hops removal: uber beginner question

[sashurlow]

Hey all,
I am getting more comfortable brewing beer now (but I'm pretty good with cider). I'm using mostly single extract malt, no extra grains and home grown hops, so very simple recipes. After I am done boiling and I have a pot full of hops floating on the surface, what do I do with the hops? I have been skimming them off so far and transferring my wort to my brew bucket. Am I supposed to be doing this or am I supposed to be leaving the hops in the wort to ferment?
Thanks all,
Scott

 

[slym2none]

Whole-cone hops? The one recipe I made with them so far, I strained them out. They tend to float, and seem to be a likely spot for mold (or other nasties) to grow on.

But take my advice with the proverbial grain of salt. As I said, I've only used them once.

 

[meridianomrebel]

I use a hop spider. Pretty simple to make one or grab one from an online store. Makes it super easy to simply lift your hops out prior to transferring to your carboy.

 

[Esiole]

Different people will tell you different things, but I don't think there's one right way. I've dumped everything in the fermenter, hops and all, with no adverse effects. What I currently do is pour the wort through a strainer on the way to a fermenter. For me, it accomplishes two things: 1: It gets the hops out so that there will be less trub loss when I eventually siphon the beer off the trub. 2: pouring through a strainer or fine mesh bag aerates the wort a bit so that there is plenty of oxygen for the yeasties. I have a ball valve at the bottom of my boil kettle, so this is way easier than it would be if it was a regular pot. I think if I had a regular pot, I would probably just dump everything in because it gets unwieldy trying to dump 5.5 gallons of wort, through a strainer, and into a bucket, without making a complete mess.

 

[sashurlow]

So far I use a deep fry spoon or skimmer that gets boiled before the wort is done so it appears that I am not too far off of correct. Its kind of a pain in the butt but it gives me something to do while it cools off.
The spider looks tempting...
Yup, the whole hop cone.
Thanks so far,

 

[TheCADJockey]

Yup, the whole hop cone.
Thanks so far,

I use little brewing bags from my LHBS for whole leaf. They are about $0.60 so I just buy a couple every time I visit. After the boil, just pull them out.

 

[brewprint]

It doesn't matter if you leave them in or take them out. I would just leave them in because most likely they're going to sink after fermentation. It would just save you a step.

When I brew I dump everything into the fermenter. However when I'm boiling I leave all of my hops in a hop bag. I only use pellet hops though.

 

[Scarecrow57]

I use an 8 inch strainer on top of the bucket. It removes all of the large particulates. I am of the belief, and possibly wrong, that you don't want all of the "stuff" in the fermenter. The hops have been boiled to release the oils. hen again, there is dry hopping.....

 

[jekeane]

Hop bag clipped to the side of the kettle. A strainer on the way to the fermenter would work as well.

 

[Moose_MI]

^^^^^^. This