Questions about hop spider

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carlsonderek

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So I'm planning an IPA, and I am going to build my first hop spider, using the paint straining bag. I do all grain, and have always been taught to throw the worth chiller in the last 15-20 minutes of boil to sanitize it. Now, at this point in the boil the hop spider will be filled with sludge and trub from the pellets, so how do you guys do it? Do you carefully lift the spider out of the way, place the wort chiller in, then set the spider back in place with it hanging in the center of the wort chiller? Or do you cut to the chase and put the wort chiller in from the start, with the hop spider over it hanging in the center for the whole boil? Also--how long after flameout do you leave the hop spider and its contents in contact with the wort in the kettle? The whole time while cooling and transferring to carboy? I'd assume yes, since if you used no spider the same trub would be in contact during that whole time. Sorry for the lengthy question(s) and thanks in advance!
 
Personally, I've never used an immersion chiller(Started with a plate chiller from the get-go). However, if I did use an immersion chiller, I would probably just pull the spider out, toss in the chiller, and throw the hop spider back in. Far as flame-out goes, I personally remove the spider as soon as I turn the flame off. I raise it up, let some of the wort drip back into the kettle, and then I toss out the hops. The way I look at it, if I left the hop spider in longer, then it could possibly change the flavor profile of the hops that I'm trying to obtain.
 
Since I started using my spider, I've been carefully lifting the spider out at around 20 minutes to add the IC. I've been thinking, though, about leaving the IC in for the entire boil to save me the trouble. There's plenty of people that do this with no troubles. For me, that's going to mean some quick disconnects added to my IC and I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I leave my IC and spider in the kettle for the entire cool down process. I've been getting great hop aroma this way and haven't seen any negative side affects. Everything should be properly sanitized at that point, so there's no concerns about introducing foreign baddies.

Hope that helps!
 
Maybe I should be leaving my spider in the wort for the whole process as well...change things up a bit and see if it works out better. It should be noted however that I have yet to do a recipe that used flame-out additions of hops. Never really thought about how I would have done those If I just removed the spider at the end of the boil like I mentioned earlier...
 
These are all good advice. I built the hop spider (slight change of topic here) using the PVC coupling as found in many blueprints and the PVC melted from the steam during the boil! I had to go back to just no spider at all and I just siphoned through a strainer bag while putting it in the carboy. :-(. What did I do wrong if no one else has their spider melt? Ill just get a metal coupling and rebuild it I suppose.
 
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