I'm trying to figure out what to do to deal with hop debris in an upcoming extremely hoppy DIPA batch that I'm designing. I'm planning to use a total of 12 oz of pellet hops in the boil and hop stand, plus another 6 oz dry hopping. I want to get 6 gallons of wort into my 6.5 gallon better bottle. I also don't want to lose 2 gallons of the 6 to trub, so I'd like to try to get some of the hop debris out while moving the wort from the brew kettle to the fermenter. And I don't like using hop bags as they sort of negate the purpose of using so much hops, although I think I will use a bag for the bittering charge. My current plan is to brew a larger batch, maybe 7 or 7.5 gallons so that I can leave a gallon or 1.5 gallons of sludge in the brew kettle. The transfer options I'm considering are:
1.) Extend the hopstand for maybe 90 minutes to give the hop debris time to drop to the bottom of the brew kettle then siphon off the top. I use an IC and I typically take it out for the hopstand, but for this to work I'd need to leave it in so as not to disturb the settled sludge.
2.) Use some tight-mesh bags on the siphon end when transferring the wort.
3.) Pour it all in
I think if I use method 3 I'll end up with a huge trub layer and lose ~2 gallons of the 6 to trub. I've tried method 2 and it's doable, but a huge PITA, especially with a really hoppy batch. So I'm leaning towards method 1, but worried about the possibility of infection and that all those hops will still be suspended in the wort and I'll still end up losing a lot of beer to trub.
Any advice on how to deal with this much hop debris? Would an extended hopstand risk infection as the temperature drops over the 90 minutes? Should I just write it off and expect to get an expensive 4 gallon batch?
1.) Extend the hopstand for maybe 90 minutes to give the hop debris time to drop to the bottom of the brew kettle then siphon off the top. I use an IC and I typically take it out for the hopstand, but for this to work I'd need to leave it in so as not to disturb the settled sludge.
2.) Use some tight-mesh bags on the siphon end when transferring the wort.
3.) Pour it all in
I think if I use method 3 I'll end up with a huge trub layer and lose ~2 gallons of the 6 to trub. I've tried method 2 and it's doable, but a huge PITA, especially with a really hoppy batch. So I'm leaning towards method 1, but worried about the possibility of infection and that all those hops will still be suspended in the wort and I'll still end up losing a lot of beer to trub.
Any advice on how to deal with this much hop debris? Would an extended hopstand risk infection as the temperature drops over the 90 minutes? Should I just write it off and expect to get an expensive 4 gallon batch?