First Wort Hopping Question

[pdm1982]

I've run into a recipe that calls for the first wort hopping and I've been trying to visualize how I'd do it with my setup. Forgive me if this is no-brainer.

I currently use my boil kettle to heat up all my sparge water. When I batch sparge I collect all of the runnings in my bottling bucket. Once all the sparge water has be run through, I then take the runnings (a gallon at a time) back over to my now empty boil kettle. Make sense?

So my question is, when first wort hopping can I just throw the FWH hops into the bottling bucket with my first runnings or would this alter the intention of first wort hopping? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[GrogNerd]

just throw the FWH hops into the bottling bucket with my first runnings

you got it

wish I had more for you, but that's all it is

 

[brew_ny]

when I FWH I take that hop addition and put it in my hop spider in the brew kettle

add my first running to the kettle and let it sit with the lid on while I am doing my batch spurge the add my second running and start my boil with it in there for the entire boil

now that could be wrong but that is how I understand it

all the best

S_M

type too slow

 

[Pie_Man]

Yes, in your case, into the bottling bucket. That way your first wort gets hopped

 

[pdm1982]

Thanks. I thought it was just that simple but my only concern was that I also could lose some of the hops due to settling when I use my nozzle on the bottling bucket. I suppose I could always just use a grain bag...or dump the whole bottling bucket into the boil kettle. Either way...small difference.

 

[GrogNerd]

dump the whole bottling bucket into the boil kettle

you want all the hop material going into the boil.

keep a close eye on the hot break with the hops in there

 

[pdm1982]

Right on. FWH is way easier than I thought.

 

[WissaBrewGuy]

I used the same setup as you for a while and I always added the FWH hops in the kettle not the bottling bucket. The hops will have plenty of time to steep in the warm wort after you sparge to get the effect. I FWH almost all of my beers that have a 60min boil and 60min hop add. because I have found it greatly improves the beer but adding hops to the bottling bucket will give you transfer issues as you already alluded to in a previous post.

Edit: I know this is kind of different from true FWH but it works very similarly and it is the easiest way to do this great technique with this setup.

 

[brew_ny]

I FWH almost all of my beers that have a 60min boil and 60min hop add. because I have found it greatly improves the beer

that is what I do now also and it dose improve the taste a lot

S_M

 

[pdm1982]

Interesting... Not sure which way I'll go with then. Thanks for the input.

 

[CA_Mouse]

I did FWH for the first time on a DCA I did last month. Still every bit as bitter as an IPA, but it is a mellow bitter, not quite as biting. I will be doing this for all of my beers that need the bitterness of the first addition hops.