Rinsing hops

Ok, maybe a really stupid question, but maybe a good one..... Anyone ever "rinse" their hops?

Let me explain. I like to use whole leaf hops in my boil kettle with a false bottom (i just like whole leaf better). But the one major setback for me has always been the fact that the whole leaf retains so much of my wort after i've transferred to the carboy. This time, i only got 3 gallons of wort, but it was killing me knowing there was more in my kettle being held captive in hop leaves. In a stroke of brilliance (or stupidity, depending on the answers you guys give me), I decided that instead of filling my carboy up to 5 gallons with water, why not just pour the water into the kettle over the hop leaves, effectively "rinsing" the hop leaves of my wort (much like batch sparging, but with room temp bottled water and draining immediately). So, the question is.....is this bad for my beer? Did i extract any tannans or produce oxidation? To me, it didn't seem wrong, but I probably don't know enough to make that call.

Please give me your opinion/knowledge. BTW, 7 oz hop leaves.

I think that sounds like a damn good idea and wish I did it with my brew this morning (and all other past brews that have came up a little short on volume and needed top up water).

That does sound like a good idea. Won't get tannins. Those come from grain husks. And this is at the one point in brewing where you actually want aeration. The only worry for me would be getting any vegetal flavors from the hops, but I imagine any of those would have already come out in the boil.

I did exactly the same thing this morning. I think it is just the sensible thing to do.

So does everyone agree that i'm a brewing genius pioneer?

........do you think i'll get any astringency from this? I'd really hate for that to be the case

Just put the hops in a paint strainer bag and then squeeze them after the boil. Use your sanitized stainless spoon or your sanitized hands, feet, armpit, whatever.....

chumpsteak said:

Just put the hops in a paint strainer bag and then squeeze them after the boil. Use your sanitized stainless spoon or your sanitized hands, feet, armpit, whatever.....

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that seems like much more work than just pouring water over them...... Is there a reason pouring water over them would be bad?

They're saturated with hop flavor. Pouring water over them may rinse off the hop oils on the outside of the hops but squeezing will get all the hoppy goodness out. How is squeezing more work? If you use a hop bag anyway just hold it out of the wort and press on it with your spoon. If you don't use a hop bag then you should.