Hi everyone. I think I have found a way to stop clogging in my hopstopper. I have been struggling for a while with my hopstopper. Originally, I had a homemade hoptstopper, and this kept clogging, so I bought a REAL hopstopper, thinking that it might be better. In fact, it is quite a bit nicer than my homebrew version. Unfortunately, it too, suffers from clogging with my setup.
A little about my setup and why I think I have problems and others do not seem to. I do brew in a bag (BIAB) and grind quite fine. I recirculate boiling wort for about 5 minutes to sanitize the system. I do this in the beginning of the boil so I dont have to contend with lots of hot break material clogging the hopstopper (after adding whirlfloc). At the end of the boil, I start recirculating again, throttled almost completely down for 5 minutes just to sanitize it again. Generally, I have had no problems at all recirculating- it does it rapidly and with no slowdown even if I do it for 15 minutes (at the beginning). The problems come in after about 2 gallons of wort have been pumped out through the chiller and into the fermentor. On many occasions the hopstopper then gets so irretrievably clogged, that I have to bust out my autosiphon and get the wort out that way.
I have tried not using whirlfloc, putting whirlfloc into a hop bag and recirculating into that, using only leaf hops, recirculating through a hopback to strip out some break material. Scraping off the hopstopper with a sterilized brush as I drained the kettle, and a few other things. I theorized that the ultrafine grind that I do with BIAB (0.025) lets more flour through, which then clogs the hopstopper. But truthfully, I don't really know why this has been so difficult.
Yesterday and today I brewed, only using pellets, using my standard technique and didnt have any problems at all. Perfect recirculating and draining the kettle rapidly without any problems. The only difference- skimming every last bit of foam off the top of the kettle when coming to a boil. I never imagined that this would make such a difference. I was trying it for completely different reasonsI had read a thread somewhere that said it made for a smoother beer.
So for anyone that does BIAB and seems to get a clogged hopstopper- try skimming the foam. Its not something you want in your beer, anyway. You should see the stuff- grey proteinaceous crud. Here is a picture of what came off my latest 6 gallon batch, after letting it sit and separate for 4 hours:
and here with a flash so it shows up better (although it is a dark gray, not white like in the picture)
Why would anyone want this nasty stuff in their beer anway?
A little about my setup and why I think I have problems and others do not seem to. I do brew in a bag (BIAB) and grind quite fine. I recirculate boiling wort for about 5 minutes to sanitize the system. I do this in the beginning of the boil so I dont have to contend with lots of hot break material clogging the hopstopper (after adding whirlfloc). At the end of the boil, I start recirculating again, throttled almost completely down for 5 minutes just to sanitize it again. Generally, I have had no problems at all recirculating- it does it rapidly and with no slowdown even if I do it for 15 minutes (at the beginning). The problems come in after about 2 gallons of wort have been pumped out through the chiller and into the fermentor. On many occasions the hopstopper then gets so irretrievably clogged, that I have to bust out my autosiphon and get the wort out that way.
I have tried not using whirlfloc, putting whirlfloc into a hop bag and recirculating into that, using only leaf hops, recirculating through a hopback to strip out some break material. Scraping off the hopstopper with a sterilized brush as I drained the kettle, and a few other things. I theorized that the ultrafine grind that I do with BIAB (0.025) lets more flour through, which then clogs the hopstopper. But truthfully, I don't really know why this has been so difficult.
Yesterday and today I brewed, only using pellets, using my standard technique and didnt have any problems at all. Perfect recirculating and draining the kettle rapidly without any problems. The only difference- skimming every last bit of foam off the top of the kettle when coming to a boil. I never imagined that this would make such a difference. I was trying it for completely different reasonsI had read a thread somewhere that said it made for a smoother beer.
So for anyone that does BIAB and seems to get a clogged hopstopper- try skimming the foam. Its not something you want in your beer, anyway. You should see the stuff- grey proteinaceous crud. Here is a picture of what came off my latest 6 gallon batch, after letting it sit and separate for 4 hours:
and here with a flash so it shows up better (although it is a dark gray, not white like in the picture)
Why would anyone want this nasty stuff in their beer anway?
