Hop questions?

[Sea]

Some questions for all you brew gods out there:

1. what are the flavor/aroma/bittering benefits from First Wort Hops vs. hops added at the comencement of the boil? Is it just an excuse to add more hops, cause I'll take any one I can get.

2. what's your hop preference, whole or pellet, and why?

3. I seem to see a lot of pic on this forum of people siphoning out of their brewpot without any type of filter on the siphon. what's the best way to do this without getting hop clogs?

Thanks.

 

[grrtt78]

i like to use some pellet hops and some plugs then pour them through a strainer. the plugs help filter out the pellets. only down side, they are hard to measure. pellets will settle out tho so its really not that necessary to filter them out

 

[bradsul]

1. Not sure, I've done some recipes that call for first wort hopping and most that don't. To be honest I've never looked in it. I seem to recall reading something about getting more flavour out of your bittering hops but I can't say if that is accurate or not.

2. Pellets; it's all I can buy. You do get better utilization with pellets because of the surface area in contact with the wort so there is SOME financial benefit (however negligible).

3. I syphon with a 1/2" copper pipe hooked into my CFC with no filters of any kind. I let the wort fall from the CFC through a strainer but hops rarely end up in the strainer I perform a really good whirlpool before I start my syphon. Combined with the irish moss sediment from the boil I get a nice lump of hops and hot break in the centre of my kettle which keeps the hops away from the pickup.