I need to rant...I got off early today and had big plans to come home and get a brew in before dark. My girlfriend got me a pound each of whole leaf, fresh frozen simcoe and citra, which I was pumped about using in my black ipa today. Everything went well until whirlpool time which took forever and I never did get accomplished, then at chill time my pump got totally gummed up and I spent about an hour picking hop leaves out of my pump and plumbing in the dark and only ended up with about 4 gallons in the carboy before I finally said to hell with it and gave up. I will never...f*#@ing ever...use whole hops in the kettle again...ever. thanks for listening and feel free to share similar experiences...wnc
I hate whole hops
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funkapottomous
Well-Known Member
get a tea ball.
dale1038
Well-Known Member
The first time I used whole hops I had to sanitize my whole arm and keep the dip tube from getting clogged while my kettle drained. I'm a big pellets guy!
samc
Well-Known Member
A simple paint strainer bag for a couple of bucks would have saved you the woes. Don't blame the hops.
I like pellets, because leaf hops clog up my pump. BUT, I can't yet figure out a way to pelletize my own homegrown hops so I use a mix of pellets and whole hops. I have to use a "hops spider" so my pump doesn't clog up.
But you know, for dryhopping, there is nothing cooler than dryhopping with whole hops!
But you know, for dryhopping, there is nothing cooler than dryhopping with whole hops!
runningweird
Well-Known Member
I love whole hops, I think I get cleaner wort and less trub than when I use pellets. plus I feel like a real brewer using whole hops( especially my own home grown hops)
Before I drain my kettle - no pump as of yet - I sanitize a kitchen tool and scoop out the hops into a sanitized strainer. I wait for them to drain then put then squeeze out the wort and pour it into the kettle to drain out.
They can clog up my pickup tube if I am not careful and I have to purge the tubing - a pain at 11 at night when I just want to pitch my yeast, throw the carboy in the freezer chamber and call it a night.
Before I drain my kettle - no pump as of yet - I sanitize a kitchen tool and scoop out the hops into a sanitized strainer. I wait for them to drain then put then squeeze out the wort and pour it into the kettle to drain out.
They can clog up my pickup tube if I am not careful and I have to purge the tubing - a pain at 11 at night when I just want to pitch my yeast, throw the carboy in the freezer chamber and call it a night.
Ravenshead
Well-Known Member
Concur ad-nauseum.
Bernie Brewer
Grouchy Old Fart
wncbrewer
Well-Known Member
I think they will be easier to manage now that I know what to expect. The thing that pissed me off more than anything was that these are hands down the best quality hops (by that I mean fresh) I have ever used. I wish I could post the aroma these things have. I made the op in an angry huff because I was covered with hot sticky wort, and lost a gallon of said wort. Maybe to discount whole hops for "f@#&ing ever" was an over reaction. Thanks to all so far for the ideas and advice and keep it coming. I appreciate it...wnc
I love whole hops.
When I started, pellet hops hadn't been invented. It was a case of using whole hops or not brewing.
I now have a false bottom in my kettle, and use a CFC to drain into the fermenter. The hops act as a wonderful filter to keep the hot break material out of the fermenter.
-a.
When I started, pellet hops hadn't been invented. It was a case of using whole hops or not brewing.
I now have a false bottom in my kettle, and use a CFC to drain into the fermenter. The hops act as a wonderful filter to keep the hot break material out of the fermenter.
-a.
Gfei
Well-Known Member
Right now I have a friends boil kettle with false bottom I have been using and it work great with whole hops.
Paint strainer also works well.
I tried a stainless scrubby under the dip tube and had disasters twice... won't be doing that again.
Paint strainer also works well.
I tried a stainless scrubby under the dip tube and had disasters twice... won't be doing that again.
Misfit
Well-Known Member
Yooper said:
Well how do they make them for the mass market?
Hop farms have machines that crush and pelletize or ship the hops off to a place that does.
Me and my kettles false bottom love whole hops, but pellets are way more economical to get shipped to canada so thats what i have to use.
ruffdeezy
Well-Known Member
ConnorPPrice
Active Member
Your girlfriend needs to start hanging out with my girlfriend!
bigbeergeek
Well-Known Member
Pellets are where it's at. Longer-lasting storage, less bulk, no clogged pumps, better extraction, less absorbed/lost wort... where's the argument for whole hops (looking cool through the wall of a better bottle aside)?
pcollins
Well-Known Member
+1 for all of the above--good and bad.
