How do you kettle hop?

I have been using pellets in the kettle for quite a while, but have seen too much wasted wort lately. My last batch lost at least a half gallon of wort because my whirlpool simply did not concentrate the hops to the center of the kettle. I only had 4 ounces of pellets in the kettle.

What do you use in the kettle to prevent or reduce lost wort due to excessive hops in the kettle?

 

I just started using a hop bag, and am looking into a hop spider.

 

Not sure what you mean by loss. I whirlpool. But if hops get into the fermenter.....who cares? They don't hurt anything and after 3 weeks in the primary they are almost always packed on the bottom of the fermenter. If you mean loss by the hops absorbing the wort, then you just need to upscale your batch volume in your recipe by fraction of a gallon.

 

I use a hop spider. I think it works great

 

Hop spider FTW! I love mine!

 

I use pellets. no-chill + ferment in BK.

The hops are still in the kettle when I've siphoned off the beer to bottle it.

Works for me.

 

Hop spider here too, love it! And less mess for the pump to ingest

 

This I my hop bag. 3" of 2" aluminum pipe with all thread for the three legs. The bag is just a nylon paint strainer held on with a SS worm drive clamp. It works great.

 

I use a 4" CPVC coupler, stainless worm clamp, and the paint strainer bag, instead of three legs I just drilled a hole through one side and out the other, I slide it on a really long 3/8" socket extension I had sitting around. It allows me to slide it to one side or wherever so I can drop in my IC. I also weight my strainer bag so it doesn't float around getting bunched up