I was thinking the Blichmann Boilermaker with a false bottom might make a solid hopback for leaf hops. Anyone try this/have opinions on the validity of this?
Well more of a leaf hop filter I was thinking. I make a pretty decent DIPA and I wanted to step up the aroma/flavor contribution and I have a bunch of leaf hops I don't typically use so I was thinking of throwing in 3 oz of simcoe, amarillo and citra at 5 minutes left in the boil and see what happens. I already have a good means to deal with pellet hops:
The false bottom will not work very well. My suggestion is to put a bigger bag on what you already have. Most people here use the 5 gallon paint strainer bags.
OK I tried the false bottom last night ands it actually worked great. My therminator flowed freely during the chill and trub to my filtering funnel was minimal. I slammed this batch with over a pound of hops (8 oz pellet, 9 oz leaf). I was worried that the boil would be affected by the false bottom being in place but it was smooth as usual. No issues. I was having issues with my hop stopper as it ages. The last three big IPA's all clogged up so I was thinking of better ways to skin this cat...
I'm pretty stoked on how well this went. I was thinking it may be a bad idea as the boil might cause the false bottom to move around but it was solid. My fears were unfounded.