I had such a rant going a while ago about whole hops for all the same reasons as the OP. I have a couple of brewing friends who insist on whole hops for almost everything and I don't get it. Yes, I do use a bag... now.
but even then they absorb so much wort, take up more space in my meager freezer, are awkward to weigh out... There was a reason pellets were created.
That said, I do enjoy using them in a pils or a session pale ale with a bag. It makes for a really clean yeast cake that is super easy to reuse at the end of fermentation.
My main thought when talking to other brewers is that there is no way I wouldn pay for the inconvenience of whole hops. I use them because I grow them or they've been given to me. I only buy pellets.
I had such a rant going a while ago about whole hops for all the same reasons as the OP. I have a couple of brewing friends who insist on whole hops for almost everything and I don't get it. Yes, I do use a bag... now.
but even then they absorb so much wort, take up more space in my meager freezer, are awkward to weigh out... There was a reason pellets were created. That said, I do enjoy using them in a pils or a session pale ale with a bag. It makes for a really clean yeast cake that is super easy to reuse at the end of fermentation.
My main thought when talking to other brewers is that there is no way I wouldn pay for the inconvenience of whole hops. I use them because I grow them or they've been given to me. I only buy pellets.
vicratlhead51
Well-Known Member
Lucky bastard! All I usually hear from my wife on brew day is "How much longer is this going to take?" And my answer is rarely ever very well received. Of course as much as she complains I know she's bragging about my hobby at work because she's always asking for bottles to take to her friends. One of them makes wine and she's started swapping beer for wine
I'm happy I saw this thread though. I'm planning on planting a couple rhizomes in the spring and this thread may help prevent future problems.
My last few brews I have used whole hops instead of the pellets. I use a CFC and worried about the hops plugging up the dip tube. I started looking for options and found the bazooka screens and replaced my dip tube with that. Yes, I did loose a bit of wort to the hops but never had a clog.
wncbrewer
Well-Known Member
I am going to use the remaining whole hops for dry hopping, then maybe try again with a strainer bag or false bottom at some point in the future. On the plus side, this beer had a nice little krausen starting to form this morning when I left for work. This is my first run at a black ipa and even though the hops robbed me of a gallon of wort, I am still excited to try it. Also everything else went perfectly. I nailed my temps, gravities and expected efficiency. I was repitching a slurry, so I was able to recalculate my pitch rate on the fly for the decreased volume....all still a success, just a pita at the end in waning daylight.
Northcalais40
Well-Known Member
I have the opposite problem of the OP. I have a slotted dip tube, slots down. With whole hops, I get a good filter for break material. I only use gravity for transfer. When I've yielded to the temptation to use pellets, it clogs the hell out of my system. I do account for a 1/2 gallon of wort absorption.
For me it really depends on what I'm brewing. I like using small amounts of whole hops for my belgians and so forth. There are typically very little hops to use so wort loss is a minimum. In IPAs I definitely use pellet hops and if I have to use whole hops I use a hop bag and squeeze the living hell out of it after the boil is complete to minimize hop loss. I figure with a bag you can spin the bag and squeeze wort out of both pellet hops and whole hops.
Primevci
Well-Known Member
You want my address ill take the hops off your hands
ArcaneXor
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A cheap $15 bazooka screen in the kettle will screen out the leaf hops and, depending on how many hops you have floating around in the kettle, serve as a poor man's hopback as well (i.e. the hops will stick to the screen and filter out break material).
As for pellets vs. leaf, I prefer pellet in the kettle and leaf for dry hopping in the keg.
As for pellets vs. leaf, I prefer pellet in the kettle and leaf for dry hopping in the keg.
Don't blame the hops, blame the rig. Your system is not set up for whole hops. Just like it it is kinda hard to remove a slotted screw with a Phillips screw driver. You just need to find a filter of some sorts to deal with whole hops. I built one that anyone can easily make for $25
easy-inexpensive-kettle-hop-filter-taco-stopper
easy-inexpensive-kettle-hop-filter-taco-stopper
wncbrewer
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the link...did you bend the tubing for the pickup manifold by hand? It looks to be half inch, seems like it would be tough to bend pieces that short without getting kinks...maybe not if you're careful though
bigbeergeek
Well-Known Member
This.
