Dealing with all that hop trub

[Paradigm]

Hi all,

The longest lasting reoccurring issue in my brew day is handling all the god-damn hop goop formed during boil and dry-hopping. It really takes a huge chunk of my beer!

I'm a bit of a hop head, and like to make APAs and IPAs with a ton of hops. Yesterday I made a APA with 6 oz of hops in the boil, and we're going to dry hop on 6 more oz. Our sediment layer is a good 2 inches thick in the carboy. I filter the trub through a screen and a hop bag and still ended up with this much.

It clogs all filters and makes transferring to the carboy a living hell every time we do it.

What are your techniques? I can't imagine everyone is pausing to shake out a clogged paint strainer every 2 minutes like I am...

 

[bbohanon]

Hop Spiders are your friend. I learned this after plugging my plate chiller.

 

[martyjhuebs]

The method I use is simple. I transfer the Wort to my carboy using a large tube to siphon. I leave all the hops in the wort and and pitch my yeast. After primary I siphon to a secondary and dump my waste. The hops are typically caught in the yeast and have settled in the bottle. I dont touch my carboy for the remainder of fermentation time to allow everything to settle before racking. I do lose beer but i found it isnt enough to worry about. You may want to consider making a larger batch to compensate for loss?

 

[BlueHouseBrew]

I use one of these:

http://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Hop-Filter-6-x-14--300-micron-mesh-_p_3181.html

It works great.

 

[martyjhuebs]

I bet you could make one using a wire mesh from the hardware store bent into a cone shape. Just sanitize it first obviously.

 

[Zeppman]

After years of dealing with a clogged "hopstopper" I just switched to whirlpooling. First batch and it worked great. Others who have been doing it for longer seem to have good results.

 

[bobbrews]

Use HopShot (hop extract) as your only boil addition and then bag pellet hops for the hopstand.

 

[Paradigm]

After years of dealing with a clogged "hopstopper" I just switched to whirlpooling. First batch and it worked great. Others who have been doing it for longer seem to have good results.

I use Irish Moss and try whirlpooling every time I brew and have yet to have any effect. I see many people say it works great for them, but I see just as many in my shoes : /

 

[JonM]

I use one of these:



http://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Hop-Filter-6-x-14--300-micron-mesh-_p_3181.html



It works great.

I just got one of these and it is awesome. I wish I would have gotten it years ago.

EDIT: I got mine here and it was a little less expensive. (Shipping is included, too.)
https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php

 

[Zeppman]

I use Irish Moss and try whirlpooling every time I brew and have yet to have any effect. I see many people say it works great for them, but I see just as many in my shoes : /

Sorry to hear that. Do you allow time for it to settle?

 

[Rootski]

This might not be a popular choice, and I don't brew IPAs very often, but I just dump everything into a sanitized bucket lined with a sanitized paint strainer bag. Pull the bag out and let all the wort drain out. Either ferment in the bucket or transfer to a carboy. It's worked well for me when I do it.

 

[Paradigm]

That's kind of what I do. I pour the wort through a sanitized paint strainer over the bucket and shake out the trub once it clogs. Repeat until all the beer is through, then do it back one more time. It's a good way to aerate the wort, too, imo.

A lot of exposure to the air, but I haven't had an infection to date doing it.

 

[AnOldUR]

Last batch had 14 ounces of whole kettle hops. Factored in approx .1 gallons of wort loss per ounce and bumped up boil volume and grain bill to compensate.

It's a small price to pay.

 

[VonAle]

This might not be a popular choice, and I don't brew IPAs very often, but I just dump everything into a sanitized bucket lined with a sanitized paint strainer bag. Pull the bag out and let all the wort drain out. Either ferment in the bucket or transfer to a carboy. It's worked well for me when I do it.

I used to do this and actually squeeze the sh..t out of it to get almost every drop out.
I use lots of hops in my post-boil hop stand, so I decided to transfer everything into the fermenter and extend the hop stand, so to speak, in the fermenter.
At end of fermentation, with the 5 oz or so dryhops added, the yeast cake is about 2 inches thick.
I loose about a gallon and a half of volume, when racking. I guess that half of that is beer.