Intro and question

[signal2noise]

Hi All!

I'm brand new here so I thought I'd say hello. I'm located in South Florida and have been brewing on and off for about 3 years. I consider myself to be an advanced novice lol

My most pressing problem, and the reason why I have joined this board, is related to my brewing an Imperial IPA. I am about to attempt a second batch and want to avoid the major problem I had with the first batch, hop sludge! I am using between 13-16oz of various pellet hops during the boil and for dry-hopping.

The sludge that forms in the wort and in the primary fermenter has made my life miserable. I tried straining my wort before the primary carboy, but the funnel screen became clogged. The while racking to secondary the auto-siphon got clogged. When trying to break the clog in the siphon the tubing popped off and I had a gallon of beer on the floor, ugh!

Are there better ways to remove the sludge going from the wort to the primary and then to secondary?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I hope to learn a lot here.

 

[Hammy71]

If there is a lot of trub and hop residue in the bottom of my primary...I just don't let the auto siphon touch the bottom. I use a piece of sanitized aluminum foil that's been folded over a few times as a wedge to stop the auto siphon from falling into the gunk. I may leave a few ounces in the fermenter...but it's worth it to me.