I built one of these for about $15. The most expensive piece of it was the strainer bag I bought from the LHBS. If I had gone with a paint strainer bag from the hardware store, I probably could have made it cheaper.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTnoPwefCUKJGOkXGQftYN07wnFdfd9wq4ciCkeECFPh_DHJBLqZh_C0BB5
This is not mine exactly but mine is close. I am at work and don't have a pic of mine handy
wncbrewer
Well-Known Member
Here is an update for those of you following:
Last night it got dark on me while I was pumping a quart at a time through my chiller, and stopping to pick hops out of everything between quarts, spilling a little wort every time I unhooked the line from the kettle. So after finally calling it quits with 4 gallons in the carboy, I filled all my kettles and tun with pbw solution and let them sit overnight ( I brew in an open air shed attached to my house with no lights). When I got home from work today to finish cleaning, I couldn't believe the mess. I new it was going to be bad, but daylight revealed the full scope of it. Wort was all over everything...my wooden stand, hoses, pump, counter flow chiller, and plywood floor. I wish I had taken before and after pics. Also my half inch copper pickup tube and whirlpool manifold were both packed with hops. And I nearly blew out a blood vessel in my head trying to physically blow, with my lungs, the obstructions out, I finally got it to where I could pass water through it backwards with the pump but at first they were too compacted for the pump to do anything. And I also found a hop cone in my cell phone holster today. I'm going to include a photo of my boil kettle guts so that anyone thinking of making changes or doing it this way will know that whole hops will make the cuss words fly when used with this type of setup, that being said. I wouldn't change a thing for use with pellets...thanks to all for sharing and advice...wnc
Last night it got dark on me while I was pumping a quart at a time through my chiller, and stopping to pick hops out of everything between quarts, spilling a little wort every time I unhooked the line from the kettle. So after finally calling it quits with 4 gallons in the carboy, I filled all my kettles and tun with pbw solution and let them sit overnight ( I brew in an open air shed attached to my house with no lights). When I got home from work today to finish cleaning, I couldn't believe the mess. I new it was going to be bad, but daylight revealed the full scope of it. Wort was all over everything...my wooden stand, hoses, pump, counter flow chiller, and plywood floor. I wish I had taken before and after pics. Also my half inch copper pickup tube and whirlpool manifold were both packed with hops. And I nearly blew out a blood vessel in my head trying to physically blow, with my lungs, the obstructions out, I finally got it to where I could pass water through it backwards with the pump but at first they were too compacted for the pump to do anything. And I also found a hop cone in my cell phone holster today. I'm going to include a photo of my boil kettle guts so that anyone thinking of making changes or doing it this way will know that whole hops will make the cuss words fly when used with this type of setup, that being said. I wouldn't change a thing for use with pellets...thanks to all for sharing and advice...wnc
Is that tea-ball thing for real? Where do I get one? I tried using a grain bag - it works okay, but it gets in the way of the boil. They actually hold heat and cause boil-overs which actually run up the bag and out. Still, I got it done and siphoning was easy without the extra hops.
I actually scooped probably 75% of the bittering hops out with a spoon after they had boiled ~ an hour.
I actually scooped probably 75% of the bittering hops out with a spoon after they had boiled ~ an hour.
vicratlhead51
Well-Known Member
Yeah I've seen them on homebrew supply sites. I think midwest brewing supplies actually has a couple different sizes bigger than the ones meant for tea.
Yooper said:
You can make plugs with a length of plastic pipe and a large rowel rod.
calpyro
Well-Known Member
Here are a few tips for using whole hops:
Get a big false bottom. With an immersion chiller, the hops drop first and then the protein drops on the hop bed and does a nice job filtering out the trub.
Chop your whole hops coarsely in a food processor. By breaking up the cone structure, you will expose the luplin quickly to the wort just like pellets. This will also help create a more compact layer which absorbs less wort, yet is still drains much faster than pellets.
Some of the resins will cling to the inside of the food processor, but a quick rinse with hot wort will return it to the boil.
You can use this tech for dry hopping as well.
jsguitar
Well-Known Member
Exactly what I do too. No problems whatsoever with this setup. I usually stock up on various whole hops at freshops every so often and brew according to whatever I have on hand. There are some threads on making your own Hopstopper but I bought mine from the above as well.
Montanaandy
Well-Known Member
While I love the results that I get when I use whole hops, there is no getting around the fact that they are a PITA to use compared to pellet. At the end of a brew day I can pull the false bottom out and blast the pellet hop trub off easily. With WH, I have to have a garbage bag ready when I pull the FB up because the whole hops have expanded due to the wort that they have absorbed.
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