Hop hot break ring?

[agentgreen]

So it seems every time I put my hops in bags and into my boil, I get what appears to be another hot break, and a bunch of the hop material bubbles up and then eventually sticks to the upper portion of my pot.

Should I be scraping this off? It seems like a lot of hop material removes itself from the boil and I'm wondering if this is affecting the beer flavor.

Thanks.

 

[ColeVet67]

Nope.. not effecting your beer. Just scrape down the sides.. and keep boiling.

 

[unionrdr]

I scrape it back down into the boil myself. I figure it's hop particles from the pellets dissolving. I like to make sure I'm getting all the goodies out of'em.

 

[Yooper]

I never scrape it back in- it doesn't seem like much. Maybe if there were a ton of pellet hops and a lot of them stuck on there I would.

I usually don't get a big hot break when I add the hops, though.

 

[agentgreen]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll scrape it back down as to make me feel better

 

[yeastylad]

I bag my hops too and have also noticed this, although I don't get hop material sticking to the kettle. you shouldn't have much hop debris floating around anyway if you are using hop bags, right? I see very little to no hop matter in my wort when I bag my hops.

 

[unionrdr]

I started adding hops to the boil loosely. This seems to give the hop flavors/aromas a bit more edge. But it does make for that ring being a bit heavier. And more trub, etc to strain out going into primary.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I started adding hops to the boil loosely. This seems to give the hop flavors/aromas a bit more edge. But it does make for that ring being a bit heavier. And more trub, etc to strain out going into primary.

I don't even bother straining. Too much beer gets trapped in in the hop/ trub goop, my clarity hasn't suffered as of yet. I think it helps the hop flavor over straining them out, but who knows.

 

[unionrdr]

I usually use my long Cooper's spoon to fold the trub over in the strainer to get the goodies out. Then dump the gunk. The little bit of silty stuff that gets through settles out rather quickly. I always thought this would get more of the boil hop flavors into the beer, but idk?

 

[Calichusetts]

I scrape it back in...to keep the kettle cleaner and to ensure full utilization of my hops.

 

[agentgreen]

I bag my hops too and have also noticed this, although I don't get hop material sticking to the kettle. you shouldn't have much hop debris floating around anyway if you are using hop bags, right? I see very little to no hop matter in my wort when I bag my hops.

Yea it seems there isn't a bunch of hop goop left in the kettle after I rack and the bags still contain a bunch of hops after the brew when I clean them, so obviously they are working as designed.

I just get a dark green ring'o'hops every brew day.

 

[agentgreen]

I scrape it back in...to keep the kettle cleaner and to ensure full utilization of my hops.

Yea I think I'll start doing this as well, thanks.

 

[yeastylad]

Yea it seems there isn't a bunch of hop goop left in the kettle after I rack and the bags still contain a bunch of hops after the brew when I clean them, so obviously they are working as designed.

I just get a dark green ring'o'hops every brew day.

Another thought - do you use the drawstring type bags for hops? I do, and I actually tie the string to the kettle handle, ensuring the opening of the bag (even after I've closed the drawstring) stays above the surface of the boiling wort, this way, only the very fine hop particles escape through the bag mesh into the wort.

 

[Terek]

i dont use bags, but i still scrape it down. Less crap to clean off later when its really caked on there. As the water level drops, it tends to "cook" on to the pot and can suck to clean off. I will spoon a bit of hot wort and spread it around and kind of push it back into to pot. Its not like its much of a loss, more of a clean up thing, and more so a "im board of standing hear" thing

 

[agentgreen]

Another thought - do you use the drawstring type bags for hops? I do, and I actually tie the string to the kettle handle, ensuring the opening of the bag (even after I've closed the drawstring) stays above the surface of the boiling wort, this way, only the very fine hop particles escape through the bag mesh into the wort.

I do indeed, but just throw them into the pot. Interesting thought though; the opening never does seem to get closed enough, so maybe that's the culprit.

I'm going to build a hop spider before my next brew day so we'll see what different it makes.

 

[andrewmaixner]

First wort hopping removes this problem. All I've been doing lately is FWH with the correct hop mass for the bitterness desired, and then post-boil additions.