Atvar
Well-Known Member
Today I brewed and decided to use some of my home grown leaf hops instead of my usual pellets. Well I got a bit careless with one addition and about half of it ended up in the kettle and not the bag. I didn't think anything of it until later as I tried to transfer the wort to fermenting bucket.
About halfway through the transfer, the diptube/valve clogged up. I quickly grab my racking cane and tubing, give them a quick rinse in star san and give it a shot. The cane really wasn't long enough for using in a keg and worked for just a minute before losing siphon. Meanwhile, the tube end I sucked on falls into the wort, then gets pulled out when playing with the cane and starts pouring onto the floor. Finally dunked a measuring cup in star san and used it to bail out the rest of the wort from the kettle... with an occasional hand touching wort.
So after an extra hour of work and a bit more worry of infection, I remember now why I decided to use hop bags way back at batch #1. Hopefully this is a reminder to others that using leaf hops is different than just pellets. On the plus side, I got all but ~1/2 cup of liquid out of the kettle and into the fermenter.
About halfway through the transfer, the diptube/valve clogged up. I quickly grab my racking cane and tubing, give them a quick rinse in star san and give it a shot. The cane really wasn't long enough for using in a keg and worked for just a minute before losing siphon. Meanwhile, the tube end I sucked on falls into the wort, then gets pulled out when playing with the cane and starts pouring onto the floor. Finally dunked a measuring cup in star san and used it to bail out the rest of the wort from the kettle... with an occasional hand touching wort.
So after an extra hour of work and a bit more worry of infection, I remember now why I decided to use hop bags way back at batch #1. Hopefully this is a reminder to others that using leaf hops is different than just pellets. On the plus side, I got all but ~1/2 cup of liquid out of the kettle and into the fermenter.