Hopblocker

I am investing in a new brew kettle and a lauter tun. I believe I am going to buy Blichmann kettles for both the mash tun and brew kettle unless people on this forum heavily object. I was to go with Blichmann because they have the 55-gallon stock pot, which is about the size that I am looking to move to. (http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/boilermaker-brew-kettle.html) So first if you have any experience with Blichmann please feel free to chime in and let me know your feelings on these pots.

Second, I would like to go ahead and buy a hop blocker since I'm going all out on this equipment (draining my checking account). My question is which pot should I get the Hopblocker on? I know that people typically put them on the brew kettle, but is there any benefit to hopping the extract prior to brewing? I would imagine I would lose some of the aroma hopping during mash rather than during brew so would I only want to hop during brew and not at all during mash? If anyone has any thoughts or experience regarding hopping during mash I would love to hear them.

Thanks,

Mark.

My jealousy prevents me from helping you.

Wow...nice! What kind of burner are you going to be using? (Sorry )

I have seen mention of hopped extract and hopping during mash, but I have never met/talked to anyone who has done it. I am also curious if this was a fad practice at one time or if it is just a minority practice that continues and what the pros/cons are.

doubledub said:

Wow...nice! What kind of burner are you going to be using? (Sorry )

I have seen mention of hopped extract and hopping during mash, but I have never met/talked to anyone who has done it. I am also curious if this was a fad practice at one time or if it is just a minority practice that continues and what the pros/cons are.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the delayed response. I have been in and out of town for work. I had picked out a 220,000 btu burner on Northern Brewer I believe, but I am not thinking I will go the extra step and use electric. I am still doing research on the entire process, but I think in the long run it will make sense.

Mash (first wort) hopping give the "same" effect as flame out hopping or dry hopping in that you don't get IBUs you get the nice aroma, having never don't this I'm going strictly off of reading expirenced brewers results, dry hopping can give a slight cloudiness also. The only difference with mash hopping over flameout is that mash hops are obviously in the wort longer so you can, in theory, get more aroma then flameout with rapid cooling. That's just my opinion on that

As far as blichman goes, I mean they are accredited and you pay for the engineers who to design these things as it is called Blichmann Engineering, but for the massive volume of home brewing I would go with it.

On a side note (none of my business) brewing huge volumes usually means that not all the beer is for you and for the price your going to pay I'm doubting u just "give" your beer away, which leads me to say selling untaxed alcohol is a fedral offense and can lead to massive fines/ imprisonment. And if your not selling it your still only allowed 100 gallons of personal homebrew per person over 21 who is a resident in the house up to (200gallons I believe?)

But maybe your starting a small brewery and for that matter I will assume just that.

Good Luck and Happy Brewing!