Hops vs Flavor vs Krausen

First time poster, soon to be 3rd time brewer.

Previously I have just poured the hops in with the wort for primary fermentation. As a result, I have a lot of gunk floating around and in the head/foam/krausen. I know, I wont open the cap, I'm wondering for the next batch.

Two questions:
1. Does filtering out the hops en-route to the fermenter lead to less flavor?

2. Will less hops in the primary fermentation process lead to less krausen and less junk in my airlock?

Thanks

Gerrit

1) No- It's one of those things that is a matter of personal preference and nothing else. Some dump everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Some use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...

I have done it all ways. It really doesn't matter...anything will settle.

In other words, there is no wrong way to do it, or better way, or way that will make the best beer...they all work...the choice is what will work the best for you. That's how you develop you own unique brewing process. By trying all ways and deciding what works best for you.

What I do with my IC, is chill the wort, then I lean the bottom of my autosiphon about two coils up from the bottom on the metal of the siphon. That rests it above most of the break material and trub, then I rack it to the fermenter until I'm down to that and carefully lower the siphon down into the gunk, just trying to get as much of the wort as possible without letting in the hops and break matter.

But pretty much up until I got my immersion chiller I just dumped for the majority of my batches. And I still managed to do well in contests...

I find that long primaries render my beer just as clear, and crisp tasting regardless of whether I dumped it all in or not....so I just do what works for me.....

But it has no impact on flavor of finished product.

2) No-It has no bearing on krausen size or anything. Every yeast and every brewing situation is different. Some batches yield tons of krausen or blowoffs, other's very little. But whether you dump your kettle or not is irrevelant to that process.

gerritvb said:

Two questions:
1. Does filtering out the hops en-route to the fermenter lead to less flavor?

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Filtering out the hops and hot-break material should not have any major impact on flavor. For the most part, the hops have finished their work during the boil. Many brewers (this one included) filter their wort during transfer to their primary fermentation vessel.

2. Will less hops in the primary fermentation process lead to less krausen and less junk in my airlock?

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Less hops should not have any noticeable impact on krausen. Krausen is not exactly a bad thing. It is part of the process. If you are overly concerned about your airlock becoming clogged then you may think about switching to a blow-off tube or leaving more head-space in your fermentor.

Are you boiling anything?

If you mean that you are making a no boil kit, and dry hopping, then the gunk is normal, I remove that gunk/hop metter by just trying a hop bag around the end of my can when i siphon it off.

But regardless to answer the questions:

1: If its boiled then I do not beleive that filtering the trub out will make much of a difference. I dont however (lazyness more than anything)
2: no it wont affect the krausen, but there will be less hop matter floating around that gets stuck to the side "with" the krausen.

If you're using hop pellets, the "gunk" will just settle with the trub in primary. I don't necessarily think you'll get any more or less flavor from leaving the hops in vs taking them out when you put the beer in the fermenter.

In an extreme scenario, leaving the hops in, and thus potentially having more hop oils floating around in the beer as it's fermenting, would lead to less krausen. Again, an extreme case.

If you're having issues getting stuff in your airlock during the most active stages of fermentation, use a blowoff tube. It's really simple, just shove one end of 1/2" tubing into your carboy stopper, and put the other end in a jar 1/2 full of sanitizing solution. Then, when the activity subsides a little bit, put your airlock back in.

Thanks all!

The consensus is pretty consistent about the hops.

I set up the blow off tube last night (with foam and hops on my face, literally), ran it into a gallon jug of starsan solution and all was well in the night.

Relax, have a homebrew.

I dump everything I get clear beer!! But I do notice that the particulate does stick to the krausen and it will keep growing and not fall very good.. I just plan for blow off..

A bit related, when dry hopping its recommended to not do it for too long or risk getting some grassy notes in the beer.
What about hop leaves ending up in the fermenter, any risk of off flavours because of that? Or have they been "boiled clean"?
Go ahead with a month in primary or should i rack to secondary once fermentation is done?
(First wort hops, boiled for ~75 min.)

I dump everything like most and let settle. but when i know im reusing the yeast cake, I will use hop saks. With out the hop trub, yeast washing is easier. For what it's worth.

Revvy said:

I find that long primaries render my beer just as clear, and crisp tasting regardless of whether I dumped it all in or not....so I just do what works for me.....

But it has no impact on flavor of finished product.

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Do you consider 3 weeks a "long" primary fermentation for most beers? That's what I have been shooting for.

dantheman13 said:

Do you consider 3 weeks a "long" primary fermentation for most beers? That's what I have been shooting for.

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Yes. Though I prefer 4 myself.

Nothing wrong with dumping, per se, at least in regards to beer quality. However, I would recommend straining, or better yet, whirlpooling and then siphoning off of the hops/trub and into the fermenter, especially if you are planning on washing/repitching from the yeast cake; removing the hops and break material gives you a cleaner yeast cake and can also help you get more beer in the process. I usually then strain the remaining hops and break material through a paper towel lined colander and then freezing or canning the wort until bottling. I then reboil the wort (if it was frozen) and use it as speise for priming.

Revvy said:

Yes. Though I prefer 4 myself.

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I've heard that leaving your beer on the yeast cake to long cause off flavors. Is this another myth you've busted? How long is too long?

Stevo2569 said:

I've heard that leaving your beer on the yeast cake to long cause off flavors. Is this another myth you've busted? How long is too long?

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I've done 5.5 months myself, some have done a year.....There's a million threads discussing this, at least 3 a day....rather than repeating one here, read this. And also the link I posted in there, for the Palmer/Jamil thread, that has everything you could ever want to know/consider/debate/ask or find the answer to in there.

Stevo2569 said:

I've heard that leaving your beer on the yeast cake to long cause off flavors. Is this another myth you've busted? How long is too long?

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Ah, nevermind. Revvy beat me to it!

Yeah, Palmer has since changed what you read about the secondary on howtobrew.com/the first edition of How to Brew.

Revvy said:

I've done 5.5 months myself, some have done a year.....There's a million threads discussing this, at least 3 a day....rather than repeating one here, read this. And also the link I posted in there, for the Palmer/Jamil thread, that has everything you could ever want to know/consider/debate/ask or find the answer to in there.

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Ah, The all Knowing Revvy teaches another.Thank you wise one.