 gal paint strainer bag, one without. The hop profile (bitterness, flavor, and aroma) was noticeably higher.

There are lots of threads on this argument. The issue is that the hops behave much differently in a strainer bag than they do floating freely. In the strainer bag they tend to clump together, leaving the hops at the inside of the clump unexposed to the boil. When flowing freely, they disperse.

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ArcLight, empirically means he observed this, himself. He did an experiment where he tested the utilization of free float vs 5 gal bag. He noticed enough loss that he chooses to "bag" (pun intended) the spider during the boil. It's an interesting idea. I may try this with my next batch.

Well actually it is only 'empirical' for him, it is anecdotal for all the rest of us. And since he did not use blind testing, or any kind of chemical analysis, and because the sample size is very small, the validity of the observation is highly questionable from a scientific standpoint.

Now I am not saying he is wrong or anything. It makes sense that there may well be a difference.
It is just that I work in a biology lab and I tend to get pedantic about this kind of thing

colincbn said:

Well actually it is only 'empirical' for him, it is anecdotal for all the rest of us. And since he did not use blind testing, or any kind of chemical analysis, and because the sample size is very small, the validity of the observation is highly questionable from a scientific standpoint.

Now I am not saying he is wrong or anything. It makes sense that there may well be a difference.
It is just that I work in a biology lab and I tend to get pedantic about this kind of thing

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Not to be a dick, but working in a biology lab has to suck.

novahokie09 said:

Not to be a dick, but working in a biology lab has to suck.

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Why would you think that? It is awesome. I get to use professional plate stirrers, 2 liter flasks, incubators capable of lagering at rock solid temps for months. I can isolate yeast out of any kind of bottle conditioned beer, and make slants and petri dishes with professional grade equipment. Not to mention having access to pure ethanol and autoclaves for sterilization etc. All in all it is the best place a brewer could hope to work.

bmbigda said:

Here's what I do:

1. only use hop pellets. let them float freely in the boil so not to compromise utilization.
2. When flameout time comes, place my hop spider over the pot (strainer bag empty of course).
3. pump wort out of kettle, thru pump, and into hop spider. Stirring throughout. Do this for 5-10 minutes.
4. Start draining hop spider by carefully twisting the bag around the PVC/lag bolts.
5. Whirlpool (still not using plate chiller at all). Whirlpool for 5-10 minutes.
6. Start using chiller as a component to the whirlpool. This is "batch chilling" as opposed to going from kettle, thru chiller, and directly into fermenter.
7. Once satisfied with the whirlpool, start draining into fermenter. Note: you can also "batch chill" all the way down to pitching temps. I do this sometimes unintentionally because I get distracted and it's already below 70.

When I first was given this idea from a friend, I was amazed at how much broken up hop material gets caught in the strainer bag.

I tried a few homemade filter provisions but never had any success. Of course my method requires a somewhat annoying amount of pump/tubing configuration changes, but to me it's worthwhile.

Click to expand...

bmbigda,

if you are still using this technique, I am interested in how well it is working for you. I am also curious why you would whirlpool after 'vacuuming' the trub into the hop spider. I was thinking about whirlpooling first to get the trub collected into a pile and then vacuuming up that pile into the hop spider as you have done. It is also not clear from your post if you are using a pickup tube to vacuume up trub or just a standard kettle pick up tube (fixed). I am thinking about using one of the stainless mesh tubes / hop spiders rather than one of the cloth ones, and also using a hand-held pickup tube to be able to more effectively vacuume up the trub pile.

Any thoughts appreciated...

-fafrd

Make a frame/basket that will hold the bag open to allow the hops to float free. You can use copper wire stripped from Romex electrical wire available at big box stores. Put the wire frame in the bag, suspend bag from spider, add hops. When ready to cool, remove wire frame, cool bag of wet hops, squeeze bag, empty hops into trash.