DAlexander
Well-Known Member
I recently made a large purchase of hops in whole leaf form. I started out using them in dry hoping but a last night I brewed a heavy aroma IPA. All but 2 oz out of the 12oz was whole leaf. I did plan ahead and bought one of those tube screens knowing that those hops will plug up my valve when transferring to the fermenter (I already learned that lesson before). I could tell I was in for some trouble when I tossed in my Flame out hops and started the flow to the chiller. Flow was ok for the first half, but it QUICKLY slowed down to a trickle. I tried using a metal spoon to clear leafs from the screen and that worked a little but with about 1 gallon left in the kettle I couldn't get flow to save my life. I had to ditch the stranded wort and pitch yeast on my 9 gallons of wort. I was shooting for 12, thats by far the largest margin of poor efficiency Ive seen yet.
I could probably just reserve these whole hops for dry hopping and beers that require minimal hops, But id really like to know a trick to prevent this from happening again.
While I was buying the tube screen the B3 guy suggested bags but I figured surface area and contact time is the golden ticket with hops. What are some of you guys doing to control large whole leaf hop additions?
I could probably just reserve these whole hops for dry hopping and beers that require minimal hops, But id really like to know a trick to prevent this from happening again.
While I was buying the tube screen the B3 guy suggested bags but I figured surface area and contact time is the golden ticket with hops. What are some of you guys doing to control large whole leaf hop additions?