Wort loss from hop absorption

[bolts]

I have pretty much always hopped with whole leaf hops since they are easily available out here. As I've switched from extract to all grain, I'm noticing a pretty significant wort loss to hop absorption.

When I did extract brewing, I also did partial boils and dumped the chilled wort from the kettle, through a strainer, into the primary. Then I'd rinse the hops with the top-up water. Hops were tossed in the kettle to roam free (no bag).

With my all grain setup, I'm throwing the hops in the kettle still, but since I'm doing full volume boils, there's no top-up water to rinse the hops with. On top of that, the kettle has a drain so I just end up with a big bed of hops in the bottom (we're talking 3-4" thick of solid hops with my typical 4-6 oz of hops).

I'm losing .11 gallons per ounce of hops. My most recent batch was 6 oz hops -- 0.66 gallons of wort lost.

I see it this way. Whole hops in the boil get more dispersion, instead of being trapped in a bag. They also create a nice filter bed as I drain the kettle and catch a lot of trub. On the other hand, they suck up a lot of wort. Not sure I need to change anything.

Curious what others do, especially with really heavily hopped beers. Thoughts?

 

[Beezer94]

In BeerSmith I increase the value of the "Lost to Boil Trub and Chiller" under equipment for hoppier beers (which is 99% of what I desire to brew). After a couple 6-12oz hopped batches I've experienced the same.

 

[bolts]

I have the absorption amount figured out (.11 gallons per ounce) -- just wondering if anyone has techniques to reduce that to lower amounts.

 

[KhellendrosXS]

Im in the same boat as you. The thing that irks me is that my current setup only allows me to do 7 gallon boils so you can imagine the losses in an IIPA. The only way Ive found to achieve my desired volumes is to use beersmith to compensate as stated above.

 

[Yooper]

I have the absorption amount figured out (.11 gallons per ounce) -- just wondering if anyone has techniques to reduce that to lower amounts.

It absorbs what it absorbs. As you noted, it does make a nice filter bed for break material so it's not a bad thing.

I usually just scale my recipe up a tad, so I get 5.25 gallons to the fermenter.

 

[conpewter]

On my system the hops do absorb some of the beer, but it doesn't seem to be .11 gallon per oz of hops. I do drain slowly though (from the bottom of the keggle) and the hops at least compact somewhat. I suppose you could sanitize something to squish them down with and get out some of the wort, but I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[samc]

If you bag them it is easy to squish out more wort. Alternatively like post above, you could use a squishing device like a potato masher to have at them. I usually just increase the size of my recipe to account for hop loss.

 

[david_42]

I accept the loss. One option would be to bump the recipe to 6 gallons. At least you'd get two cases out of the run.

 

[EvilTOJ]

I use a grain bag and clamp it to the boiler while it's boiling. When I need to make hop additions I hoist it up out of the wort, add em, and back in it goes. Once the boil is done, I suspend the bag to let the wort flow out. Once it gets cool enough, I sanitize my hands and squeeze that bag like it was my worst enemy's nutsack. It works really well.

 

[uwjester]

There is no reason you can't still use top up water to rinse the hops at the end if you wanted. Just cut the sparge volume by maybe a half gallon. You may have to dump the hops into a strainer like the good old days, but you could do it. Personally, I just live with the lost wort, although it kind of hurts on those IIPA batches.

 

[wildwest450]

6 gallon batches. Nothing to account for, nothing to worry about.

 

[Denny]

I simply increase my boil volume to compensate for hop absorption.