Dry Hops Stuck in Conical - Help.

Hey Guys,

First brew with my Blichmann Fermenator and I hit a snag; I couldn't dump the hops.

Dumped the yeast no problems, but I was unable to dump the hops from either of my double dry hops. Yes, I did throw the pellets in loose and yes I did put CO2 pressure on the airlock to try and force them through.

As this was an aggressive dry hop, I got a lot of hop material through the racking arm. Luckily I was filtering.

Can anyone offer some personal experiences or suggestions for my next batch?

Cheers

Dave

Same thing has happened to me recently with a double IPA. I used to bag my dry hops but I think you get better extraction if you put them in loose like you did. I started with the racking arm horizontal, so the pickup was probably an inch or so above the hop debris. When it was getting close to the bottom, I slowed the flow and carefully rotated the racking arm so as to pick up as much beer as possible with as little hop debris as possible. If your racking arm is below the hop debris, you'll probably have to use a racking cane. I also lined my keg with a sanitized paint strainer bag then lifted it out before sealing the keg. This helped filter out any hop debris that made its way into the keg.

I can't believe I didn't come across this problem in all my research before buying the conical.

Unfortunately it is looking like hop bags for me