Hop Pellets

So, I scored a bunch of stuff for Christmas from my wife (who basically rules) to help me go all grain this year.

I'm going to be drilling a hole in my boil pot for a ball valve spigot here in the next week or two, and there is my question. My first brew used hop pellets, which clogged my funnel screen big time. I swore I would never use them again, unless it was absolutely needed. Thing is, the hop situation being what it is, it may come to that.

Is there anything I should install on the inside of the pot to keep hop pellet sludge from getting into my plate chiller? I guess, the better question is, IS there anything you can do to keep that gunk out of there? I've seen people install a bit of copper tubing inside the pot, and bend it toward the edge so they can get the hops and break material in a cone in the middle. Would a hop bag work?

My brew pot was a significantly price reduced SS pot accidently drilled to high for a lauter screen set-up. It sits about 2 inches up from the bottom. I installed a piece of copper tubing that drained from closer to the bottom and always had clogging problems. I find that hop pellet debris and hot/cold break material won't "cone up" well with whirlpooling and tends to settle out evenly on the bottom of the pot. I do use an immerision chiller though so my cold break remains in the boil pot. I removed the tubing and now get crystal clear wort after letting is sit for 30-60 minutes after chilling. This leaves behind about 1 gal of wort/trub that sits below the level of my outlet and I just factor that into my recipes (ie I brew to end up with 6g in my boil pot after I'm finished). With pellets there is little clear wort left, if I use whole hops and a hop bag then there is maybe another quart of clear wort remaining - not enough to worry about.

GT

Got Trub? said:

This leaves behind about 1 gal of wort/trub that sits below the level of my outlet and I just factor that into my recipes
GT

Click to expand...

You could always strain this and store in it mason jars in your fridge for starters