Press Hops to Get All Wort Out?

Not sure if anyone else does this and i wanted to get an opion or two...

I always cool my boil and then strain it through a strainer into my carboy... but.. when my strainer clogs with hops (I use pellets for everything), I use my "brew spoon" to press the hops against the strainer and get every drop of wort out of the mush.

Any reason at all NOT to do this??

I've been really happy with my beers but have always wondered if there was some reason to not do this.

it's grain bags that you need to worry about...extracting tannins and all the noise.

i think it should be fine with the hops. i usually just let mine drip from the bag when i'm cooling.

I've found that squeezing hops puts a lot of very fine crud into the wort. It settles out eventually, but at best you're getting a couple ounces of wort.

I stopped doing it.

I do the same thing, plus I rinse the hops with fresh water. I had read that whole hops can soak up wort sugars, but I don't know if it's a significant amount. So I press them and rinse them. It may not be doing anything, but damnit, I want all my sugars!

SavageSteve are you letting this new fresh water that you pouring through your trub, into your carboy with your freshly cooled wort??? #1. I hope it's sanitized water.#2 This is actually defeating your purpose, by adding water your diluting your OG, thus ... well I'm sure you understand where I'm going with this. I would strongly recommend NOT doing that. JMO

david_42 said:

I've found that squeezing hops puts a lot of very fine crud into the wort. It settles out eventually, but at best you're getting a couple ounces of wort.

I stopped doing it.

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I stopped for the same reason. At times, I will still stir the wort in the strainer, though. That reduces the amount of fine particles in the fermenter, but I still get a good amount of wort going through the strainer.


TL

I just let the strainer sit. If you want to conserve, save the squeezed wort for a starter.

If I use whole hops for flavor or aroma additions, I squeeze the heck out of the nylon sack to get every drop of wort out. It's not the wort I'm concerned about, it's all hop flavor and aroma that I suspect is concentrated in the wort that I squeeze out. It could be BS but in this hop situation, I feel better about it.

I leave at least a 1/2 gallon in the kettle, so Im not too worried about squeezing anything out of hops. I do bigger batches intentionally, so as long as i get at least 5.5gallons in each fermenter im good.

I sparge my hops in a nylon net and squeeze the bag too...

Bobby_M said:

If I use whole hops for flavor or aroma additions, I squeeze the heck out of the nylon sack to get every drop of wort out. It's not the wort I'm concerned about, it's all hop flavor and aroma that I suspect is concentrated in the wort that I squeeze out. It could be BS but in this hop situation, I feel better about it.

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Same with me....I squeeze the heck out of my nylon paint strainer bag after I've poured the hot wort through it into my bucket.

Ok cool... so it sounds like everyone has a slightly different opinion ranging from "don't bother" to "I squeeze the hell out of 'em".

I hear ya on the fine particles and that's a good point but it doesn't sound like it's a BAD idea for any other reasons.

Thanks for the opinions!

Cape Brewing said:

Ok cool... so it sounds like everyone has a slightly different opinion ranging from "don't bother" to "I squeeze the hell out of 'em".

I hear ya on the fine particles and that's a good point but it doesn't sound like it's a BAD idea for any other reasons.

Thanks for the opinions!

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Well, you know what they say, "Ask 10 homebrewers a simple question and you'll get 12 different answers."

My paint strainer back is such a fine mesh that I haven't noticed any hop particles...