Hop sludge

[wulfsburg]

I did a batch of beer with 10 ounces of hop pellets on Sunday. My strainer got so clogged and so I said forget it and just poured the whole thing into my fermenter. Sludge and all. I plan on moving to secondary, however is this a problem if it sits in my primary for 7-9 days? Or will some of this sludge impart a bad flavor?

 

[cclloyd]

When I used to do partial boils topping off with water I always emptied the entire brewpot into the fermentor. Comparing that to now doing full volume boils where I do rack the wort off the break and hop sludge, I can honestly say I don't think that it was detrimental and you should be fine. Although, I never made a batch with 10 ounces of hops either. That should be a hell of an IPA.

 

[wulfsburg]

When I used to do partial boils topping off with water I always emptied the entire brewpot into the fermentor. Comparing that to now doing full volume boils where I do rack the wort off the break and hop sludge, I can honestly say I don't think that it was detrimental and you should be fine. Although, I never made a batch with 10 ounces of hops either. That should be a hell of an IPA.

That isnt counting the 2 ounces of dry hopping that hasn't been put in yet either.

 

[Old_E]

I've been doing this for a while, and haven't had any problems.... yet. I am trying to start racking it off the trub, but its a whole other process. Whilrpooling hasn't worked that great for me. Not terrible, but not great.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I gave up on whirlpooling and all the other tricks. Now, I suck up a ton of stuff through my diptube, and never worry. I make 10 gal batches mostly, and when transferring to carboys it almost always ends up so all the trub/break/sludge ends up in one carboy only, (usually the second one to fill gets all the crap). This means I'll have one carboy with no sludge, and one that, after fermentation settles down, will have 3-4 inches of crap at the bottom.

I've tracked these batches multiple times through my kegerator. Both taste identical, in spite of the fact that one was fermented on top of 3" of crap from the boil. So, I can say with authority that it doesn't frickin' matter.

 

[Old_E]

I gave up on whirlpooling and all the other tricks. Now, I suck up a ton of stuff through my diptube, and never worry. I make 10 gal batches mostly, and when transferring to carboys it almost always ends up so all the trub/break/sludge ends up in one carboy only, (usually the second one to fill gets all the crap). This means I'll have one carboy with no sludge, and one that, after fermentation settles down, will have 3-4 inches of crap at the bottom.

I've tracked these batches multiple times through my kegerator. Both taste identical, in spite of the fact that one was fermented on top of 3" of crap from the boil. So, I can say with authority that it doesn't frickin' matter.

That's good info. Thanks!

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

I just experienced this last night. I was filling the 2 fermenters after letting my 10 gal batch sit in the snowbank for like 6 hours, and noticed #1 that my post boil volume was now somehow lower than it was at flameout. and #2 that trying to get every last bit of wort out of the pot, I had sucked up a ton of sludge to try and make up for the evaporation while the pot was in the snowbank. Its ok though, my first few attempts at brewing I did get a lot of the cold break material in the fermenter. Haven't noticed a difference really. I did plan to track these to see which, if either, tasted different.

 

[shortyjacobs]

Oooh, oh, one problem. I had an IPA batch like this...one carboy full of hop sludge/break material, etc., the other with very little. I tried to wash the yeast from both. Washing the "non-trubby" yeast was easy, and gave me pristine looking yeast, perfect color, nice and thick.

The trubby yeast, however, was nearly impossible to wash. In spite of waiting for different lengths of times, lost of extra washes, the trub was just too thick to settle out and leave yeast in suspension...I got some of the trub out, but it was just TOO thick to all go away...in the end I got a slurry that was green and brown....I'm sure it still had yeast in it, but it sure wasn't "washed".

I ended up blending my pristine and brown/green yeasts together and used that for my next 10 gal batch....still worked fine...but be warned that excessive trub = a PITA for washing.

 

[Old_E]

Oooh, oh, one problem. I had an IPA batch like this...one carboy full of hop sludge/break material, etc., the other with very little. I tried to wash the yeast from both. Washing the "non-trubby" yeast was easy, and gave me pristine looking yeast, perfect color, nice and thick.

The trubby yeast, however, was nearly impossible to wash. In spite of waiting for different lengths of times, lost of extra washes, the trub was just too thick to settle out and leave yeast in suspension...I got some of the trub out, but it was just TOO thick to all go away...in the end I got a slurry that was green and brown....I'm sure it still had yeast in it, but it sure wasn't "washed".

I ended up blending my pristine and brown/green yeasts together and used that for my next 10 gal batch....still worked fine...but be warned that excessive trub = a PITA for washing.

Now I have only done this once, b/c I just started washing, but I had no problems.

My yeast looks good, as far as I can tell. Doesn't seem to have any hop sludge trapped in it.

 

[samc]

My one experience with this problem was a 10 gallon batch of Pliny clone. The second fermenter got all the hop sludge in it. It was beyond bitter and mostly undrinkable, whereas the first fermenter was 5 gallons of greatness. I'd agree with OP to go secondary on that beer.

Rarely use pellets anymore - and if I did I would use a fine mesh bag.

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

For that much hop volume you might wish to consider a small coarse mesh hop-bag. Another trick is to gently shake your strainer as rapidly as possible. You'll be fine.