Using a false bottom to separate trub and hops (?)

[TAK]

Can a false bottom, such as what blichmann makes for thier kettles, be effectively used to strain out pellet hops and trub?

Back in the day, on my first few batches I tried going through a strainer pouring from kettle to bucket. I quickly stopped that practice as the strainer easily clogged many times while transferring.

Nowadays, I have a blichmann kettle, and I'll do what I can to whirlpool minimizing the amount of trub that the spigot/dip-tube will pick up. With really hoppy batches, I'm starting to autosiphon from the top so I can leave the mess of hops out of the carboy. I wonder if the false bottom would work though.

A) Would it get clogged like the strainer did?
B) Will a SS false bottom cause hotspots or otherwise lead to scorching during the boil?

 

[flars]

Can a false bottom, such as what blichmann makes for thier kettles, be effectively used to strain out pellet hops and trub?

Back in the day, on my first few batches I tried going through a strainer pouring from kettle to bucket. I quickly stopped that practice as the strainer easily clogged many times while transferring.

Nowadays, I have a blichmann kettle, and I'll do what I can to whirlpool minimizing the amount of trub that the spigot/dip-tube will pick up. With really hoppy batches, I'm starting to autosiphon from the top so I can leave the mess of hops out of the carboy. I wonder if the false bottom would work though.

A) Would it get clogged like the strainer did?
Might get clogged, but a lot of debris from the pellets will go through.

B) Will a SS false bottom cause hotspots or otherwise lead to scorching during the boil?

Whatever is below the false bottom can't be stirred. There is a good chance scorching can occur.

I use a strainer to help contain a fine mesh grain bag, which I pour through into the carboy. Almost all of the hop pellet debris is removed. I only do this to get a cleaner yeast harvest. I never felt hop debris in the fermentor was a probem other than mixing with the yeast during harvest.

 

[johnmac22]

I use paint strainer bags with a rubber band for my hops...keeping trub out of the fermenter seems unavoidable...but I don't know as I don't care too much about it to be honest.

 

[hopmonster2189]

I use a "bazooka tube" type filter that threads into my kettle valve. It is off the bottom so scorching is not a worry, and I can pour full throttle out the valve into the bucket, but can only use whole leaf hops, pellets clog the screen.


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[Black Island Brewer]

At one time I had a stainless steel false bottom in my boil kettle, with a dip tube that drained from underneath it. I never had problems with scorching, and as long as I used whole leaf hops it was fine. I really liked it because the hops provided a filter for the break material. But I got rid of it because I found it was easier to get more varieties in pellets. Now I whirlpool and drain from the edge of the kettle bottom.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Well, here is NorCal's false bottom stand. A lot of trub was blocked by it, but some did make it into the fermenter. I would say it blocked maybe half of it? I ferment in sanke's usually, so I don't get the pleasure of seeing krausen and trub, but I just did a batch in carboys and it was much lower than I remember from when I didnt have the FB